International exchange program highlights importance of fostering global academic collaborations

Jatta Muhonen’s research is focused on how well athletes are able to recognize and react to emotional abuse by coaches. The PhD student from the University of Helsinki was inspired to explore this topic following her personal experiences with synchronized skating and work as a performance psychology consultant.

Naturinda Emmanuel is a new graduate student in the Master of Health Informatics program at IHPME. (Submitted photo)

Story originally appeared in KPE News by Jelena Damjanovic

“I noticed that all the athletes that I’d worked with had experienced some form of abuse, especially emotional abuse by coaches,” says Muhonen, who spent a semester at the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education (KPE) at the University of Toronto last fall under the International Visiting Graduate Students (IVGS) program.

“However, the majority of them either did not recognize that what they had experienced was indeed emotional abuse or they accepted it as normal part of sports.”

Faced with a scarcity of academics in Finland who specialize in emotional or athlete maltreatment research, Muhonen decided to seek some external support for her work. She reached out to Associate Professor Ashley Stirling from KPE, who invited her to apply for the IVGS program and conduct part of her research at KPE.

“Of course, I leaped at the chance,” says Muhonen, who used her time at KPE to analyze the research data she had already collected in Finland and start writing her first research-based article, with input from Stirling.

“I had regular meetings with Ashley to plan my research and articles, as well as to contextualize them better.

“I loved these sessions with Ashley where we could be creative and discuss the research, make connections between findings and make plans for the future.”

Muhonen also attended a course by Professor Gretchen Kerr, Dean of KPE, where she was able to ask questions about safe sport and engage in meaningful discussions about the topic with her and other students in the course.

“During my time at KPE I learned a lot and was able to become a more confident researcher,” says Muhonen. “Making connections with the leading researchers of my field, as well as with fellow students, was the greatest aspect of my experience.”

Muhonen’s research established that a strong athletic identity may be a risk factor that can prevent athletes from both recognizing and reacting to emotional abuse by coaches. Specifically, she found that the higher the athletes’ athletic identity, the less likely they are to disclose or react to emotional abuse by coaches, and the more likely they are to experience and observe emotionally abusive coaching practices.

“As a result,” says Muhonen, “a well-rounded identity development is recommended for athletes, to help them recognize and react to abuse that they might face.

“Everyone working in sports environments has a responsibility to help athletes develop, foster and maintain more well-rounded identities, as this is something that has not traditionally been encouraged in sports, due to ‘old school’ ideologies that still persist in sport environments worldwide.”

In addition, she says, it’s important to create easily accessible, reliable and independent channels for reporting instances of violence in sports – something both Kerr and Stirling emphasize in their research. 

Muhonen enjoyed going to conferences with colleagues from KPE, attending a sport sociology conference in Ottawa the first week of her arrival to Canada. 

“I definitely dove straight into the deep end there,” she says.

She also highlights the friendships she made at U of T and praises the university for providing so many opportunities for foreign students to connect. 

Stirling says Muhonen’s fresh insights and unique perspective into safeguarding research have been greatly appreciated by the Safe Sport research lab at KPE, highlighting the value of fostering these kinds of international academic collaborations.

“Such international exchanges are crucial for our global university and offer invaluable experiences and opportunities for knowledge building and sharing for both visiting students and our team.”