Prosocial and antisocial behaviors in Turkish female and male football players

Background and objective: Women have increasingly taken more part in a rather male-dominated sport in recent years: football, so our study's main focus is exploring the acts and behaviors of the female athletes during a football match. The study analyzes the sex-related differences in prosocial and antisocial behaviors between male and female athletes.

Materials and methods: A total of 837 players, recruited from various leagues in Turkey, participated in the study. Participants were active female (n = 432) and male (n = 405) football players. The informed consent form and Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior in Sport Scale (PABSS) were utilized as data collection tools.

Results: Female football players displayed less prosocial and more antisocial behaviors compared to male football players. Among all the league statuses, both female and male players exhibited the highest prosocial and the lowest antisocial behaviors in the top league status. Additionally, there were statistically significant differences concerning the age variable (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: Our study findings indicate that male football players engaged in more prosocial behaviors toward both their teammates and opponents than female football players; moreover, male players engaged in less antisocial behaviors in general. Players reported higher prosocial and lower antisocial behavior scores as league status increased. Lastly, higher prosocial behavior scores were obtained with increasing age.

Women's football; Prosocial behavior; Antisocial behavior

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