Community Engagement and Wellbeing

#### **Chapter 7**

## Young Canadians' Desire to Change the World and the Adults Who Support Them

*Heather L. Lawford, Heather L. Ramey, Yana Berardini, Christa Romaldi and Nishad Khanna*

#### **Abstract**

Generativity involves care and concern for future generations as a legacy of the self. It is a central developmental task in midlife for both individual well-being, and for a functioning society. As such, opportunities to foster generativity in youth have lasting benefits. There is growing evidence examining correlates of generativity with youth. To date, however, these studies rely mostly on university samples, and are somewhat homogeneous with respect to demographic representation. At the same time, youth engagement supported by adults has also been linked to youth identity development (generally considered a precursor to generativity) and has been identified as a positive feature in youth programs. While youth engagement likely benefits generative development, there is no empirical research to date linking them together. Therefore, in this chapter we present survey findings from over 600 youth of diverse backgrounds, from a community sample, aged 12 to 28 years old, who participated in various youth programs across Canada. Our literature review and research findings highlight the importance of fostering youth generativity and note that youth programming supported by adult allies is a fruitful context for this task.

**Keywords:** youth engagement, adult allies, generativity, community, youth programs

#### **1. Introduction**

Generativity involves care and concern for future generations as a legacy of the self [1]. The development of generativity includes the integration of building skills (agency) and contributing to others (communion). Thus, generativity is a key milestone for both individual well-being and a functioning society. Research has highlighted the importance of generativity in youth. Findings point to associations with well-being, moral identity, and community involvement [2]. These findings, however, typically include relatively small sample sizes, an over-reliance on university samples, and are somewhat homogeneous with respect to demographic representation. At the same time, youth engagement with support from adult allies has also been linked to youth identity development [3] and has been identified as a positive feature in youth programs [4].

In this chapter, we examine early generativity in a community sample of approximately 600 youth participating in youth programs from across Canada. We discuss correlates from across a broad range of demographic and background factors, including ethnicity, perceived income, gender, and LGBTQ+ status. Further, we examine associations with youth engagement including perceptions of adults' collaborative support in community programs. Throughout this chapter, we discuss how generativity and youth-adult partnerships inform social contexts such as community-based youth programs.

#### **1.1 Early generativity**

Generativity, the seventh of Erikson's eight stages of psychosocial development, is defined as concern for future generations as a legacy of the self [5]. Generativity carries broad meaning and can refer to motivations, behavior, and even a sense of identity [6]. In midlife, generativity is a core developmental task. As such, it is not surprising that it has been consistently connected to overall well-being, a strong sense of morality, good parenting, career satisfaction, and healthy relationships. Beyond individual benefits, generativity is essential for cultures and societies to grow and thrive [7].

Given the importance of generativity in adulthood, it follows that we should also understand the earlier manifestations and developmental course of generativity in young people [5]. Our own research has been charting the validity and correlates of young people's motivations to be generative, as well as contexts that might support the development of generativity. Overall, generative motivations have been found to be stable in adolescence [8] and associated with positive outcomes for young people, such as higher self-esteem, lower depressive symptoms, higher levels of empathy, and positive identity development [2].

There have also been several studies linking early generativity to youth's involvement in their communities [9]. For example, findings from a large longitudinal sample from Ontario, Canada pointed to stable and strong associations between generativity and community involvement from ages 17 to 23 [10], and in a follow-up study between ages 23 and 32 years [11]. Therefore, adolescents who are more generative may be more involved in the community as they age.

Connected to community engagement is the finding that generativity is embedded in social identities. Often the social groups we identify with inform where we point our generative efforts, and our experiences within our identities inform the traditions we look to uphold or dismantle, and the changes we hope to bring to society. When social identity groups face significant harm and barriers due to stigma or perpetuation of colonial violence, their generative priorities might focus on ending intergenerational cycles, protecting the vulnerable in their community, or dismantling negative stereotypes with more positive lenses demonstrating strength and resilience [12]. For example, researchers who conducted interviews with Indigenous youth ages 15 to 17 years in Hawaii found strong themes of generativity through the preservation of their language, values, and traditions to benefit future generations [13]. In a sample of older LGBTQ+ adults, another study found that generativity themes were salient when participants discussed the difficulties that they faced through the AIDS/HIV pandemic, the stigma that led to barriers to healthcare, concerns for personal safety, and an absence of positive role models [14]. These individuals turned injustices into positive legacies through advocacy work, caring for others, and sharing their stories and history with the next generation. Similarly, a study interviewing Black Americans who survived World War II found that these Americans leaned on their

*Young Canadians' Desire to Change the World and the Adults Who Support Them DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113028*

experiences of suffering in the war to define their generative purpose in the present [15]. Thus, it is important to consider the context of history and cultural backgrounds within our social identities when trying to understand individual motivation and expression of generativity. For these reasons, it is worthwhile to explore a number of micropopulations that have sustained ongoing trauma, and face a real threat to their culture, language, and traditions. Here, generativity often becomes a central task operationalized as preserving a group's history and traditions, as well as advocating to end systemic injustices that continue to cause harm across generations. This aligns with other research that finds that people who experienced extremely negative events might express their generativity through actively working to end the cycle of harm, which Kotre termed "intergenerational buffer" [12].

Generativity is intergenerational, with central generative activities including parenting, mentoring, and teaching [16]. In fact, it has been noted that generativity is a useful theoretical lens for studying intergenerational relationships [16]. Moreover, it has been suggested that intergenerational programming could support the growth of adult generativity [17]. Thus, considering that both adults and youth have capacity for generativity, youth engagement in programs that involve youth-adult partnerships may be an important and unique context for both fostering and achieving generativity.

#### **1.2 Youth engagement as a possible context for the development of generativity**

Youth generativity in the context of youth engagement and youth programs is not well understood, though the importance of adults' generativity in working with youth has been established [18]. In a previous study, we found that the extent to which youth felt engaged psychologically in their favorite activity (e.g., sports, volunteer, religious) was associated with generative motivations [19]. This study, however, did not examine the intergenerational contexts of activities. Both youth and adults note that adult generativity supports youth success in contexts where youth are participating in decision making. Youth engagement is the meaningful involvement of a young person in an activity outside of the self [20]. Youth engagement in the context of community programs typically involves groups of youth working together, in partnership with adults, on projects intended to improve communities, promote social justice, or contribute to a cause [21].

There is much in the developmental context of youth programs that might promote positive development. Larson and colleagues [22, 23] have long noted the rich developmental contexts that community activities afford youth. For some time, research has demonstrated that participation (i.e., physical or virtual presence in programs and activities) is necessary but not sufficient to developmental change [24]. Engagement goes beyond participation; researchers and theorists have discussed a variety of factors, such as affective and cognitive engagement, and youth voice in decision-making, that may constitute 'engagement'. Thus, adults play a key role in youth engagement in sharing decision-making responsibilities, honoring youth voice, and learning from youth.

Youth engagement in youth-adult partnerships is almost certainly multidimensional, involving a variety of factors that could result in developmental change, including the emergence of early generativity. Collaborative relationships are one aspect of youth engagement and, as is typical in youth work, these relationships do not need to be of lasting duration or require a certain level of intimacy. Instead, they likely require that more senior partners in youth-adult relationships work to bring with them a stance that begins with safety and unconditional respect [25]. Those collaborative relationships might allow young people to learn and practice skills and to share their knowledge with others. They

might also allow youth to make decisions with support and encouragement. As youthadult partnerships are often focused on social change (e.g., social justice initiatives), in addition to these collaborative spaces, youth-adult partnerships are settings that can help promote young people's agency, voice, program ownership, and ability to make a meaningful impact [20, 21]. In these settings, young people can see themselves as active participants, take on new responsibilities, explore their identities, and enact their values, all while being exposed to older generative models. In other words, youth engagement in these settings, where youth's potential can be seen and understood as valuable, might reasonably be an ideal setting for youth to explore themselves and their ability to impact the world and thus develop their generativity.

#### **1.3 Youth engagement and generativity in diverse populations**

It is possible that links between youth generativity and engagement differ, depending on demographic and other differences among young people. Little research exists on population differences even in research focusing on adult generativity. Research that does exist on these differences does not paint a consistent picture. Studies have pointed to some gender differences in how generativity relates to agentic and communal motives [26]. Research has found higher levels of generative concern among African Americans compared to White Americans [26]. Finally, work mentioned earlier has found strong themes of generativity in micropopulations such as sexual minorities, or different cultural groups, using qualitative approaches [13–15].

Regarding youth engagement, the picture is again unclear. Youth advisory councils have tended to engage more privileged youth [27, 28], youth in some ethnic communities may be reluctant to participate due to a lack of inclusive practices in many programs [29], and youth participation in programs can decrease as youth age and gain more autonomy over decisions to participate [30]. All of these findings suggest that youth engagement should differ, to some extent, based on demographics or group membership. In our own research, we have not found youth engagement to differ by age or gender [31], or LGBTQ status, ethnicity, immigrant status, or rural or urban residency, although we have found that youth with higher perceived income or socioeconomic status reported more engagement [3, 32]. Other studies have focused on engagement in afterschool programs and youth's civic engagement and have found mixed results. Researchers conducted a latent profile analysis of middle school aged youth participating in a voluntary after school program [33]. They found that youth fell into three categories: moderately engaged, affectively engaged, and disengaged. When they tested for differences in youth-level characteristics, none of the characteristics (grade level, gender, race, and ethnicity) predicted profile membership. Research on civic engagement, involving prosocial and political involvement in communities, suggests that experiencing discrimination can prompt some youth of color to become highly engaged in community social action, while others become disengaged [34].

Links among youth engagement and generativity might also depend on youth differences, but current research is scant. A large meta-analysis found a wide variety of youth outcomes were predicted by afterschool program participation. Interestingly, individual youths' characteristics and demographics did not moderate those associations [34]. In our own work, we have found that having input in decision making in an activity was associated to positive outcomes for youth, and this association was stronger at younger ages [8]. This previous work suggests that the strength of association between engagement and generativity might depend on one's age, but certainly more research is required to uncover this.

#### **1.4 Purpose of study**

In this chapter, we examine early generativity in a community sample of approximately 600 youth participating in youth programs from across Canada. We discuss correlates from across a broad range of demographic and background factors, including immigration, race, gender, and LGBTQ+ status. Further, we examine associations with degree of youth engagement, and perceptions of adult support in community programs. Our chapter discusses how generativity and youth engagement inform social contexts, such as youth programs in community.

In this chapter we explore the following:


#### **2. Method**

Participants were recruited through the Students Commission of Canada's (SCC) partner programs and organizations. As a Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement (CEYE) and a large, national organization, the SCC develops and runs programs, conferences, and events for young people in partnerships across Canada. In 2011, in partnership with youth workers, academics, and youth, they developed the 'Sharing the Stories' research and evaluation platform, which helped to integrate youth's voices into action. The Sharing the Stories platform is available to all partner organizations, helping them gather the voices of a broad range of youth, including those who might be furthest from opportunity, including low-income, racialized, gender-diverse youth, or other marginalized youth populations in Canada. Ethics approval was granted by the institutional Research Ethics Boards of the principal investigators.

Data reported here includes all participating youth (*N* = 627) who completed the youth engagement, generativity, and demographic questions anytime since 2015. Participants completed this survey electronically (68%) or by paper (32%). Participants were between the age of 12 years and 30 years, with a mean age of 18, and 60% were under 18 years of age. With respect to gender, 6.5% identified as non-binary, 58.2% identified as girl (woman) and 35.3% identified as boy (man). About a quarter (26%) identified as belonging to a sexual minority. Most participants identified as primarily North American (27.6%), Asian (20.3%), African (10.5%), Indigenous (10.4%), and Caribbean (11.5%). Further, 12% opted not to disclose their identity. Other groups were represented by less than 1% of the sample. Approximately 14% of participants reported more than one cultural/ethnic group, with the most commonly cited group being North American (5.7% of the sample; the rest cited <1%).

The survey included two measures of youth engagement, and one measure of generativity. The first youth engagement scale indicated adult-supported collaborative learning and decision making (5 items; e.g., "I feel like adults and peers and learning from me.", "I participate in the decisions about group activities.") A second youth engagement scale indicated adult-supported agency and voice (5 items; e.g., "I am involved in discussing issues of respect, conflict, or discipline" and "Adults support me without being condescending or assuming that I need or want their help"). Items were developed over a number of years, through collaboration with youth and staff

at partner organizations, and findings on the development of positive youth-adult relationships in youth participation efforts and youth's right to be heard in organizational contexts [35–37]. Youth generativity evaluated willingness to leave a legacy behind. It was measured with three statements: "I have knowledge and skills that I will pass on to others"; "I think about ways to help others become leaders"; "I feel it is important to help people younger than myself". All responses were measured on a 5-point Likert-type scale, with higher scores indicating greater engagement or higher generativity. The set of measures took about 15 minutes to complete.

#### **3. Results**

#### **3.1 Preliminary results**

We first examined correlations among all of our variables, found in **Table 1**. We found that older youth and young women reported higher youth engagement, and that Indigenous youth reported lower levels of engagement. We tested gender differences in generativity using a one-way ANOVA with three levels. The ANOVA indicates a significant difference, *F*(2,547) = 5.97 *p* < .01, where women (*M* = 4.25, *SD* = .68) indicated higher levels of generativity than men (*M* = 4.01, *SD* = .87), and non-binary youth (*M* = 4.24, *SD* = .82) were not different from any other group. Other potential differences in youth engagement, based on demographic or background factors, were not significant.

Our correlation table indicated that engagement and generativity were related, moderately, in a positive direction. In other words, our evidence indicates that youth who learned and worked well together with adults also reported higher levels of generativity.


*Note. M and SD are used to represent mean and standard deviation, respectively.*

*\* indicates p < .05. \*\* indicates p < .01; <sup>t</sup> for each of these groups 1 indicates pro group membership 0 indicates non membership. See results below for more information on engagement variables.*

#### **Table 1.**

*Means, standard deviations, and correlations.*

*Young Canadians' Desire to Change the World and the Adults Who Support Them DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113028*

#### **3.2 Associations between generativity and youth engagement**

As preliminary steps to the test of our main hypothesis, we confirmed that our measurement model loaded as expected, with the youth engagement and generativity items loading onto their respective latent variables, and that the measurement structure was consistent (i.e., demonstrated strong invariance) across gender, LGBTQ+ status, and age (under and above age 18) [32]. The engagement items loaded onto two separate (but related) latent variables. The items in the first variable (Engagement 1) were connected to collaborative learning, exploring, and decision making (e.g., "I participate in the decisions about group activities".) The items in the Engagement 2 latent variable centered around leadership and respect, collaboration and partnership (e.g., "Adults support me without being condescending or assuming that I need or want their help"). In this preliminary step, the model performed as expected, indicating that we could move forward in testing our exploratory research questions.

We tested our full model, including age, gender, immigration status (youth born in Canada vs. those not born in Canada), Indigeneity, and perceived income as predictors. Demographic variables that did not contribute were then dropped from the model. Only age and gender remained as controls, indicating that young women and

older youth had higher generativity, when included along with the two youth engagement variables in the model (see **Figure 1**; CFI = .95, RMSEA = .052).

#### **3.3 Are there demographic differences in the strength of association between youth engagement and generativity?**

Based on our findings that age and gender served as significant controls in exploring links between youth engagement and generativity, we tested interactions. We explored interactions between both of the youth engagement variables and both gender and age. We then dropped non-significant interaction terms, until we arrived at a final model in which youth engagement 1 interacted with age. We conducted linear regressions in order to interpret these interactions and we split age into two groups: over and under 18. The regressions indicated that generativity was moderately associated with engagement for youth over 18 years old (β = .20, p < .10) and more strongly associated with engagement below 18 years old (β = .67, p < .001).

#### **4. Discussion**

Increasingly, researchers have found that generativity matters for young people, but research to date has depended on samples that were less diverse and relied heavily on post-secondary student samples. Moreover, while youth engagement has been identified as a promising context for generativity, to our knowledge, no empirical studies have tested this.

Our community sample revealed some interesting patterns regarding generativity. First, the overall mean was quite high (4.17/5). This aligns with other research that reports relatively high scores in youth samples, using a different measure of generativity. Furthermore, our generativity scale was correlated positively with age, which again is not surprising. It was surprising to find that youth who identified as Indigenous, and those not born in Canada (the site of the study) reported slightly lower generativity scores compared to the rest of the sample; those associations did not hold in the larger model. It should be noted, however, that generativity is a multifaceted construct, and measuring it at a population level is challenging because cultural context is extraordinarily important in generative expression. Further, the small amount of research on generativity in Indigenous populations showed that generativity was expressed in themes of reconnecting culture. Considering the items from our scale focus on leadership and individual impacts on the next generation, our measure was perhaps not nuanced enough to capture the most meaningful aspects of generativity in certain cultural and experiential contexts.

Next, our test of associations between youth engagement and generativity revealed that our hypothesis was supported. There was in fact a moderate to strong association between generativity and elements of engagement including leadership and opportunities for decision-making, and positive collaborations with adults. It has been noted that activities provide unique opportunities for young people to build the skills and capacities to prepare them for adulthood. Given that generativity is a central developmental task in adulthood, our findings might provide further support for this claim [22]. Activities which include opportunities for decision-making, leadership, and where adult allies are supportive and collaborative with youth seem to be associated with higher levels of generativity. While these data are correlational, we suggest that this association is likely bi-directional,

*Young Canadians' Desire to Change the World and the Adults Who Support Them DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113028*

in that potentially more generative youth might demonstrate better readiness and interest in these types of activities.

Our results showed that the association between engagement and generativity was stronger for younger people compared to older youth. As we age, opportunities to connect with our generativity grow, and the potential for community programming is less salient. This also aligns with previous research that found that opportunities to provide input into programming was associated with more developmental benefits for younger compared to older adolescents [5].

Overall, this study demonstrates that generativity has important implications in a diverse sample of young people. Moreover, this preliminary evidence indicates that we need to do further work into how youth engagement opportunities can foster generativity.

#### **4.1 Strengths and limitations**

It is important to keep in mind the limitations of this work. These findings do not present well established measures of youth generativity, as more robust measures of youth generativity do not currently exist [2]. As well, a small number of established youth engagement measures exist, representing different facets of youth-adult partnership and youth [21].

It should be noted that these data are correlational and therefore do not give any information regarding the direction of the association. We suspect the association would be bidirectional: settings that are conducive to youth engagement and healthy youth adult partnerships support the growth of youth generativity, and generative youth are better able to engage and get support in these settings. In order to confirm our hypotheses, longitudinal research is needed.

Despite these limitations, the study also carries some important and unique strengths that advance our understanding of youth development. One strength is that we used a community-based sample, and we were able to explore individual demographic differences in ways relatively unexamined in past studies. This approach, however, underlined the importance of cultural context in understanding generativity. Much more work needs to be done using multiple approaches to understanding youth generativity in diverse populations. This could include asking young people about not only future generations, but also about preservation of cultural history, traditions, and practices. Moreover, qualitative work would support a more nuanced and contextual approach to this inquiry.

#### **5. Conclusions**

Caring for future generations and building our capacity to do so matters for youth and adults alike. In this work we presented evidence suggesting that youth engagement in settings where they have decision making opportunities and are working with supportive adults might be an important context to foster early generativity. We are also calling for further research to explore in more nuanced ways how and why young people from various backgrounds and experiences express their generativity.

#### **Acknowledgements**

The authors would like to thank the Students Commission of Canada and their partners for their continued work with young people that together create spaces to celebrate and respect youth voices. We would also like to thank the young people who were involved in these community programs and participated in Sharing the Stories. Without your input, there would be no knowledge to share! Special thank you to the research team at Bishop's especially Élisabeth Legendre who helped to obtain and process the data. This chapter was also supported by funding from the SSHRC Canada Research Chair program granted to the first author.

### **Conflict of interest**

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

### **Author details**

Heather L. Lawford1 \*, Heather L. Ramey2 , Yana Berardini3 , Christa Romaldi4,5 and Nishad Khanna4,5

1 Bishop's University, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada

2 Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada

3 Trent University (GTA Durham), Ontario, Canada

4 The Students Commission of Canada (SCC), Ontario, Canada

5 Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement, Ontario, Canada

\*Address all correspondence to: hlawford@ubishops.ca

© 2023 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

*Young Canadians' Desire to Change the World and the Adults Who Support Them DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113028*

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[36] Kirby P, Lanyon C, Cronin K, Sinclair C. Building a culture of participation: Involving children and young people in policy, service planning, delivery and evaluation: Handbook of Department for Education and Skills. 2003. Available from: https://dera.ioe. ac.uk/id/eprint/17522/1/Handbook%20 -%20Building%20a%20Culture%20 of%20Participation.pdf

[37] Ramey HL, Rose-Krasnor L. Measuring adult experiences of youthadult partnerships. In: Conference Presentation (Poster). Toronto, ON: Jean Piaget Society Annual Meeting; 2012

**Chapter 8**

## Religiosity, Spirituality, and Well-Being in Emerging Adulthood

*Anișoara Pavelea and Lorina Culic*

#### **Abstract**

This chapter analyzes the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and well-being in emerging adulthood. A primary contribution of this analysis is an examination of possible mediators. The examined mediators are satisfaction with life, meaning in life, and perceived health. Participants in the study are 319 Romanian social sciences students, aged between 18 and 24 (Mage = 19,87, SDage = 1,39), urban (82%), mostly female (76%), and orthodox (74%). The results of the study confirm that religiosity and spirituality are important protective factors. Well-being is higher for emerging adults who rate their mental health highly, and this appears to mediate the religiosity-well-being relationship. Implications for therapeutic practice and communication between counselors and clients are discussed at the end of the paper.

**Keywords:** religiosity and spirituality, health, meaning in life, satisfaction with life, well-being, emerging adults

#### **1. Introduction**

Religion has been considered for a long time an important psychological factor that can influence many people's lives under multiple aspects [1–3], providing an identity, useful social support, and a coherent framework for finding answers to existential questions [4]. Religion offers to some individuals a higher level of satisfaction with life [5, 6], helps reduce depressive symptoms and anxiety levels, increases optimism level, and enables them to better emotionally adapt to difficult times [7, 8], overcoming traumatic experiences and loss [9]. Previous research showed that religiosity and spirituality are both strongly associated with mental health [10, 11] and well-being [12, 13].

#### **2. Religiosity and spirituality**

The distinction between religiosity and spirituality has long been debated within the psychology of religion, a science with "a long past but a short history" [14], and "long on data and short on theory" [15]. For decades, even though the most relevant papers in the psychology of religion [8, 16–20] have approached the history of the

domain, its topics, main concepts, and dimensions of religiosity and spirituality, they have failed to offer an integrative framework or a conceptual model that would allow researchers to think, integrate, and develop new theories and hypotheses [21].

Different definitions have been given to religion over time. Starting with Allport's [22] famous contrast between intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity, the first one refers to individuals who live their religion and see religious faith as a goal, and the second denotes the use of religion strictly in a utilitarian sense, for the attainment of social gains. While Argyle & Beit-Hallahmi [23] regard religion substantially as "a system of beliefs in a divine or superhuman power, and practices of worship or other rituals directed toward such power" [p. 1], Dollahite [24] refers to it as "a covenant faith community with teachings and narratives that enhance the search for the sacred" [p. 5], and Peteet [25] emphasizes upon "the commitment to beliefs and practices characteristic of particular traditions" [p. 237].

Spirituality has also captured several views over time, from Peck [26] quoting Elkins et al.'s perspective of "a way of being and experiencing that comes about through the awareness of a transcendent dimension and that is characterized by certain identifiable values regarding the self, life, and whatever one considers to be the ultimate" [p. 10], to Doyle's [27] "search for existential meaning" [p. 302] or Armstrong's [28] "presence of a relationship with a Higher Power that affects the way in which one operates in the world" [p. 3]. Today's increasing tendency of embracing spirituality over religiosity can be explained by looking at the individualistic times we travel and analyzing the decrease in traditional authority and the continuous rejection of cultural norms, especially by the younger generation.

Mirroring the scientific literature, in time, the public's perception of the two terms has long evolved. Therefore, today, the great majority of individuals refer to religion as primarily being associated with religious practices and engagement, so to say with the organizational aspects of faith, while spirituality tends to be associated with the subjective search for meaning and for the sacred in a diversity of traditional and nontraditional settings: from prayer to meditation, from church, synagogue, and mosque attendance, to feasting and religious document study, to monastic life and walking in nature, sexuality, social actions, psychotherapy, or listening to symphonic compositions [29]. Despite the long debates over the definitions of religiosity and spirituality, most authors today agree that both spirituality and religion are complex, latent, multidimensional, and multilevel concepts [30] and tend to agree that the blind distinction between religiosity and spirituality is "a dangerous road to be traveled" [31, 32]. Even though religion has long been regarded as dogmatic and rigid, static, and institutional, based on faith, and measured through practices and religious engagement, spirituality was seen, in opposition, as subjective, emanating from personal experience, based on selfdetermination and personal development, functional, and dynamic. Not without difficulty, bridging points have been identified between the two converging views under concepts like a sense of meaning and purpose in life [33], connecting to self, to others, and to the transcendent [34, 35] or the belief in a unifying force [36, 37]. We have to agree that both religiousness and spirituality can be understood as active processes of self-discovery and self-transformation.

By overcoming the prejudicial labeling of religiousness and spirituality and embracing a wider image of the two sides of one coin, psychology of religion studies could align, as Park [38] says, with the latest trends emerging from positive psychology, medicine, and neuroscience.

#### **3. Religiosity, spirituality, and health**

Multiple studies have analyzed the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and health. *American Psychologist* has dedicated an entire 2003 issue to it and recent clinical psychology and psychotherapy handbooks encompass increasingly results coming from the psychology of religion into their psychological and medical practices. Recently, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and well-being has been investigated, with multiple studies showing that religiosity and spirituality is still a crucial resource during difficult life events [39–41]. In a meta-analysis, based on 75 studies (ranging from 1990 to 2010), approaching the relationship between spirituality, religiosity, and other psychological variables in adolescents and emerging adults (N = 66.273), Yonker et al. [42] have found that religiosity and spirituality have a positive effect on health, with significant effect sizes of religiosity and spirituality on risk behavior, −.17, depression, −.11, wellbeing, .16, and self-esteem, .11. In line with these results, Green and Elliot [43] found that religiosity has a strong effect on happiness and health, regardless of religious affiliation, religious activities, job satisfaction, marital happiness, social support, or financial status. Other studies have shown there is a link between religiosity and spirituality constructs, such as closeness to God [44, 45], motivating forces [46], religious support [47, 48], and religious and spiritual struggle [16, 49, 50]. McCullough et al.'s [51] meta-analysis, based on 42 independent samples, has shown a significant positive correlation between religious involvement (especially church attendance) and lower mortality. Attending worship once a week tends to have an effect on a higher life expectancy of 7 to 14 years [52]. Comparable results were found by Lucchetti et al. [53] and Powell et al. [54] who have shown that religiosity and spirituality reduce the mortality rate by up to 24%.

Other studies, especially cross-sectional ones, have drawn the conclusion that people with higher religious involvement tend to engage less frequently in sexually risky behaviors and substance abuse, while in some cases exercising more and following a healthy diet [55–61]. In a longitudinal study, expanded over three decades, Strawbridge et al. [62] found that, especially for women, weekly attendance at religious services is associated with improved mental health, more satisfying social relationships, and marital stability. Other studies [63] indicate that religious families benefit from stronger social support and report lower divorce rates and more stable social climate, with positive parental practices and better child adjustment.

The link between religiosity, spirituality, and religious coping has been studied extensively and authors like Pargament [8, 41] and Lee [64] have shown that religious and spiritual people tend to use coping mechanisms more effectively, enabling them to deal with stressful situations and to maintain a higher level of general health and life satisfaction.

The meta-analytic research conducted by Smith et al. [2], based on 147 independent studies (N = 98.975), identified a modest negative correlation of −.09 between religiousness and depressive symptoms, with the results not being moderated by gender, age, or ethnicity. Still, for those individuals who avoid difficulties through religious activities and blame God for their tragedy, higher levels of depressive symptoms were registered. In other words, these are people with negative religious coping and extrinsic religious orientation. Braam et al. [65] found similar results after developing a longitudinal study in the Netherlands, with a representative national sample of 1840 people aged between 55 and 85.

Religious participation was also found to be a strong protective factor against suicide, even after controlling for gender, age, race, marital status, and social contact frequency [66]. People who attend worship places regularly are four times less inclined to have suicidal thoughts and attempts, even among clinical populations.

Attitudes toward forgiveness, which are important in most religious and spiritual traditions, may have significant consequences on health by reducing rumination, facilitating the emergence of positive emotions and more adaptive coping strategies, and, therefore, reducing the level of chronic stress [67, 68]. Moreover, religious and spiritual people use preventive medical services more frequently and report higher levels of treatment compliance [69]. Like religiosity, spirituality has been shown to have strong links to both mental and physical health [70, 71].

In conclusion, research approaching the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and health [7, 56, 72, 73] uncovered five main potential complex and multifaceted mechanisms that seem to be consistent across cultures and countries:


Still, most studies conclude that these mechanisms are interdependent, and their methodological designs try to isolate and control variables, to test more and more complex mediation and moderation models.

As Oman & Thoresen [56] say: "The present is an extremely exciting time for the emerging transdisciplinary field of religion, spirituality, and health. […] Many psychologists and religionists, but perhaps not enough, are moving beyond earlier mutual stereotypes and learning to collaborate. Only through such collaboration, we believe, can we apply the fullest range of knowledge and wisdom to fostering human health and well-being in the context of today's dire global needs" [p. 455].

Even though most of the studies focus on the positive influence of religiosity and spirituality on well-being, some of them also cover the downsides, such as refusing to receive medical treatment, to vaccinate children, to accept blood transfusions [69], or becoming victims of physical and sexual abuse [74, 75].

Given the difficulties in operationalizing the complexity of the meanings of spirituality and religiosity, few empirical studies on well-being have concentrated on the spiritual aspects of behavior. Most studies based on national samples have used a single dimension of religion, like religious attendance, due to the fact that researchers fail to come to a common ground when they speak of religiosity and spirituality dimensions and their relationship, either positive or negative, to subjective well-being [76]. Therefore, recent studies signal the importance of approaching the link between religiosity, spirituality, and well-being in a multidimensional manner [47, 77].

Bearing that in mind, the current research measures religiosity and spirituality based on ten subscales, in a sample of Christian urban emerging adults, with a university background. Satisfaction with life, meaning in life, and perceived physical and mental health are used as mediators in the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and well-being.

The study of religiousness in youth sets a series of challenges due to age, as well as ample physical and cognitive development, changes in relation to the social environment, autonomy, and societal expectations. Emerging adulthood is an age proposed by Arnett [78], as an accurate description of individuals ages 18 to 24 (extended afterward to 29), from industrial societies. It is characterized by multiple attempts at exploration and examination of potential trajectories, a process that eases the stabilization of roles and engagements in areas like personal relationships, work, and perspectives on life. The five aspects defining emerging adulthood are: identity exploration, being self-focused, dealing with a high level of instability, "feeling in-between," and experiencing a sense of multiple possibilities for the future. Moving away from family, gaining autonomy, and developing relationships with diverse people holding different worldviews and opinions may intensify individuals' identity exploration providing them with a safe space to explore and to renegotiate their religiosity [79]. It is an age when youth redefines their relationship with religiosity and spirituality, tries to answer manifold questions regarding the transcendent, tries to experiment with multiple orientations, and seeks individual answers to spiritual quests.

Which is the role religiosity and spirituality play in potentiating subjective well-being and how emerging adults' health can influence this outcome is the main question of our study.

#### **4. Research objectives**

The main objective of the study revolves around testing the mediating role of meaning in life, satisfaction with life, and health in the relationship between emerging adults' religiosity, spirituality, and well-being. Three mediation models will be run to see which of these three mediators explains a higher percentage of the abovementioned relationship.

*H2:* Meaning in life mediates the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and well-being in emerging adults.

*H3:* Emerging adults' perceived physical (H3a) and mental health (H3b) mediates the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and well-being.

### **5. Method**

#### **5.1 Participants**

Participants in the study are 319 Caucasian social sciences students, aged between 18 and 24 (Mage = 19,87, SDage = 1,39), urban (82%), predominantly women (76%), and orthodox (74%). Answers were collected online. All participants have completed an informal consent and have been informed concerning the privacy of personal data.

#### *5.1.1 Measures*

	- 2.*Perceived health* was assessed using two items: 1. In general, how would you label your physical health? 2. How would you label your psychological health? Answers were registered on a nine-point Likert scale (from (1) terribly rickety to (9) excellent).
	- 3.*Life satisfaction scale* [84], composed of five items, scored from one (strongly disagree) to seven (strongly agree), with excellent psychometric properties (Cronbach's α = .87). The overall score ranges from 5 to 35, with higher levels indicating sterling life satisfaction. It is one of the most often used scales for testing life satisfaction and its psychometric properties have been tested by multiple researchers [85–87]. Poff et al. Diener [88], who gave a wide definition to life satisfaction, seen as "a conscious cognitive judgment of one's life in which the criteria for judgment are up to the person" and the scale has been designed to assess the life satisfaction with the respondent's life as a whole, not focusing on different life domains.
	- 4.*Meaning in life* [89] is a bidimensional scale, including the presence of meaning (5 items; ex. "My life has a clear sense of purpose," Cronbach's a = .83) and search for meaning ("I am seeking a purpose of meaning for my life," Cronbach's a = .88). Answers are registered on a seven-point Likert scale, ranging from (1) completely false) to (7) completely true. The scale has good internal consistency, has been translated to more than 20 languages, and is used extensively in ample

research, in studies like Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative [90], or the International Wellbeing Study, conducted by Aaron Jarden, president of New Zealand Association of Positive Psychology [91].

5.*The well-being scale* [92] consists of 18 items, three statements for each of its six areas of psychological well-being: autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations with others, purpose in life, and self-acceptance. Respondents rate statements on a scale of one (indicating strong disagreement) to six (strong agreement). Cronbach's α = .75.

#### **6. Results**

#### **6.1 Preliminary analyses**

Descriptive statistics and the correlation matrix of study variables are presented in **Table 1**. All scales present good psychometric properties. Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness and Spirituality has a Cronbach's α of .95, perceived health .66, satisfaction with life .87, presence of meaning in life .83, .88 for search for meaning, and .75 for well-being. Almost all correlations were statistically significant, except the one with age.

#### **6.2 Measurement models**

The confirmatory factor analysis indicated a main factor for Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness and Spirituality explaining over 43% of the variance, one for life satisfaction (68%) and two factors for meaning in life, in accordance with the literature [89], namely, presence of meaning and search for meaning.


#### **Table 1.**

*Descriptive statistics and correlation coefficients for observed variables.*

#### **6.3 Mediation analysis**

Using Hayes PROCESS 3.4, we ran the mediation analysis, running the fourth model (**Figure 1** and **Table 2**) [89, 93].

*H1: Satisfaction with life mediates the relationship between emerging adults' religiosity, spirituality, and well-being.*

After running Hayes model of mediation, we can observe that for a sample of 319, the effect of religiosity and spirituality on satisfaction with life is statistically significant, a = .06, t(317) = 5.60, 95% CI [.04, .92], p < .00. Same for life satisfaction's effect on emerging adults well-being, b = .83, t(316) = 10.30, 95% CI [.67, .99], p < .00. After introducing satisfaction with life mediates in the model, religiosity, and spirituality loses its effect on well-being (c' = .01, t(316) = 0.70, 95% CI [−.02, .04], p = 0.48). Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness and Spirituality's indirect effect on wellbeing through satisfaction with life is statistically significant, IE = ab <sup>=</sup> .05, 95% CI. Results show that 71% of the total effect of religiosity and spirituality on well-being is explained by the satisfaction with life and only 29% operates directly.

*H2: Meaning in life, with its two components, presence in life (H2a), and search for meaning (H2b) is a mediator of the relationship between emerging adults' religiosity, spirituality, and well-being.*

The mediation analysis shows a direct relationship between religiosity and spirituality and meaning in life (a = .06, t(317) = 5.77, 95% CI [.04, .08], p < .00), and between meaning in life and well-being (b = .37, t(316) = 3.65, 95% CI [.17, .58]. p < .00). After introducing meaning in life in the mediation model, religiosity and spirituality holds its effect on well-being (c' = .04, t(316) = 2.22, 95% CI [.00, .08], p = .02), indicating that the meaning in life cannot be considered a mediator in the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and well-being. Therefore, we have decided to run the mediation model separately for the two dimensions of the scale: the presence of meaning and search for meaning. It was only the presence of meaning

**Figure 1.**

*Simple mediation model for satisfaction in life as a moderator for the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and well-being.*


#### **Table 2.**

*Unstandardized indirect effects with bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals.*

*Religiosity, Spirituality, and Well-Being in Emerging Adulthood DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113963*

that has proved to be a mediator in the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and well-being (IE = ab = .06, 95% BootCI [.04, .08], p = .02), explaining 88% of the total effect (R = .49, F = 52.01, p < .00) (**Figure 2**).

*H3: Emerging adults' perceived status of physical (H3a) and mental health (H3b) mediates the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and well-being.*

When analyzing physical health as a mediator of religiosity, spirituality, and well-being, we have identified a direct effect between religiosity, spirituality, and physical health (a = .01, t(316) = 3.09, 95% CI [.00, .01], p < .00), also a direct effect for the relationship between physical health and well-being (b = 2.17, t(316) = 5.57, 95% CI [1.40, 2.94], p < .00), but when introducing the mediator, the direct effect between religiosity, spirituality, and well-being was held (c' = .05, t(316) = 2.60, 95% CI [.01, .09], p < .00) and, therefore, we had to reject the hypothesis (**Figure 3**).

**Figure 2.**

*Simple mediation model for the presence of meaning as a mediator in the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and well-being.*

#### **Figure 3.**

*Simple mediation model for physical health as a mediator in the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and well-being.*

#### **Figure 4.**

*Simple mediation model for psychological health as a mediator in the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and well-being.*

For H3b, although the perceived mental health status proved to be a good mediator in the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and well-being, the data showed a direct effect of religiosity on mental health (a = .01, t(316) = 3.45, 95% CI [.58, .02], p < .00) and a similar one for students' mental health and well-being (b = 2.71, t(316) = 8.67, 95% CI [2.09, 3.32], p < .00) (**Figure 4**).

After introducing the perceived mental health as a mediator, the indirect effect of religiosity and spirituality on well-being is .03, 95% BootCI [.00, .09]), representing 79% of the total effect (R = .47, F = 40.19).

#### **7. Conclusions and discussion**

Hypotheses H1, H2a, and H3b are supported, indicating that satisfaction with life, presence of meaning, and perceived mental health status are mediators of the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and well-being, explaining similar percentages of the relationship with 71, 88, and 79%, respectively. Even though previous studies show that meaning in life mediates the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and well-being, the results do not fully sustain this conclusion. One explanation would be that emerging adults are at the age of defining their identity, searching for meaning in life, exploring identity statuses, and for those who have already found a purpose in life, religiosity, and spirituality can provide an enhanced well-being. These individuals feel the need to identify the meaning and the significance of their existence, a mission beyond the daily agenda, and the fact that they can find a life goal that satisfies their expectations, dreams, and hopes, seems to be enough to ensure them a comfortable psychological well-being. Religion, through its teachings, beliefs, commitment, spiritual experiences, and practices, can shape their purpose in life. It helps emerging adults frame their identity facets in a coherent image, congruent with their vision of the world. Religiosity and spirituality can offer a coherent framework for finding answers to existential questions, as Elliott and Hayward [4] assert.

Satisfaction with life could be the missing link between religiosity, spirituality, and well-being in emerging adults. Individuals reporting higher religiosity and spirituality tend to appreciate more positive aspects of their lives, to be grateful for what they have, and to be satisfied with the conditions of their lives more than those who do not use this filter. Religion insists upon forgiveness and making peace with the past.

It is therefore understood why the perceived mental health status mediates the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and well-being, as those who identify with a better mental health tend to assign it to religiosity and spirituality and to translate it in terms of subjective well-being, due to the fact that they see themselves in a positive light, have meaningful relationships with others, embrace their flaws and try to integrate them in a coherent life story, they find that they benefit from unconditional support when dealing with difficult problems, hold faith that someone is watching over them and guides their steps toward positive actions. Still, one must take into account that holding responsibility for his/her life and using free will ties with a strong sense of duty for oneself and others.

#### **8. Limitations of the research**

Next to its contributions, the current study has several limitations. First, it is a cross-sectional study, testing differences between, not within individuals, the reason why the results could reflect more the characteristics of the sample, related to the moment of the research, to the composition, cultural, social, and religious characteristics of the sample. Based on a relatively homogenous sample of university students, predominantly orthodox, urban, and educated, caution is recommended in trying to generalize the results to the entire category of emerging adults. Even though mediation models test direct links and effects, longitudinal studies with several waves of collecting data could be more efficient in capturing these relationships and could supplement the knowledge volume with valuable insights.

#### **9. Implications and future research perspectives**

Studying the link between religiosity, spirituality, and well-being in emerging adults allows career counselors, personal development advisors, psychologists, and psychotherapists who are less inclined to embrace religious phenomena to understand their clients' perspective and to use a wider analysis grid. By framing the ten subscales of Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness and Spirituality, psychologists can find valuable anchors for building the therapeutic relationship, for developing topics of discussion and therapy, according to each client's characteristics and situation. This way, they can better understand the needs and concerns of their clients, identifying the role of religiosity and spirituality in reaching, and maintaining psychological well-being. Discussing with them about life satisfaction, meaning in life, and other aspects related to psychological health could open a window of opportunities for implementing effective therapeutic strategies.

The results support Moreira-Almeida et al. [94] perspective, who claim that through gaining a better understanding of the importance of religious aspects in individuals' lives, psychologists and counselors will be better equipped at providing mental health services, and through rigorous research, new ways of relieving pain and suffering can be found. Following Pargament's line of work [8], this chapter has shown that religiosity and spirituality influence our mental health and well-being. An in-depth understanding of religiosity and spirituality will allow psychologists, counselors, and other mental health providers to fulfill their mission of alleviating suffering and helping people live meaningful lives [94].

Numerous studies have shown that religiosity and spirituality play a significant role in enhancing individuals' psychological well-being, but given the fact that religiosity and spirituality are multidimensional, latent, and multilevel concepts, lines of investigation need to be expanded, mediation, moderation, and structural equation modeling and big data studies need to be conducted in order to advance knowledge in the field. Using Herzog's typology of emerging adults' religiosity [95] and using more heterogeneous samples could provide a more nuanced image of the phenomenon. A better collaboration between researchers coming from different areas and fields of research, with different cultural backgrounds, looking at an old topic from a new angle, setting aside all preconceptions and stereotypes, and focusing on research implications for individuals' well-being is welcome.

In today's increasingly polarized societies, where religion still plays a significant role, religiosity and spirituality can act as integrating factors, offering psychological comfort and well-being, and gathering public opinion and debate around a common ground, like finding meaning and purpose through the cultivation of positive values.

#### **Acknowledgements**

This work was supported by CORE—Communication and Social Innovation Research Centre, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania, and by the 2022–2023 Babes-Bolyai Development Fund.

### **Author details**

Anișoara Pavelea\* and Lorina Culic Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

\*Address all correspondence to: pavelea@fspac.ro

© 2023 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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#### **Chapter 9**

How Can Social Expectations and Related Stress among Adolescents and Young Adults Be Better Coped with through Practicing Yoga?

*Ingunn Hagen*

#### **Abstract**

In this chapter, I discuss how practicing yoga was experienced by adolescents and young adults and how such experiences seem to contribute to better coping with stress. As a contextualization, I will describe the current challenges for young people, such as social expectations and norms related to school/education, social media, and their life generally. Practicing yoga seems to allow for a "time out" from social expectations, tension, and stress, and thus create space for personal development. The discussed results are drawn from our qualitative study of adolescents and young adults, examining the potential of yoga practice for coping with stress, and the ability to improve mental health and increase well-being. The sample size consisted of 14 adolescents and young adults in Trondheim, Norway, in the age range of 12 to 29 years. There were two major themes identified in the data material: 1. yoga as a self-developmental activity, and 2. yoga as a "break" or sanctuary from social and societal demands. I will be paying attention to the second theme here. I conclude the chapter, that yoga is facilitating the way adolescents and young adults deal with societal demands and stressful expectations, which seems to improve their mental health and well-being.

**Keywords:** young people and social expectations, yoga for coping with stress, yoga as a sanctuary, yoga as "time out", qualitative yoga research

#### **1. Introduction**

The young generation in Norway, like elsewhere, experiences a lot of pressure to perform well, in school and other areas of life. This leads to feelings of stress, tension, and reduced well-being. In this article, I discuss how the social expectations and stress experienced by young people may be better coped with by practicing yoga. The discussion is based on our study of how yoga is experienced by adolescents and young adults, and to what extent practicing yoga seems to contribute to psychological well-being. As

a background, we will discuss the current challenges for adolescents and young adults and how these contribute to daily stress and impair their well-being. Furthermore, we will address what yoga is and how research discusses how yoga potentially can contribute to adolescents' and young adults' mastery of stress in their lives and well-being. We will illustrate some of the benefits of yoga by sharing narratives from adolescents and young adult's experiences with yoga. The purpose of the study was to examine how practicing yoga was experienced and to understand how yoga may impact coping with stress and psychological well-being in everyday life for adolescents and young adults. Our interview material consists of 14 qualitative, semi-structured interviews with young people in the age range of 12 to 29 years old. Along with presenting the main results from our study, we will discuss and interpret the meaning of our findings.

#### **2. Experienced pressure and stress among young people**

There has been much focus on the increased pressures and expectations young people seem to experience in their everyday lives [1]. A recent study reported that mental health has been decreasing among adolescents and young adults during the last three decades [2]. For example, there have been increasing cases of anxiety and depression among young people, as well as lower levels of life satisfaction in the last decade. Experienced stress and depressive thoughts were especially prevalent among young females. These authors interpreted the stress levels and mental health challenges as related to a sedentary lifestyle in front of screens as well as the intense use of social media. Other major stressors for young people were issues of concern, like climate change, social injustice, and threats to democracy. For many, however, the major stressor was increased performance pressure in school, which Krogstad et al. [2] attribute to neoliberal ideology, which has brought more emphasis on competition in recent years.

Another study that focused on adolescents found similar tendencies of stress and mental health challenges, again attributed to performance pressure in school, but also to increased social expectations of success in other aspects of life [3]. As is the case for young people in many countries, most young people in Norway are heavy users of social media [4]. The social media platforms are designed for addiction, so adolescents and young adults often have a high degree of mastery over digital media, these media also, to various degrees, have "mastery" over them [5, 6]. Particularly, the use of smartphones for social media can result in norms of "being on" and constant social availability [7]. This may result in sleep deprivation and increased stress [8, 9]. Sleep deprivation over time may have a negative impact on emotions, and thus reduce young people's sense of well-being [10].

Thus, the lives of young people can be characterized by stress, pressure, and digital overstimulation, creating concern in how such pressures create stressful lives for young people [2]. Still, while stress levels vary, as pointed out by Bakken [11] young people typically experience pressure and stress related to education, and body ideals to look thin, fit, and have a six-pack stomach. Many also internalize expectations of being popular and successful according to norms conveyed by social media. Norwegian young people are heavy users of social media, which has increased through their use of smartphones during the last decade [4]. While difficult to measure, young people generally spend numerous hours in front of screens, both at school and in their leisure time. You hardly see a young person today without a mobile phone in their hand, and many feel expectations about being available 24/7 [5, 6]. The norm of constant availability together with an increasing lack of physical activity led to sleep problems, and both reinforced young people's stress levels and increased their problems [12, 13].

#### *How Can Social Expectations and Related Stress among Adolescents and Young Adults Be Better… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113961*

Still, young people themselves often attribute their stress levels and mental health challenges to the demands put on them in the education system. Particularly, young people with middle-class parents felt that the parents reinformed the pressure to perform well in school, and thus contributing to the young people relating their self-worth to their achievements in school [14]. For both the parents and the young people, the concerns were about future security in the form of future educational and job opportunities. However, most Norwegian young people were found to enjoy well-being and were content with their lives [11]. Still, there were identified numerous threats to well-being, such as higher drug consumption, more violence, increased feelings of loneliness, and generally less optimism about the future. Other risk factors were related to increased screen time and social media use, as well as more young people experiencing boredom and less well-being at school.

No wonder that "generation achievement" ("generasjon prestasjon" in Norwegian) has become a label for young people [15]. "Generation achievement" refers to a cultural climate of pressure, for example, in school, in sports, related to the body, and in social media [16].1 School is the main stressor, but young people vary in how much it stresses them. Still, young people experienced it as important to perform well in school and higher education, as getting a job without having an education has become increasingly difficult. Thus, young people express that they feel pressure and a sense of stress related to their future possibilities for jobs and careers [11]. There is a sense of performance anxiety, and young people use words like worrying, sleep difficulties, a sense of hopelessness, and toil to describe how they feel. However, the concept of generation-high performance goes beyond expectations related to perform well at school. There are also expectations to perform well and be successful in other areas of life, like being good-looking, being fit and healthy, and being popular. There is a future disciplining, and a squeeze between educational pressure and other norms for success [15]. Many young people also feel that it is their own fault if they do not succeed in all areas of life, due to the general expectation that individuals have become responsible for their own happiness [12, 17]. Young people have a lot of choices, but the norms of success in all areas of life, reduce their experienced room for action, and induce stress and fear of not being good enough.

As we have seen, there is a general sense of stress in the lives of adolescents and young adults. But what is stress? The concept of stress was coined by Hans Selye, a medical doctor and endocrinologist who wrote numerous books and reports about stress, including the book *The Stress of Life* (1956). He defined stress as a "non-specific response of the body to any demand" [18]. Selye also linked how the body coped with stress to the hypothalamic-pituitary axis. It is important also to realize the psychological aspect of stress, that our perception of stress is in the "eye of the beholder:" what is perceived as stressful by one person, might not be perceived so by another person. For the one who is triggered by a stimulus perceived as a "stressor," there will be a stress reaction, which typically starts with an alarm reaction, then a resistance phase, and is often followed by an exhaustion phase. As the perception of stress varies it is also possible to define stress as an exaggerated response to a change in the environment, externally or internally [19]. Stress means activation of the sympathetic part of the autonomous nervous system, which can trigger fright, fight, flight or freeze reactions, with the release of related bodily hormones. While sympathetic activation is important to perform well, long-term experiences of stress will drain our mental and physical health.

<sup>1</sup> See also https://utdanningsforskning.no/artikler/2018/generasjon-prestasjon-ungdoms-opplevelse-avpress-og-stress/

#### **3. Yoga and its potential impact**

In the Western world, yoga is often associated with slim, female yoga practitioners in tight-fitting suits, because that is how yoga is often portrayed in traditional and online media. But yoga is an ancient Indian practice suitable for all people, both women and men, as well as for people of all ages. While many in the West associate yoga with physical exercises (asanas), which require a great degree of bodily flexibility, yoga also includes breathing exercises (pranayama), meditation, and more. In the book *Yogaboken. Pust og bevegelse,* the authors describe yoga as a classical, Indian philosophical system, which also includes a number of methods and mind/ body techniques for bringing stillness and self-insight [20]. These techniques include the cultivation of feelings, thoughts, and actions. Moreover, the purpose of yoga is primarily to get to know oneself, to develop awareness, and the ability to perceive. Thus, yoga is about self-discovery and personal tranformation.2

Yoga has increased in popularity in recent years and 300 million people are now practicing yoga worldwide.3 As a background to understand how yoga may contribute to well-being and stress reduction, I will describe some central aspects of yoga. Yoga is a Sanskrit word, which means union or uniting, referring to the union of body, minds, and spirit. The often-quoted definition of yoga is "yoga chittivrtti nirodhah," the second Sutra in the ancient, classical text, Patanjali's *Yoga Sutras*. There are numerous translations of this definition, for example: "Yoga is about stilling the fluctuations of the mind" [21], "Yoga is the stilling of mental turbulence" ([22], p. 16). Modern yoga is very diverse, and there are many yogic traditions. However, a common trait in classical yoga is often Patanjali's eight limbs or Ashtangas. These limbs consist of: Yamas (social restrictions), Niyamas (internal disciplines), Asana (physical postures), Pranayama (control of life energy through breath), Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (meditation), and Samadhi (union or integration) (see [21]). Patanjali eight limbs can also be formulated in one sentence: "Yoga consists of observances, abstinences, posture, control of life force, turning the senses inward, concentration, meditation, and superconsciousness or reintegration" ([22], p. 16). This is the philosophical basis for yoga.

There are various aspects of yoga emphasized by different authors, but a common trait is that yoga is about getting to know yourself, and developing your ability for self-reflection [20]. Yoga can also be perceived as a lifestyle, or way of life. The Indian yoga teacher Gitananda writes: "I prefer that you accept Yoga as a way of life, a way of integrating your whole nature, so that all aspects of your life work in harmony, one with another" ([23], p. 1). The above-mentioned eight limbs of yoga are seen as a precondition for yoga as a way of life. The point of integration, as indicated in the Sanskrit word "yui" (union, as mentioned above), is also emphasized by Bhogal in his book *Yoga & Mental Health & Beyond. A Guide to Self-Managemen*t, where he writes: "Yoga literally means 'Integration' at all levels of existence. Yoga is both 'State' and 'Process'. As a process, it is a means to Integration. As a state, it is a psycho-physiological balance, signifying a holistic personality integration" ([24], p. 2). Cook-Cottone [25] emphasizes that yoga philosophy views the experience of self as dwelling in two worlds: an inner world of thoughts, emotions, and sensations and the outer world where we interact with and relate to others. When yoga increases our integration, this will promote a more harmonic relationship to the external world, as we become less

<sup>2</sup> See for example https://viniyoga.com/about/what-is-viniyoga/

<sup>3</sup> https://www.thegoodbody.com/yoga-statistics/

*How Can Social Expectations and Related Stress among Adolescents and Young Adults Be Better… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113961*

susceptible to social expectations, and often closer to our "true selves." Thus, yoga can be described as a tool for self-development.

Others have portrayed yoga as a process of conscious evolution through creating a four- or five-fold awareness: This is awareness about the body, mind, and emotions and a meta-awareness, which presupposes an awareness about one's lack of awareness [23]. Yoga can also be defined as "skill in action," which increases one's life mastery capacity, resilience, as weak as emotional balance. Practicing yoga can contribute to balance in the autonomic nervous system, by activating the para-sympathetic part, which is the basis for rest and digestion, more than the sympathetic part, which induces activation and sometimes stresses. The goal of yoga is to achieve autonomic balance, as neither sympathetic nor para-sympathetic dominance is ideal [26]. Thus, yoga has the potential to improve all aspects of our health, including emotional, mental, physical, social, and spiritual [27]. Some authors, such as Gitananda [23] also point out that the goal of yoga is Samadhi or Cosmic Consciousness. Similarly, according to Yogendra and Hansaji "yoga primarily means samadhi, and not union" ([28], p. 4). To these authors, Samadhi is about concentration, in other words our mind is concentrated, content, focused, and stable. In her recent book *Hva er yoga?* (What is yoga?) Wiel [29] acknowledges the diversity in definitions and understandings of yoga. However, she also emphasizes that in yoga one is learning to cope with stress by learning how to regulate oneself.

#### **3.1 Yoga for coping with stress: some research findings**

Yoga is an ancient body-mind practice, now regarded as an effective tool to promote general physical and mental health, especially to reduce stress [30]. Several review articles report that people experience a significant reduction in stress after doing yoga [31–34]. Based on the review Sharma suggests that "yoga appears to be a promising modality for stress management" ([34], p. 59). According to Riley and Park [33] both experimental and clinical research refers to yoga as a stress reliever. The latter authors suggest—based on their review of research on yoga and stress, that the psychological mechanisms that may relieve stress when doing yoga include: a more positive attitude toward stress, self-awareness, improved coping mechanisms, more appraisal of control, increased calmness, and also mindfulness, spirituality, and (self) compassion.

If one is to reduce stress among young people through yoga, it is important to understand the causes of stress and how yoga might help to reduce stress [35, 36]. Batista and Dantas [37] found yoga to be one of the most powerful agents for controlling stress. In their recent review article, similarly, a review study of the benefits of yoga for children and young people concluded that practicing yoga improved their ability to cope with stress and reduced their experience of stress and anxiety [38]. In another study of young people, "Students had particularly positive opinions regarding the beneficial effects of yoga on stress, sleep, and relaxation" ([39], p. 1). Another study on yoga in school [40] reported the following psychological benefits for students: "many cited stress reduction; many used yoga to manage negative emotions; and some propagated more optimism" (p. 171). As we mentioned earlier, stress is also about perception, Frank et al. [41] suggested that yoga (sports) reduced the perception of stress and accompanying mental health symptoms, such as anxiety and depression.

Wang and Szabo [42] found that many types of yoga had positive effects on stress reduction, at least in healthy adult populations. However, they recommended that one needs to find out about the long-term impact of stress, and also understand the underlying psychological mechanisms causing stress. The latter point is emphasized by Park et al. [36] who suggest that it seems established that yoga reduces stress, but there is a need to understand better the underlying mechanisms. What is the reason for this improvement in the ability to cope with stress and also to feel less stressed? Based on a meta-analysis of 81 articles on how yoga works, Ross and Thomas [43] find that yoga has a positive effect on physical and mental health by downregulating the so-called hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the sympathetic nervous system. Yoga's impact on better regulation of the sympathetic nervous system and the HPA system is also confirmed by Pascoe and Bauer [30] in their article with a systematic review of the research on the effects of yoga on stress and mood. They also find that yoga contributes to less depressive and anxiety-related symptoms. The yogic contribution to reducing sympathetic activity, which means less experience of stress and more experience of calmness in body and mind.

In a recent review article on the effects of yoga on young people, Miller and the coauthors [44] conclude that yoga is a promising intervention in relation to children and young people. One of the reasons is that especially breathing exercises (pranayama) and focus on breathing when doing physical yoga exercises (asanas) have an impact on the autonomic nervous system, by reducing sympathetic activation. Young people will therefore feel more relaxed as they are in more para-sympathetic (or rest and digest mode). Thus, yoga can also help to increase attention and the ability to regulate cognitive (thinking), emotional (emotional), and somatic (bodily) impulses and experiences. Practicing yoga can also increase young people's contact with their own body, mind, emotions (feelings), and reaction patterns (see [45]). Based on this study of how yoga can contribute to teenagers' and young adults' mental health and wellbeing, Hagen et al. find that practicing yoga can increase self-awareness, the ability to self-regulate, and the ability to cope with stress.

#### **4. Purpose of study**

The purpose of the study was to examine how practicing yoga was experienced by young people. The title was "Yoga to promote young people's mental health and well-being?" Originally, we intended to focus on teenagers, but due to recruitment problems, we broadened the sample to adolescents and young adults. We formulated the research question: "How can yoga impact coping with stress and increase psychological well-being in everyday life for adolescents and young adult?"4 The approach was individual semi-structured interviews, resulting in data that were analyzed through thematic analysis [46, 47].

#### **5. Research design and methodology**

In line with the purpose of this study, a qualitative research design was employed. Qualitative research is idiographic (as opposed to nomothetic), as it samples and explores specific instances in detail. Thus, qualitative research focuses on exploring what *can specifically* be the case, and not necessarily what *is generally* the case. The

<sup>4</sup> The study was performed in 2015, as a "research practice" for senior bachelor students.

*How Can Social Expectations and Related Stress among Adolescents and Young Adults Be Better… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113961*

aim is to produce knowledge allowing for analytical generalization, which "involves a reasoned judgment about the extent to which the findings of one study can be used as a guide to what might occur in another situation" ([48], p. 297).

#### **5.1 Recruitment procedure and sample characteristics**

The interviewees were recruited by a "snow-ball method" and were approached by researchers based on their participation in yoga courses at two yoga centers. There were 14 interview participants, adolescents and young adults in the age range of 12 to 29 years. There were four young men and 10 women. These individuals had varied amounts of yoga experience, ranging from learning yoga and practicing it for at least 5 weeks to practicing yoga for several years. Mainly, their yoga practice consisted of hatha yoga—asanas with a focus on breathing—and some guided meditations.

Data was collected through qualitative semi-structured phenomenological lifeworld interviews [47, 49]. The purpose of this type of interview is to gather descriptions of the lifeworld of the interviewee, with the intent of interpreting the meaning of the described phenomena. An advantage of this style of interviewing is its flexibility in the order and formulation of the questions posed, so that one can follow-up on interesting themes that emerge in the interview situation (probing). The interviews were performed based on an interview guide, consisting of open questions, based on insights from yoga research, inspired by yoga practice performed by the project's lead researcher and supplemented by questions from the other members of the research team based on their research interests. In order to secure a report with the interviewee, we informed the participants of our aims with the interview (**Table 1**).


#### **Table 1.**

*Overview of participants.*

#### **6. Data collection**

Data was collected by means of semi-structured phenomenological life-word interviews [47, 49] in the spring of 2015. The purpose of this type of interview was to gather descriptions of the lifeworld of the interviewee—"the world as it is encountered in everyday life and given in direct and immediate experience, independent of and prior to explanations" ([48], p. 32)—with the intent of interpreting the meaning of the described phenomena.

The interviews were conducted with the aid of an interview guide, consisting of open questions. The guide was for the most part only loosely adhered to, primarily serving the purpose of a checklist to ensure that the intended and desired overarching issues were explored during the course of the interview. The questions of the interview guide were derived from the following set of research questions: (1) Why do the participants seek out yoga? (2) How do the participants experience the yoga practice? (3) What effects do the participants experience that yoga provides? (4) How do the participants view yoga in an overarching social and cultural context? In order to secure a report with the interviewee, a script informing the participants of the aims of the research as well as their rights (e.g., their ownership over the information they provide) regarding the interview was recited.

The interview guide was adhered to more strictly for those participants who had only a limited amount of experience with yoga. For the participants who had more experience the interview guide was more loosely adhered to in order to cover the general research questions. For experienced participants, we opened up with the question "what is your history with yoga?" This question is in retrospect deemed as having proved highly useful. In the interview situation, it elicited rich descriptions where the interviewees were allowed to situate yoga within their own lifeworld and in their own words. This question provided a rich set of leads that were followed up on with further questions aiming at clarifying meanings and exploring connected topics. All of the interviews, with one exception, were conducted in Norwegian, the one exception was conducted in English. Most of the interviews were conducted with two researchers present, with the lead researcher being present in all but one of the interviews.

The interviews were conducted at times and places that were convenient for the interviewees. Parental consent was obtained for interviewing participants below 18 years of age. The interviews were transcribed primarily orthographically, which is considered appropriate when the analysis focuses on what is being said, rather than how it is being said. However, specific nonliteral meanings were attempted to preserve by the use of brackets noting non-textual irregularities that might have been intended to serve as linguistic devices serving communicative purposes (e.g., laughter, pronounced uses of intonation and/or dialect to express irony or self-distancing).

#### **7. Data analysis**

The collected data material was analyzed employing thematic analysis [46, 50, 51]. The purpose of thematic analysis in general is primarily to describe and summarize a set of qualitative data in rich detail. The purpose of the current analysis was to construct an understanding of how yoga practice relates to stress and well-being by detailed mapping and examination of a limited selection of meanings. As such, it constitutes a selective analysis focusing on generating themes centrally relevant to address the predefined research question. The interviews were analyzed making use

*How Can Social Expectations and Related Stress among Adolescents and Young Adults Be Better… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113961*

of the Nvivo 11 Pro software for Microsoft Windows. The data was analyzed by coding for the specific meaning yoga had for the interviewees.

Thematic analysis as described by Braun and Clarke [46] consists of six stages: (1) data familiarization, (2) initial generation of codes, (3) searching for themes based on initial codes, (4) reviewing of themes, (5) defining and naming of themes, and (6) the writing of the report. While this report is written in English, the analysis is performed on Norwegian interview transcriptions, except for one case where the interview was conducted and transcribed in English. While the overall meaning is conveyed, some of the nuances in meaning can be lost in the process of translating between the two languages. Themes were developed from the perspective of and employing sensitizing concepts like stress and well-being.

#### **8. Findings and discussion**

#### **8.1 Yoga as sanctuary from social and societal demands**

How yoga relates to perceived social and societal pressures is a highly significant theme running through the data material. Most of the participants describe how they perceive society and their social context in remarkably similar terms, characterizing society and their social contexts as being dominated by a pressure to perform and as promoting and fostering competition. Furthermore, yoga is described by many as either locally as in itself a sanctuary from these demands, or as an arena for temporarily disengaging from them. Two examples from our interviewees:

*"That I got a small, fixed time where I just had to relax and… not think about school." (Fiona, F14).*

*"It is more like; you can empty your head. (…) Especially during the last thing, then you are not thinking about anything." (Brage, M15).*

"The last thing" referred to here was the closing part of the yoga class where participants practiced Shava Asana, a relaxing pose where one is lying down on the back, with the aim to relax or release tension.

Yoga as a sanctuary can also be viewed more generally, as the practitioners' accounts demonstrate evidence of employing techniques they have learned from yoga in their real lives as they face these demands during their everyday activities. The theme selected and elaborated on is one of the most central and pertinent to the research questions, and as doing the most justice to representing yoga as perceived by the research participants. The theme is considered well suited to summarizing the findings, as one of the themes incorporating salient topics brought up by the participants, as well as regarding how the data material relates to mental health and wellbeing. The theme chosen for elaboration and presentation in this chapter is "Yoga as a Sanctuary from Social and Societal Demands." Related to this theme, yoga as a "safe haven" and as a stress relief are important elements. The theme also overlaps with another central theme in our study, "Yoga as a Self-Developing Activity."

When analyzing the data, one realizes that the themes constructed can perhaps never do full justice to what is available in the data. Still, one gets the main insight into the way yoga is perceived as a way to deal with the pressure often experienced by adolescents in Norwegian society:

*"Yeah… like not only with friends, but with everyone at school that you… feel like… yeah, is… you have to like be… in a certain way and dress in a certain way and such to be accepted, I feel. It is like very much pressure" (Grethe, F18).*

However, the reasons for continuing to do yoga is not necessarily the same as those they possessed initially when seeking it out. Yoga does show marked development and progression for some of the individuals in this sample*.* This is illustrated by describing yoga from start to finish, going through what initially brought these participants to try yoga, and how yoga has developed for some of these participants into an activity that allowed them to come in and stay in contact with themselves. In the words of one of our informants:

*"It's like a breathing room where I just… forget everything else. Where I can, like, just be me. […] That I…yeah, just forget everything that has happened before and…what is supposed to happen, that I can just relax and… get a break. Catch up with myself." (Grethe, F18).*

*"No, it is that you … you concentrate about only your body and how you feel so… do not think about other things and … just feel how I am right here and now and… yeah. Quite calm. No stress." (Grethe, F18).*

Other people reported seeking out yoga specifically as an activity for *relaxation and stress mastery.*

*Grethe, F18: "It was because I'm a very stressed person, or I experienced a lot of stress in my everyday life, at school especially. And I had heard that yoga could help against stress… or that you become more relaxed. That's really why I wanted to try it."*

*Adam M15: "It was because I thought it sounded very… relaxing, and as a way of removing stress during the day and stuff. Like, if there has been a long school day and then, then, just a lot of things that I found very boring so that I could just... like, forget all of that."*

This theme relates to some of the reasons why the practitioners originally sought out or continued to practice yoga. One reason mentioned by several interviewees was that yoga was a source of physical activity where performance was not in focus.

*Karin, F25: "It appealed to me as … what should I say… a way of being physically active that was not … contingent on performance in a way."*

Several of the interviewees expressed that the focus on competition in sports was something that was experienced as stressful for them. For example, a mentioned reason for continuing to practice yoga was that it was a source of physical exercise where there is no focus on competition.

*Liv, F26: I do not really quite remember what made me continue but I remember that … yes both that original experience of that it wasn't about competition, but that I was allowed to move my body.*

Quite a few of the participants in this study recount experiences with other forms of physical exercise where the joy associated with these activities was ruined by the increasing pressure to perform and to compete with each other. The emerging focus

#### *How Can Social Expectations and Related Stress among Adolescents and Young Adults Be Better… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113961*

on performance and competition was described as having turned these individuals away from more mainstream forms of physical activity and toward yoga. For example, one of the participants who is now a yoga instructor recounts her being driven away from football preemptively because she was afraid of being labeled as "bad" and sorted into the "bad team."

*Liv, F26: "Because in football it's all about that [competition], they like split the teams into good and bad, and then I just had to quit. Because I was a bit like, that, I did not 't want to know if I was good or bad. That's something that you struggle with enough by yourself. You do not need anyone else telling you that you are not good enough to be with the good team in football. In yoga there was no focus on that."*

Another practitioner who has also become a yoga instructor reported that her source of physical activity, handball, was contaminated by an increasing focus on winning and performing where she was not allowed to participate when she wasn't among the better players on the team. Due to this, this source of physical exercise became increasingly dominated by and associated with negative experiences and emotions. Yoga offered a means of physical exercise not contingent on performance and not focused on competition where she was allowed to use her body.

*Karin, F25: "During the last few years of handball there was a lot of focus on that the teams should win and lalala. And .. I wasn't the best on the team to put it like that so I was sitting a lot on the bench and it came to be that to be active, it … moving and using the body and all that became sort of a negative thing because you did not really get to do it. And it was very obvious like, those are good and those are bad. And at yoga … I do not know why I had an impression that … I think maybe I had a friend that had been doing it or something like that they said like that there is no focus on anything but what you do yourself."*

A participant who had been practicing dance for many years also found herself driven away from it because it was increasingly being dominated by internal competition and pressure to perform. Yoga to the contrary was perceived by this individual as an arena where she is completely free from the scrutiny and the social evaluation of others, and as an arena where she could just focus on herself without being the focus of others. This feature of yoga practice was something that she greatly appreciated.

*Grethe, F18: "I was doing dance before, and I enjoyed that a lot for… ten years. But, in that too there was a lot of pressure. You should be… you should just become better and better and, there was pressure on being best and… if you were good enough you got to stand in the front when we had a show and… So it was very like… and I just could not take that any more. So then I just decided to try yoga instead, and here it's like, you do not think about how the others look while they are doing those exercises and… that others… I just do not feel that the others are watching me, and how I'm doing and… how good I am. Everyone just focus on themselves. And that is really nice."*

This aspect of yoga, that it is an activity in which there is little pressure to perform, is perceived by one young participant and being communicated clearly during the yoga practice itself. Nobody is forcing you to do anything during the yoga classes, and this is reported as clearly perceived and might contribute to the practice being completely autonomously engaged.

*Eva, F12: "I think it's a good thing. That… you can decide a bit for yourself. And if there is something that you do not feel like you can do or that is uncomfortable, in any way, that you have the opportunity to lay down and rather join when there are some things that you know that you can do and that you feel can be a bit easier."*

Yoga is an activity that itself is not contingent on pressure to perform and competition seems to make yoga itself a sanctuary from these features and demands from the reality that exists outside of the yoga classes themselves. When asked what is the most important about yoga, one of the participants described it as a haven from the rest of existence.

*Grethe, F18: "To me right now it is to… have a haven where, where I do not need to think about anything else. I can just focus on me and to… take a break. To not… I do not experience any pressure here. Here I am… just me."*

Yoga offers an arena where the participants get to temporarily disengage from these social and societal pressures, including feeling watched and evaluated by peers:

*Grethe, F18: "I like it here so much… I do not think that… here you do not think about how others do things and… I do not feel that they are thinking about how I am doing things either. I think that… that I do not have any friends that go here, I think it helps me, it's my place."*

These observations seem to demonstrate and point in the direction that yoga offers for these participants a sanctuary from perceived societal and social pressures, and that yoga is an arena where they get to temporarily disengage from them. This period of disengagement is experienced as rewarding as it alleviates negative emotions and promotes positive emotions. Disengaging also might facilitate functioning by allowing the participants to recharge their batteries in order to be able to meet these demands of society.

The fact that yoga is an arena where there is little focus on performance and competition by one participant described as yoga offering a contrast to the message that she perceives is being communicated by the rest of society.

*Karin, F25: "I feel it offers a … a kind of alternative way of seeing things. It offers … it is a contrast to … what I feel is a lot of society and then I do not know … the whole collective where you … from society you get all the time 'you are not good enough 'in commercials and media and so on to get better, where yoga in a way says 'no!', you are actually already good enough, you don 't need to do all of that."*

Practicing yoga can also be a way of disengaging from the stresses and demands associated with work and studies.

*Nora, F29: "At work I'm too much in my mind, in my brain, so I'm just like … it's not using my hands much, /Just have to think, think, think all the time […] And when I'm doing yoga I'm fully, after that I'm just like switching on my body, and this is what gives my mind some rest".* 

*Nora, F29: "When/was doing my PhD, it was … in the end it was crazy times, and (sighing) it was Just a lot of deadlines and, like, you really, … you were just going crazy, and so on, and at least two hours per day, when I was going to the studio, it was like … as*  *How Can Social Expectations and Related Stress among Adolescents and Young Adults Be Better… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113961*

*soon I was closing the door of the studio, for at least two hours it was like nothing existed, it was just this … like … small room with other people. And for me it was like a light in the window because, there was too much pressure, too much stress, and at least these two hours was making me feel happy. So for me it was just like yea, a light of happiness".*

Another participant describes this break, this period of disengaging, as granting her energy.

*Marit, F28: "You allow yourself to just be and not do anything. It is a break that grants me more energy. I think .. the brain is a muscle, and it also needs to relax. So it is a break for the brain".*

It is interesting to notice that experienced yoga practitioners seem to have divorced themselves from what they perceive as controlling regulations of society. Another interesting feature is how yoga for some of the individuals who initially engaged in yoga as a sort of physical therapeutic relief or exercise ended up finding something more in it, in particular a mental inner strength aspect, and also strength to resist societal norms and expectation.

*Liv, F26: "I've met in the yoga community a lot that I that is something of that I appreciate the most. Adult people who, yea they are searching, they are in the seeker community, but they are also open and honest in their bodies. They are not so preoccupied by following fashion or following that which the rest of society necessarily says you have to do."*

Some of the younger participants seemed to experience and being aware of these demands just as much as the more experienced participants, but these demands were not internalized in the same manner.

Finally, we see an example of yoga being employed in everyday situations for emotional and behavioral self-regulation. One boy reported using techniques from yoga to emotionally self-regulate by improving his own subjective experience of a frightening situation he had to go through; being inside an MR machine.

*Adam, M15: "When I was at an MR-examination, then I felt that I had a lot of use for it. Because then I started thinking about yoga and the lay-still exercises, rather than thinking that I was in e very tiny room. […] Then I used it [yoga] to think about something else than that I was scared, so I used it to rather think about that I could just relax and… not be afraid for something that wasn't really anything to be afraid of."*

This interviewee was explicitly asked what yoga gave him in a situation where he was scared:

*Adam, M15: I think it makes me much calmer than if I had not been to [yoga]. I have a way out if there is something that I do not like doing.*

This way it can be said that he sought the sanctuary from yoga practices during something he had to go through in his everyday life. The tools from yoga seemed to allow this informant to be calmer and cope better with a stressful situation.

Two yoga practitioners in our sample who are also instructors point toward a possible threat to well-being that relates to yoga as a sanctuary. One of the instructors talks of yoga practice for some as being used as an escape from their troubles rather than dealing with them. These observations seem to point in the direction that yoga offers for these participants a sanctuary from perceived societal and social pressures, and that yoga was an arena where they could temporarily disengage from them. This period of disengagement seemed to be experienced as rewarding as it alleviated negative emotions and promoted positive emotions. Disengaging could also facilitate functioning by allowing the participants to recharge their batteries in order to be able to meet these demands of society.

#### **9. Conclusory remarks**

The theme emphasized in this chapter illuminated how yoga seemed to provide a sanctuary from social and societal demands. Our interview citations revealed that a number of the young people were experiencing various forms of pressure and stress in their everyday lives, that they felt a need to take a "time-out." Examples mentioned included social expectations related to school, peer pressure and norms, and the competitiveness in sports related to being good and contributing to the winning team. While doing yoga these individuals got to disengage from everyday stresses and demands, and yoga seemed to provide them with a break that allowed them to relax and recharge their batteries. The theme of yoga as providing a sanctuary is interrelated to another theme that could be identified in this data material, namely yoga as a self-developmental activity. The latter theme relates to functioning well and experiencing subjective well-being.

Performance pressure, especially in relation to perceived social and societal demands, was one of the dominant themes in this study. In this chapter, it was explored as its own dedicated theme named "Yoga as Sanctuary from Social and Societal Demands." A few of the interviewees in our study expressed a concern that yoga could let practitioners escape from their troubles rather than doing something about them. These potential pitfalls of yoga as a sanctuary, as the subjective emotional benefits reaped by mentally escaping from life, might prove detrimental to functioning. However, recharging batteries and developing different values do not necessarily mean escaping from troubles related to fulfilling social expectations. It could also empower these young people, such as when interviewees employed techniques learned during yoga practice in their everyday lives to cope with stress in better ways and with increased emotional and behavioral self-regulation.5

The "Sanctuary" through yoga provided the young people in our study with a space to relax, and also made them realize how stressed they were. For some of the interviewees in our sample yoga practice gained another dimension of intrinsic motivation by yoga offering relaxation, time out, and pleasant mental states while negating unpleasant mental states. With yogic tools for relaxation, it also became easier to look inward; getting to know themselves better. This "coming to know who they are" could potentially allow them to live more autonomously and authentically. By improving their self-awareness and by experiencing a break from social pressure and stress through yoga, it seemed that many of the adolescents and young adults in our study could face their life's journey ahead with more ease and inner strength. Thus, our study indicate that yoga has the potential to improve young people's mental health and well-being.

<sup>5</sup> For a more thorough discussion on the manifestations of self-regulation, see Hagen et al. [45].

*How Can Social Expectations and Related Stress among Adolescents and Young Adults Be Better… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113961*

#### **Acknowledgements**

We would like to thank the adolescents and young adults who participated in this study. We especially want to thank Haakon T. Haakstad, the MA student who organized the interviews and who wrote the report that we build this chapter upon. We are also grateful to the BA students (Carl-Erik Høyum, Stine B. Kofoed, Karoline Krogh-Larsen, Solveig E. Tvedt, and Jeanette Vik) who all played an active part in the study we drew our examples from.

#### **Conflict of interest**

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

### **Author details**

Ingunn Hagen Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway

\*Address all correspondence to: ingunn.hagen@ntnu.no

© 2023 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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#### **Chapter 10**

## The Psychology of Resilience: Empowering Athletes with a Potential Risk of Experiencing Sexual Violence in Sports

*Marleen Haandrikman, Annemiek Fokkens, Miriam Oostinga and Nicolette Schipper-van Veldhoven*

#### **Abstract**

A positive, caring and safe sports climate is essential for the healthy development of young people. One of the responsibilities of parties involved in organised sports is to create a safe sports climate, but in practice, difficulties in creating such a climate are still experienced nowadays. Implementing prevention programmes solely focused on coaches or the environment is not a comprehensive approach. Therefore, the biopsychosocial profile of athletes representing potential risks of experiencing sexual violence in sports can serve as a base to develop prevention programmes aimed at empowering athletes and stimulating their resistance towards sexual violence. In practice, this requires measures to make (young) athletes more resilient against the dominant position of coaches and other authority figures within sports. But how? To answer this question, the psychology of resilience will be reviewed to gain insights into the future development of these practical measures to safeguard athletes.

**Keywords:** safeguarding, safe sports climate, biopsychosocial profile, sexual violence, interpersonal violence, sports, resilience, empowering

#### **1. Introduction**

Sport is a popular leisure activity among young people. In the Netherlands, approximately 1.9 million young people (aged between 5 and 18 years) practice sports of which 1.3 million participate in organised sports at a club level [1]. Organised sport is, therefore, often regarded as the third educational environment — next to home and school — in which youngsters can physically develop and socially learn and have fun. This is substantively evident in the physical, mental and social effects of sports exercise [e.g., [2, 3]]. Thus, sports participation offers excellent opportunities for contributing to personal and social development and life skills [4, 5]. In this light, the

World Health Organisation [6] put guidelines in place to promote physical activity and sport among children and young people. However, there is another side to sports: an unsafe side [7], which can lead to negative outcomes such as depression, exhaustion, eating disorders and anxiety [8, 9]. Within the sports world, there is an obligation to protect athletes from harassment and abuse as it is embedded in the statutory governing documents of sport, including the Olympic Charter [10] and the IOC Code of Ethics [11]. All athletes have a right to engage in 'safe sport'. One particular form of unsafe practices in sports gained increased disclosure through the media affecting the public's attention to these events: sexual violence. Sexual violence 'includes a continuum of different behaviours, ranging from sexual harassment without body contact, to transgressive behaviours, to sexual violence with body contact' ([1], p. 2). Examples of sexual violence are making sexual comments or jokes, caressing the body or rape. Alongside, researchers who studied these events provided insight through prevalence research further strengthening the severity. Consequently, it became known as a worldwide issue in sports (e.g., in Sweden [8], the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany [9] and Australia [12]).

#MeToo, #SportToo and #CoachDontTouchMe: three social media initiatives asking for urgent recognition and action for sexual violence globally. In 2017, the already existing #MeToo movement rose through the respective survivors' disclosure of sexual violence practices conducted by film producer Harvey Weinstein. Through its increased attention, the movement popped up in a multitude of countries and communities as has happened to the sports community: #SportToo and #CoachDontTouchMe. Since then, notorious sports cases of sexual violence have come to light. For example, within USA Swimming, a dozen teenage female athletes experienced various forms of sexual misconduct by coaches over decades, and in British professional football, young male soccer players disclosed being sexually abused by their former elite coaches over decades. More recently, one of the largest sexual abuse scandals in sports history was disclosed within USA Gymnastics. Almost 400 gymnasts experienced forms of sexual abuse conducted by their coaches, gym owners, medical doctor Larry Nassar or other adults working in this community. And, unfortunately, this is not the end. To this day, more and more cases of athletes experiencing sexual violence in sports keep coming to light. This emphasises the importance of creating a further understanding of this phenomenon and knowing how to design interventions to safeguard athletes. To gain further insight into sexual violence towards athletes, it has been studied from different angles. One of these angles is the development of measures aiming to prevent sexual violence in sports. Until now, most of these measures focused on policies surrounding the entourage and sports itself: a social perspective [13, 14]. In other words, their viewpoint starts by looking closer at the influence of social structures within organisations and their respective social norms about sexual violence in the sports community (e.g., coaches grooming athletes). However, an important angle in developing these preventive measures has not yet become a focal point: personal risk factors for experiencing sexual violence in sports [15]. So far, scientific research barely focused on the emergence of sexual violence with the focus on the athlete himself despite the high prevalence of these experiences, and simultaneously, the importance of prevention through the empowerment of the athletes [15]. Therefore, it would be sensible to understand athletes' potential risks for experiencing sexual violence. Why are some athletes more prone than others? How to counterbalance these risks to empower the resilience of athletes? To answer these questions, a biopsychosocial profile is developed by

*The Psychology of Resilience: Empowering Athletes with a Potential Risk of Experiencing Sexual… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113960*

Van Voorthuizen et al. [16] to gain insight into potential biological, psychological and social factors of athletes resulting in a higher risk of experiencing sexual violence in sports. Through the identification of these factors, there is by no means the intention to place responsibility for experiencing sexual violence on athletes with a higher risk. It must be emphasised that this chapter contributes to the recognition of the vulnerabilities of athletes in sports to offer protection from becoming a potential victim through preventive measures empowering the athlete's resilience. This is important since being resilient to adversities contributes to mental health and overall well-being [17]. In the current context, resilience is desirable because it can counterbalance the vulnerability of athletes before, during or after sexual violent practices.

This chapter aims to add further definition to the biopsychosocial profile by elaborating on the identified biological, psychological and societal risk factors of athletes. By creating a further understanding of the existence of these risk factors, more insight is obtained serving to the recognition of vulnerabilities of athletes. Furthermore, to empower athletes at risk, the psychology of resilience will be applied to gain insights into future directions for developing preventive measures to safeguard athletes in sports.

#### **2. Biopsychosocial profile**

The biopsychosocial profile of Van Voorthuizen [16] (see **Figure 1**) is based on Engel's biopsychosocial model [18] and has been applied to topics closely linked to sexual harassment and abuse (e.g., mental and physical health [19, 20] and sexual health [21]). This multisystem perspective entails the general idea of sexual violence in sports, arising from a complex interaction of various factors: biological (e.g., sex), psychological (e.g., personality traits) and social factors (e.g., upbringing). In this paragraph, we critically assess the outcomes of the biopsychosocial profile of Van Voorthuizen [16] against existing literature to gain a further understanding of this profile. This will be done by explaining the origin of the risk factor, as well as reviewing the completion of this profile. The insights gathered in this paragraph can be used in the development of preventive measures aiming to empower at-risk athlete's resilience.

**Figure 1.** *The biopsychosocial profile.*

#### **2.1 Biological factors**

The first category contains biological risk factors. These are biologically or genetically determined factors. The study by Van Voorthuizen et al. [16] found three biological factors, increasing the risk of athletes experiencing sexual violence in sports: age, gender and sexual identity.

#### *2.1.1 Age*

For youth, it is important to develop levels of autonomy to become independent individuals [22, 23]. By obtaining space to develop autonomy, their ability to make choices by themselves and take responsibility grows. Feeling encouraged by others in this process results in youth feeling heard and valued to be themselves, and sports environments are influencing this. By applying the athlete-centred approach in sports, actors contribute to their athletes' autonomy development (e.g., by providing options for exercises to be chosen by athletes). However, the autonomy development of athletes aged below 18 years is simultaneously a risk factor for experiencing sexual violence. Given diverse relationships of power in sports — for example, the coach-athlete relationship — youth athletes can be disempowered in developing and outing their autonomy [7]. Actors, with these power relationships, can influence the athlete's sports performance and personal life resulting in the athlete's dependency on these actors. Therefore, theoretically seen are young athletes at greater risk of experiencing sexual violence. However, support for this risk factor in recent research is still quite mixed. For example, a literature study by Bjornseth and Szabo [24] concludes sexual violence targeted at children is more prevalent. However, Parent and Vaillancourt-Morel [25] did not find support for this risk factor among their Canadian athlete sample. Therefore, it is necessary to further study this risk factor for it to be included in interventions.

#### *2.1.2 Gender*

According to Van Voorthuizen et al. [16], the athletes' gender did not differentiate between the risk of athletes experiencing sexual violence. However, there is a discussion about the difference in the prevalence of sexual violence among diverse genders in sports in scientific literature. Currently, the philosophy of binarism1 is most frequently applied in studies about gender-based (sexual) violence. So far, several studies found results that females are more likely to report sexual violence compared to males (e.g., [27–30]). However, as stated by Vertommen et al. [29], it might be the case that sexual violence incidents by males are underreported, resulting in a lower prevalence (i.e., not equal to males not experiencing sexual violence in sports). Thus, the question arises whether it is the case that females are experiencing sexual violence in sports more often, or whether there is a difference in disclosure to officials. Additionally, the binarism dichotomy harmfully impacts all types of (cis- and trans-<sup>1</sup> ) gender identities and expressions2 in sports (e.g., [31]). Due to the underexposure, the

<sup>1</sup> This philosophy includes the existence of only two discrete and mutually exclusive gender options, namely referred to as male (he/him) and female (she/her) [26].

<sup>2</sup> Gender is a sociocultural construct that is an evolving identity and expression in many ways (e.g., behaviour, pronouns and hairstyle). Gender identity refers to 'an individual's personal, sometimes private, sense of themselves, while gender expression refers to how an individual outwardly represents their gender' ([29], p. 25).

#### *The Psychology of Resilience: Empowering Athletes with a Potential Risk of Experiencing Sexual… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113960*

risk of an unsafe sports environment for particular gender identities and expressions can occur. However, until now, determining gender identity and/or expression as a possible risk factor for athletes to experience sexual violence is still too complex given the limited overview in scientific literature.

#### *2.1.3 Sexual identity*

A third biological risk factor found is sexual identity. At the start of puberty, youth step on the path of their psychosocial development of sexuality [32] to explore their sexual identity to obtain clarity about their identity at the end of this path [33]. Their identification will either turn out as straight or as one of the identities of the LGBTQIA+ community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual and other gender and/or sexual minority). However, the safety of sports of the LGBTQIA+ community is being challenged. Several studies found results of LGBTQIA+ athletes have significantly more experiences of sexual harm compared to non-LGBTQIA+ identifying athletes [29, 30]. Menzel et al. [31] found the existence of homophobia, and particularly transphobia, still a current problem in sports as experienced by almost 90% of LGBTQIA+ respondents in Europe. This is due to the cisheteronormative nature of many sports cultures that creates an unsafe sports environment for LGBTQIA+ athletes [34]. Cisheteronormativity within sports cultures advantages cisgender identities and heterosexual athletes [35]. This means that athletes who overstep sports culture's societal boundaries — accepting identification with cisgender identity and/or fulfilling the heterosexuality norm — are disadvantaged in sports participation (e.g., by prejudice, exclusion or ignorance). Unsafe sports environments for LGBTQIA+ athletes are formed by cisheterosexist policies of governments or other institutions, which leads to them becoming more prone to experience sexual violence. However, interestingly, this is a result of society's cultures and norms — with a cisheteronormative nature — setting social standards. Thus, this means the renormalisation of social standards in sports cultures will create an inclusive community for cisgender and LGBTQIA+ athletes.

#### **2.2 Psychological factors**

The second group of risk factors contains factors relating to an athlete's personality characteristics influencing how the athlete deals with life events. In other words, underlying individual dispositions influence the behaviour and experiences of athletes. Seven psychological factors increasing the risk of experiencing sexual violence in sports were found by Van Voorthuizen [16]: altruism, agreeableness, naivety, self-esteem, quietness and neurodiversity. With this, it must be noted that there is so far from no to little support in the existing scientific literature for these risk factors. Therefore, the explanation of their emergence is limited to a theoretical level and needs to be further researched.

#### *2.2.1 Altruism*

Athletes acting upon the needs of others without benefitting themselves are displaying altruistic behaviours. Athletes in the study by van Voorthuizen et al. [16] described their altruistic behaviour as being ready for others at the expense of themselves; they ignored themselves and felt the need to help others. Despite altruistic actions being taken with their best intent, it results in greater proneness to experiencing sexual violence. This is — based on a consequentialist perspective — due to an

imbalance of costs and benefits for the two individuals involved [36]. The costs are for the altruistic actor (i.e., the athlete) and the benefits for the receiver (i.e., the perpetrator of sexual violence). In other words, altruistic athletes offer themselves in their relationship with a (possible) perpetrator who takes advantage of their best intentions for humans. If situations like these keep occurring over time, altruistic athletes are likely to see this as normal behaviour. As a result, they might lose the potential to signal their risk of experiencing sexual violence. This, in turn, increases the risk of these athletes to experience sexual violence in sports.

#### *2.2.2 Agreeableness*

Individuals perceived as agreeable display different types of behaviours such as being kind, considerate, likeable, cooperative and helpful. They are often labelled as friendly and prosocial. Individuals who have higher levels of prosocial motivation offer more help to different kinds of victims across a wider range of situations due to their agreeable behavioural nature [37]. However, such as altruism, athletes who tend to behave agreeably could be easily misused given their prosocial intentions. These athletes can be primed to engage in any behaviour related to sexual violence — called grooming — due to their willingness to help and concern for others [38, 39]. The greatest risk for agreeable athletes to be groomed is at the stage in which perpetrators try to establish trust and friendship with the athlete [38]. After trust and friendship are established, the perpetrator breaks down the athlete's barriers to comply with sexual violence. For example, *via* the foot-in-the-door technique [40]. Perpetrators start building trust and friendship by first asking for something relatively small that is in all probability to be accepted by the athlete (especially if they tend to be agreeable). Hereafter, athletes are more inclined to accept further requests resulting in perpetrators increasing their requests to eventually reach their goal: sexual violence.

#### *2.2.3 Naivety*

Athletes likely to act naïve are at risk of experiencing sexual violence in sports. This risk factor is highly complex given its influence on expectations and explanations of actions and minds of the self and others (e.g., motivations, desires and beliefs) as part of an individual's cognitive development [41]. During the cognitive development in childhood, the underlying mechanism of naivety — Theory of Mind (ToM) develops. It is 'the ability to reason about mental states and understand intentions, dispositions, emotions and beliefs of both oneself and others' ([25], p. 206). In other words, it helps an individual understand others by correctly interpreting cues of their mental state and making sense of actions (i.e., mindreading). This information provides insight into how to respond to the other. However, this so-called mindreading is difficult for people whose behaviours are influenced by naivety. They might find it difficult to make the right choices, are too optimistic or have trouble with overseeing consequences in social interactions. Despite their best intent, these people are often perceived as gullible, silly or (too) trusting in others. Difficulties in correctly estimating others result in an increased opportunity to be groomed and to experience sexual violence. Athletes might not perceive the perpetrator's grooming actions as wrong since perpetrators ensure athletes believe that they want it themselves as well [24]. Thus, important cues of awareness of possible grooming or sexual violence practices may remain unnoticed by athletes likely to act naïve.

*The Psychology of Resilience: Empowering Athletes with a Potential Risk of Experiencing Sexual… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113960*

#### *2.2.4 Self-esteem*

The development of self-esteem in individuals is a life-span trajectory and is a relatively stable — but not fully invariable — trait while an individual goes through life. An individual's self-esteem is formed by their subjective evaluation of their worthiness [42]. Interestingly, self-esteem can function as a predictor and outcome of experiencing sexual violence (e.g., [43, 44]). Self-esteem as a risk factor is seen as unfulfiled needs, possibly conflict and competing needs according to Baumeister [45]. These needs are formed by an individual's self-knowledge used to evaluate their worthiness. Together with this, the absence of positive views of themselves also contributes to low self-esteem. However, more importantly, this is not inherent to the presence of negative views by individuals with low self-esteem. As stated by Baumeister [45], 'if one can see one's shortcomings, others may see them, too'. Perpetrators of sexual violence can misuse an athlete's low self-esteem by interpreting it as a lack of competence to the rejection of others. Perpetrators contribute to athletes' self-esteem through an accurate appraisal of one's abilities in sports that is likely to positively influence the athlete's subjective evaluation of their worthiness. When this accurate appraisal either contributes to the athlete's self-knowledge or the absence of positive views, this behaviour contributes to building trust and friendship as part of the earlier-mentioned grooming process. As a result, their risk of experiencing sexual violence in sports increases.

#### *2.2.5 Quietness*

Quietness is a typical behaviour often associated with the personality traits introversion and shyness. According to Jung and Baynes [46], introverts are engaged with their internal world of feelings, thoughts and emotions and are more inclined to turn their attention inward. This behaviour might be perceived by others as being shy. However, the behaviours of these two traits are incorrectly compared. Cain [47] explains the difference as shyness being 'the fear of social disapproval or humiliation, while introversion is a preference for environments that are not overstimulating' (p. 12). Nevertheless, the comparison of the two traits is understandable due to both tending to turn their attention inward. Van Voorthuizen [16] identified quietness as a risk factor for experiencing sexual violence in sports. Quiet people could be perceived as withdrawing from and seeking the avoidance of communication when possible. In other words, quiet athletes could be more likely to withhold from disclosing sexual violence. However, it remains unclear what causes this association. Could it be that introvert, because they engage with their internal world, are perceived as people who do not speak up easily, and therefore, possibly contributing to a delayed disclosure of sexual violence? And would this be similar for shy athletes? Or would their fear of social disapproval and humiliation result in a greater tendency to conform to sexual violence? To gain more insight into this risk factor, further research is necessary.

#### *2.2.6 Neurodiversity*

Lastly, athletes dealing with an emotional disorder are at greater risk of experiencing sexual violence. To ensure the inclusion of all athletes with a wide range of causes and consequences of emotional disorders (e.g., autism, ADHD depression), the terminology of neurodiversity3 will be maintained. It is used as an umbrella term to include all athletes whose brain differences affect how their brain works related to a range of mental functions (e.g., sociability, learning and mood attention; [48]). Ultimately, it affects an athlete's risk of experiencing sexual violence in sports. In sports, studies found a high prevalence of neurodivergent athletes experiencing any form of sexual violence (e.g., [29]). However, neurodiversity as a risk factor has only been studied in the context of daily life regarding exclusion from education and employment, the need for personal assistance with daily living, reduced physical and emotional defences, communication barriers that hamper the reporting of violence, societal stigma and discrimination [49, 50]. But they found a high prevalence in studies about sports. Therefore, it remains unclear to what extent these risk factors are generalisable in the sports context.

#### **2.3 Social factors**

The third category of risk factors is about social interactions formed by norms and values in the environment of an athlete. These factors are important factors for nurturing the athlete and their consequential development (e.g., upbringing). In total, seven social factors — three about the athletes' upbringing (interpersonal relationships, incest and pressure to perform at home) and four about the athletes' sports environment (power, elite sports, tunnel vision and isolation) — were found by Van Voorthuizen [16] to increase the risk of experiencing sexual violence in sports.

#### *2.3.1 Interpersonal relations at home*

A child's attachment influences not only one's behaviour regarding intimate caregiving and receiving relationships with 'attachment figures', such as parents but also children or romantic partners [51]. When a child is securely attached to their parent, the child freely explores the world without experiencing distress. Together with a child's confidence in their attachment figure's availability, the individual seeks support, protection and comfort in times of distress: it is their safe haven. However, once these figures do not provide a safe base and haven to the child (e.g., parents being insensitive, physically or emotionally unavailable, rejecting the child's need) insecure attachment develops. Insecurely attached children show behavioural patterns formed by clingy behaviour, immature over(in)dependency, preoccupation with attachment figures and limited exploration due to unfulfiled emotional needs [52]. Thus, from an early age, they become dependent or feel stress and anxiety. Given the attachment style's influence on the need for intimacy and proximity in relationships, an impaired attachment — lack of warmth of their primary caregiver — results in a higher risk of experiencing sexual violence (e.g., [53–55]). Specifically, individuals with attachment anxiety are argued as being more vulnerable targets for sexual violence given their need for approval, preoccupation with relationships and continuous sensitivity to threats of abandonment and rejection [54]. Moreover, they are more likely to use sex as a way to meet their love and intimacy needs: sex and love are mistaken to be the same. In sports, athletes with unsafe attachments could seek for fulfilment of their emotional needs at attachment figures in their sports environment (e.g., coaches).

<sup>3</sup> In this perspective, one should hold the assumption that there is not a 'normal' or 'healthy' brain or mind, and therefore, neurodiversity is natural and part of human diversity. Opposite to neurodiversity is neurotypicality: individuals who do not have a diagnosis or neurodivergent condition [48].

*The Psychology of Resilience: Empowering Athletes with a Potential Risk of Experiencing Sexual… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113960*

This increases their risk of experiencing sexual violence in case there are bad intentions regarding fulfilling emotional needs. It could contribute to the grooming process, and thus, sexual violence is likely to occur.

#### *2.3.2 Incest at home*

Besides a child's attachment influencing their development, experiences of sexual abuse are also a disrupting factor. Child sexual abuse (CSA) is defined as 'any unwanted and non-consensual sexual behaviours occurring before the age of 16 years with a perpetrator who is at least 5 years older than the victim at the time of the abuse' ([56], p. 352). Forms of CSA can differ in the frequency, duration or type of contact of which incest is one of them. One specific form is incest is defined as sexual contact (i.e., activities) between a child and a close relative (e.g., brother/sister, parent, uncle/aunt and grandfather/−mother) [57]. According to studies, individuals who experience CSA are more prone to revictimisation of sexual violence [56]. After CSA, the child's sense of self and interpersonal relationships is disrupted causing a wide range of behavioural, cognitive and affective impairments. Consequently, they experience difficulties in making sense of the abuse, decisions about relationships and evaluating risky sexual situations. Next to a negative effect on their self-esteem, they obtain tendencies to blame themselves for the abuse and have greater needs to be in and maintain a relationship with a male. These consequences — difficulties in coping, internal attributions, insecure attachment and hyperfeminine personality — are seen as instigations of revictimization based on Gold et al.'s theoretical model [58]. However, an athlete's previous experiences of incest as a risk for revictimization of sexual violence in sports can only be theorised given the current lack of scientific research into this risk factor.

#### *2.3.3 Pressure to perform*

Parents acting out of line — based on a child's perspective — are affecting one's sports experience. They can lose sight of their child's reason to participate in sports and can — either consciously or unconsciously — put pressure on their child's sports performance [59]. Too much pressure decreases the child's motivation and enjoyment to participate in sports [60]. Based on Lee's [61] distinction of two types of emotionally over-involved parents — the excitable and the fanatical parent — the fanatical parent inappropriately increases the pressure to perform as opposed to the excitable. Their behaviours are of a controlling and confrontational nature due to their preoccupation with winning and losing and, therefore, not considering the child's best interest. They believe their child is only participating in sports to win, want to gain status by and obtain recognition for their performance or become a professional athlete. As a result, the child's psychological needs — formed by autonomy, competence and relatedness — are unfulfiled by its parents [62] fulfilment of these needs is important for a child's intrinsic motivation to participate in sports [63]. Consequently, these children feel frustrated and need replacement and compensation from others who can fulfil their psychological needs (i.e., attachment figures, such as peers or coaches) [64]. Ultimately, a maladaptive cycle of behavioural patterns is likely to occur preventing athletes from making decisions and acting in their own best interest. In turn, it will make them vulnerable to becoming victims of sexual violence perpetrated by attachment figures in sports associations who can fulfil their psychological needs.

#### *2.3.4 Power*

Power is an interesting phenomenon influencing dynamics in sports. Given it is the third pedagogical environment of children, the coach-athlete relationship is of importance [65]. The exertion of the power of coaches in this relationship sets the tone for developing a sports culture that either contributes to or prevents the existence of sexual violence in sports. Through awareness of power as a circulating concept, coaches can positively contribute to the child's pedagogical development. For example, by applying power in the coach-athlete relationship as a social function in a shared power arrangement to enhance the athlete's well-being and performance, for example, stimulating the athlete's autonomy [66]. However, negative consequences for athletes occur once coaches see power as an inclusive entity of being a coach. By exhibiting power over athletes, coaches place themselves in a dominant position as opposed to the athlete's submissive [67]. As a result, athletes become dependent on the coach (e.g., their sports performance), and this can be misused to eventually achieve their goal: sexual violence [68, 69]. St-Pierre et al. [70] studied the modus operandi of coaches who perpetrated sex offences in Canada: half of them had an authoritarian coaching style that made athletes feel intimidated. Behaviours, such as negative feedback, directive communication and focus on performance as the only goal are typical for this coaching style [71]. Moreover, athletes coached by an authoritarian coaching style coach are more likely to experience sexual harassment [72]. Altogether, power in itself is not a risk factor for athletes experiencing sexual violence: an imbalance of power in the coach-athlete relationship is.

#### *2.3.5 Elite sports*

Elite athletes are part of an exclusive group of athletes and are 'one who has superior athletic talent, undergoes specialised training, receives expert coaching and is exposed to early competition' ([60], p. 122). Besides their exclusive character in the nature of their athletic ability and young age, they also share different experiences in their sports participation [73]. In other words, the environment created to develop elite (child) athletes is unique. In elite sports, athletes are placed in an environment, prioritising performance and winning as part of their sports career. However, prioritising this success can go beyond the athlete's well-being. In that case, problematic practices occur putting the athlete's safety at risk resulting in a higher risk of the occurrence of (sexual) violence [74]. The set expectation of this performance environment is contributing to the normalisation of (sexual) violence while participating in sports resulting in a higher chance of problematic practices remaining under the radar [75]. Therefore, actors involved in the elite athlete's sports environment should emphasise focusing on the person behind the athlete: the athlete-centred approach.

#### *2.3.6 Tunnel vision on sports and isolation*

The last two at-risk factors to experience sexual violence in sports are athletes who set aside everything for their performance and athletes who are (socially) isolated. Once athletes are performing sports on a higher competition level, it is more likely for their lives to become unbalanced compared to peers performing sports on a lower level. This is due to particular sacrifices the athlete and their family are making for the athlete to be able to perform on this level [74]. In other words, the athlete sets aside everything for their performance. However, the danger about this is to be placed in

*The Psychology of Resilience: Empowering Athletes with a Potential Risk of Experiencing Sexual… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113960*

a one-dimensionality context: solely their sports. This can result in diminishing, for example, educational goals and social relationships [76]. The situation can worsen once the coach is taking over the role of a parental figure, resulting in the athlete's isolation from their family. Once an athlete's personal life is infiltrated in this manner, the chance of experiencing sexual violence becomes greater given the presence of opportunity [15, 77]. These problematic practices in sports can be normalised by actors performing techniques of isolation, such as sessions behind closed doors, a lack of friendships outside the sports (e.g., resulting in the impossibility of comparing 'normal' behaviours with peers) and the creation of a culture of silence and retribution [78]. *Via* these ways, opportunities for sexual violence to occur are risen.

#### **2.4 In summary**

Through the biopsychosocial profile, potential risk factors of athletes experiencing sexual violence in sports are identified. By elaborating on and understanding the possible origin of these risk factors, insights can be taken into account in developing preventive strategies, as well as supporting existing (non-disclosed) victims of sexual violence. By creating awareness of risk factors *via* this profile, future measures should require to make athletes more resilient to protect them from experiencing sexual violence. With this, it is important to note the need for research to gain more (substantial) support for cause-effect relationships of the above risk factors. Additionally, the risk factors of this profile could be correlated with each other (e.g., agreeableness with altruism, gender with sexual identity, attachment with incest and tunnel vision with elite sports). The next part focuses on empowering athletes stimulating their resistance and preventing them from becoming a victim of sexual violence. First, a general explanation of resilience is given. Hereafter, protective factors for empowering athletes will be discussed. Finally, the chapter ends with an existing intervention aiming to create a safe sports climate protecting athletes from experiencing sexual violence.

#### **3. The psychology of resilience**

For decades, the definition and operationalisation of resilience have been disputed [79], and as a result, scholars have written extensively about this psychological construct. The concept of resilience emerges from developmental psychology [80–82] and focuses on how individuals and communities overcome adversities and trauma [83]. More specifically, resilience is associated with human developmental processes that increase a person's sense of well-being when encountering adversities [84, 85] such as positive life outcomes by actively focusing on engagement, purpose and perseverance [84]. Resilience is, thus, a dynamic process influenced by multiple temporary related elements [86].

#### **3.1 Psychological resilience**

Resilience is not about *whether* an individual encounters adversity, but it is about *how* one deals with this adversity. The *how* is about 'the role of mental processes and behaviour in promoting personal assets and protecting an individual from the potential negative effect of stressors', called psychological resilience ([80], p. 675), ([81], p. 16). It is, thus, about various psychological processes influencing one's

resilience. The first and most well-known and discussed process of being resilient is that of 'recovery', meaning people can bounce back after being negatively influenced by a stressor [84]. The idea centres around individuals who eventually experience well-being in the face of adversity. Therefore, it is a process that involves negative experiences and stress, and the extent to which people respond and recover following onset. Resilient people show a shorter recovery period wherein they quickly regain equilibrium in psychological aspects of life [84]. Like the pathway of recovery, but different in the outcome, is the pathway of 'growth'. Whilst recovery argues for people to 'bounce back', the concept of growth implies that people function even better than they did before encountering the stressor [87]. As such, the adversity eventually leads to increased well-being and better overall functioning in life. It can be imagined that this construct of growth is a desirable outcome when facing adversity. Finally, the equally important concept of 'sustainability' entails that people remain stable and healthy after being exposed to stressors [88]. So, in contradiction with recovery and growth, people do not experience major distress in their lives and instead remain stable. For instance, they can maintain social relations in the same way as before a stressful event. This pathway entails the sustainability of values and goals while being confronted with acute and chronic difficulties [89, 90]. In other words, sustainability refers to the ability individuals possess to maintain their physical and mental health despite constantly changing circumstances marked by potentially threatening challenges. Altogether, someone's resilience can, thus, be cognitively different with various personal outcomes. However, what is influencing these differences in resilience?

#### **3.2 The role of protective factors in resilience**

During the transition from childhood into adulthood, an individual's resilience keeps developing through emerging opportunities and vulnerabilities within the personal environment [91]. This is not only a very dynamic and challenging period but it can also be very influential in altering the life course. According to Fergus and Zimmerman [92], understanding healthy development during these years is crucial for fostering resilience by focusing on strengths (i.e., protective factors) rather than shortcomings (i.e., risk factors). Risk factors are putting the individual at risk and should be considered in a changing environment, such as resilience itself [93]. The presence of protective factors can either help towards a positive outcome or diminish the negative outcome of adversities resulting from risk factors [94, 95]. In other words, protective factors counterbalance risks and lead to positive outcomes. Protective factors can be both assets (i.e., positive individual characteristics such as competence, coping skills and self-efficacy) and resources (i.e., positive external factors such as parental support, adult mentoring or community organisations that promote positive youth development) [92]. Importantly, the culturally sensitive aspect of protective factors — and specifically the resources contributing to empowering individuals and increasing their resilience should be emphasised. Reid et al. [96] stated that the individual's culture and context shape the exhibition of an individual's resilience. Similarly, society's understanding of resilience, based on social norms, can have detrimental impacts on marginalised people or groups, such as racial minorities. Cultural norms surrounding the individual should be considered in determining protective factors of resilience. Therefore, resilience should be seen as a process that fits the individual's needs to heal and not society's needs.

*The Psychology of Resilience: Empowering Athletes with a Potential Risk of Experiencing Sexual… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113960*

#### **3.3 Resilience in sports: Empowering athletes**

So far, in the field of sports, resilience has been studied regarding sport performance. These studies focused on understanding psychological processes to overcome adversities in sports performance [e.g., [82, 83]]. However, the presence of resilience to prevent or overcome the darker side of sports — experiencing sexual violence remains limitedly explored. In the past decade, researchers in this field focused on identifying the prevalence of sexual violence in sports around the world and provided insights into possible risks resulting in sexual violence. However, they explicitly focused on the role of the coach and the sports environment as risk factors and are, therefore, missing an — if not the most — important aspect of safe sports: the athlete. The identified risk factors of the biopsychosocial profile by Van Voorthuizen et al. [16] that are discussed above, fill this gap by applying the athlete-centreed approach.

#### *3.3.1 Empowerment as a protective asset*

In line with this athlete-centred approach, athletes can be empowered through personal characteristics — functioning as protective assets — to either prevent the occurrence of sexual violence or to overcome the consequences of these experiences. Existing interventions have shown the successfulness of competence, selfefficacy and prosocial norms as elements stimulating positive youth development [95, 97–100], and thus, empowering them. Therefore, these empowerment elements are placed as protective factors in the context of sexual violence in sports.

The first protective factor, competence, entails the experience of mastery and effectiveness in one's activities, including both social and physical abilities [63] and can be developed through obtaining new knowledge, skills and/or attitudes. It is a central component of self-concept (i.e., the perception of themselves) and provides the athlete with insight into their ability [101]. Given our focus on psychological resilience, we view competence in the light of social abilities. Athletes can be empowered by increasing their competence to become aware of sexual violence either as a prevention measure or by contributing to earlier disclosure of sexual violence. By obtaining new knowledge and attitudes about — for example, (unfolding) sexual violence practices to be recognised by the athlete, or what to do after sexually violent experiences — the athlete's empowerment is strengthened. Simultaneously, an athlete's competence is counterbalancing the risk factor of self-esteem given their close relatedness.

The second protective factor is self-efficacy. It entails an individual's belief in their capacity to behave in a certain way to attain specific goals or have an influence on their environment [102]. It is their self-belief resulting in feeling capable of dealing with internal (e.g., blaming thoughts) and external demands (e.g., taking physical action). Self-efficacy as a preventive measure for sexual violence can be formed by skills training (e.g., decision-making skills). Through skills training, they obtain a secure feeling of their ability. Additionally, after experiencing sexual violence, athletes will believe in being able to cope with adversities (e.g., getting their life back together) when self-efficacy is a coping mechanism [103]. As a result, self-efficacy can also counterbalance the risk factor of self-esteem given the subjective aspect of this concept as mentioned before.

The third and last protective factor is the athlete's social norms. These are rules and guidelines about how one is expected to behave in a particular social context. It is, thus, a powerful tool to shape behaviour. Knowledge gained from social norms in sports contributes to the acceptability of the occurrence of these events. To establish safe sports — and thus, not accepting sexual violence — prosocial norms must become the standard in this environment. Prosocial norms are a subset of norms focusing on healthy, positive, ethical and prosocial standards [104]. Forms of prosocial norms often included in interventions are reciprocity, responsibility, volunteerism and altruism [105]. Theoretically seen, prosocial norms can counterbalance risk factors such as the pressure to perform, imbalances of power, isolation and altruism. Through the establishment of these prosocial norms, athletes become (more) aware of unacceptable behaviour in sports. Altogether, these elements empower athletes to prevent themselves from sexual violence or serve their recovery, growth or sustainability as their psychological resilience.

#### *3.3.2 Social support as a protective resource*

Social support is an external resource contributing to the resilience of an athlete. Social support can be manifested in diverse ways through its structure (i.e., the size, extent and frequency) and functionality (i.e., the perceived helpfulness and the quality) [106]. It has been found as a key protective factor functioning in two ways. It is associated with recovery, growth or sustainability after experiencing sexual violence [107]. If an athlete experiences sexual violence, the content of social support to overcome this adversity can differ. Some athletes might have needs to be fulfiled through emotional support (e.g., being loved or respected after experiencing sexual violence), and others might need material support (e.g., services to help with practical problems, such as an STD exam) or cognitive support (e.g., information sufficiency to cope with adversities provided by a local organisation). All these different forms of social support can be obtained by multiple systems, including relationships with family members, friends or other actors within the community [108–110]. For example, parents bonding with their child after experiencing child sexual abuse is powerful in fostering resilience and preventing re-victimisation [111]. Similar effects have been found through the support of fellow survivors. The empathy and belief of other survivors of sexual violence promote resilience in coping with daily life by reducing feelings of isolation, regaining self-esteem and restoring the capacity to maintain and build relationships [112, 113]. All these actors in the social network of the survivor are crucial to the resilience process of the victims to rebuild trust and feel safe again to restore from the violent experience. On the other side, the presence of social support can result in positive outcomes: prevention of sexual violence. Existing literature identified positive parental monitoring [108, 111] and social support from peers [108] as protective factors that decrease the risk of experiencing sexual violence in the first place. From a social learning perspective, an athlete's familial context contributes to the acceptability of (sexual) violence. Violence will not be normalised by the athlete if the athlete has been raised with beliefs about not tolerating violence. Next to this, forms of positive parental monitoring — such as effective discipline, open communication and knowledge of the athlete's activities — reduce risks, and thus, serve as a protective factor. When considering these social protective factors, it must be noted that there are other possible protective factors within the (sports) environment of an athlete given the scientific underexposure of resilience to sexual violence in sports. Based on insights gathered from the identified risk factors of Van Voorthuizen's biopsychosocial profile [16], additional protective factors could be identified in future research. For example, coaches educated about sexual violence, a confidant in a sports club, the presence of parents during practices, or a support organisation, such as the

*The Psychology of Resilience: Empowering Athletes with a Potential Risk of Experiencing Sexual… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113960*

Centre of Safe Sports in the Netherlands [114]. However, the actual potential of these protective factors is yet to be determined by research.

#### **4. Interventions and future recommendations**

Whilst altering the vulnerabilities of athletes at risk of sexual violence might be complex, it is valuable to make use of interventions focused on enhancing protective factors. In these interventions, it is important to make use of the existing assets and resources of an athlete and their social environment and increase those [115]. Additionally, to counterbalance possible existing risk factors of athletes with protective factors, interventions should aim to reduce risk factors by focusing on clusters of behaviour as opposed to specific problems. In other words, the athlete at risk and actors in their sports environment should be viewed as holistic and targeted in these interventions. As resilience builds up from childhood and develops further in adulthood, resilience may be fostered among children and young adults through interventions [116]. Due to the complex nature and dynamics of risk and protective factors, it is desirable to prevent risks by intervening in early childhood [95]. Intervening in the resilience capacity of athletes from an early age is — theoretically seen — easy to establish given the number of opportunities since a lot of children become active in sports at a young age. With this, it is important to prevent early interventions from causing (young) athletes to think they are the issue of being at risk of experiencing sexual violence. The goal of these interventions is to change the standards of the sports environment in which athletes participate in sports. In other words, the climate in sports should be developed on a pedagogical base to positively contribute to the athlete's health, well-being and social cohesion in which resilience can be (further) developed. Once a positive athlete-centred climate is present, athletes can participate in sports with a caring and safe foundation. Ultimately, the climate serves as a protective factor for at-risk athletes experiencing sexual violence in sports.

#### **4.1 Youth sports compass**

The darker side of sports is not only formed by experiences of sexual violence. Unfortunately, the scope of the issue is broader since physical and emotional violence also takes place in sports [e.g., [32]]. Currently, the emphasis in sports is too much on performance and winning. Therefore, transgressive behaviours — such as sexual violence — are likely to occur due to actors in sports viewing the athlete as their 'product'. In other words, the athlete reflects national pride and boosts the coach's ego (e.g., 'This is because of me') after being successful. However, sports should provide (youth) athletes with a great opportunity to develop in many ways. Thus, it is necessary to steer in the present sports climate from a performance culture (focus on winning) towards a performance culture in which the athlete's holistic development is central.

The youth sports compass is a framework developed by Schipper-van Veldhoven et al. [117], aiming to improve youth sports as a strong developmental context for youth athletes2 . It is developed to provide a safe sports environment for youth athletes to be implemented by sports clubs in close collaboration with proximate professionals for further support (e.g., municipalities). The compass contains a holistic approach by focusing on the micro, meso and macro levels of the sports community, as well as all possible

stakeholders. The base of the compass is formed by theoretical principles4 [118], and it contains four pillars (see **Figure 2**<sup>5</sup> ): caring, motivational, developmental and social safety. First, through the caring pillar, actors in sports clubs contribute to the children's feeling of need to belong by caring for them and acknowledging their worthiness. As an example, social support can be created by building a community by fostering the 'wefeeling' among the group of athletes by communicating in terms of 'we' to them. Second, the intrinsic motivation and the pleasure of sports participation of youth athletes can be increased through the motivational pillar. One way to contribute to this is if actors within sports clubs (e.g., a coach) apply positive coaching: encourage and support them by emphasising their accomplishments. Third, the developmental pillar is fulfiled once exercises and activities are adjusted to suit the athlete's performance level. By keeping an eye on the developmental process of the athlete (as opposed to winning and achieving), performance and personal development in the best interest of the youth athlete can be balanced. Lastly, and most importantly, transgressive behaviours (such as sexual violence practices) are prevented if the socially safe pillar of the compass is applied in daily practices at sports clubs. Emphasising sportsmanship and respect for interactions with actors in their social environment is important. For instance, being a behavioural example positively influences the athletes' attitudes towards others.

Altogether, the youth sports compass can be of help in determining the course of sports clubs towards a positive and safe sports climate providing protective factors for athletes at risk of experiencing sexual violence. Through this compass, the (pro)social norms of an athlete's sports environment are reset and serve as a protective factor. Through an (active) implementation of actions within the compass pillars, an athlete's awareness of transgressive practices increases, contributing to an increase in competence and possibly self-efficacy as well. Simultaneously, the social support system of an athlete is increasing given the holistic approach of the youth sport compass. Ultimately, physical movement is not the only learning method for athletes anymore: athletes are stimulated in their social and mental development as well.

<sup>4</sup> More insight about the theoretical substantiation of this compass can be obtained through this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDvKBFEnSuM.

<sup>5</sup> More insight about the working method of the compass can be obtained through this video: https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=XHiIJIQ5COE.

*The Psychology of Resilience: Empowering Athletes with a Potential Risk of Experiencing Sexual… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113960*

#### **5. Conclusion**

The mindset of many actors in the sports community has changed towards demanding higher criteria for the guidance of youth in sports. Therefore, it is now the time to gain further understanding of the risk factors in the biopsychosocial profile, as well as protective factors for athletes at risk of experiencing sexual violence. By identifying these factors, athletes are centred on becoming resilient towards adversities that could be faced while participating in their sports. Ultimately, empowered athletes and increased social support contribute to creating a safe sports environment for athletes.

### **Conflict of interest**

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

### **Author details**

Marleen Haandrikman1,2\*, Annemiek Fokkens1 , Miriam Oostinga1 and Nicolette Schipper-van Veldhoven1,2

1 University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

2 Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, Zwolle, The Netherlands

\*Address all correspondence to: m.j.m.haandrikman@windesheim.nl

© 2023 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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### *Edited by Patricia Snell Herzog*

This edited volume investigates young people within their social contexts. The focus is on engaging young people as they transition from youth into young adulthood. Key advantages of this book are its embodiment of interdisciplinarity in gathering research across a range of diverse methods, theories, settings, and countries. The volume begins with reviews of key theories and methods in understanding young people within their social networked contexts of generosity, networks, identity, and ethnic heritage. The second section includes chapters attending to education and work as contexts for transitions to adulthood, counseling, meaning, and aesthetics from high school to college and into workplaces. The third section includes chapters studying community engagement and the well-being of young people, including social support, meaning in life, religiosity, spirituality, stress coping, yoga, and sports. The diverse topics addressed in this edited volume are generosity, philanthropy, voluntary action, social networks, social identity, personhood, ethnic heritage, postcolonialism, intersectionality, personality, lived experiences, informal economy, sustainability, pandemic, family support, educational counselors, motivation, "Not in Education, Employment, or Training" (NEET), everyday aesthetics, built environment, generativity, community, adult allies, youth engagement, life satisfaction, spiritual identity, religious affiliation, stress, practicing yoga, sexual violence, athletes, sports climate, pressures to perform, resilience, and neurodiversity. Disciplines span economics, business, education, sociology, psychology, medical science, geography, journalism, architecture, engineering, science and technology, and applied sciences. Methods include quantitative surveys, qualitative in-depth interviews, life course biographies, ethnographic case studies, bibliometric analysis, and integrative reviews. Young people are investigated across thirteen countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Yemen, Ghana, Bahrain, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Canada, Romania, and the Netherlands.

*Katherine K.M. Stavropoulos, Education and Human Development Series Editor*

Published in London, UK © 2024 IntechOpen © NeoLeo / iStock

The Social Contexts of Young People - Engaging Youth and Young Adults

IntechOpen Series

Education and Human Development,

Volume 11

The Social Contexts

of Young People

Engaging Youth and Young Adults

*Edited by Patricia Snell Herzog*