The abuse narrative in sport: the findings of a framework synthesis literature review

In recent years, athletes from around the globe have taken to social and traditional media to share their stories of abuse in sport. Their stories include a love for a sport and dream to become successful, a getting used to and enduring abusive coaching and training methods, and later in life, recognising that their experiences were abusive. The purpose of this article was to explore the abuse narrative in sport by conducting a framework synthesis literature review. A narrative sociological framework informed by Arthur Frank conceptualised the abuse narrative in sport as a process that shapes lives. The descriptive results reveal that scholars predominantly research abuse while athletes are in sport. The thematic results demonstrate that the abuse narrative constitutes three phases, through which athletes get to know the abuse narrative (normalisation), accept and cope with the abuse (embodying), and possibly later in life, recognise that their experiences were abusive (interruption). Importantly, our Frankian interpretations reveal that the abuse narrative silences athletes and prevents them from recognising abuse. Later in life, stories of abuse in sport, told by others, are powerful resources that can interrupt individuals' abuse narrative in sport. While new to qualitative sport sciences, the framework synthesis review method has potential for researching sensitive topics.