Wrestling with Morality: A Study on Moral Identity and Social Behavior in Individual Sports
Year: 2026
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The development of moral reasoning and social behavior in adolescents and young adults is critical to healthy functioning. Sport participation is frequently assumed to promote positive developmental outcomes; however, the moral implications of participation in combative sports such as wrestling remain debated. Wrestling differs from many team and individual sports due to its physically dominant and one-on-one competitive structure, raising questions regarding how involvement may relate to moral identity, moral disengagement, and social behavior. The purpose of this exploratory quantitative study was to examine associations among moral identity, moral disengagement, and prosocial and antisocial behavior in adolescent and young adult athletes who participate exclusively in individual sports. Other variables of interest included years of participation in wrestling, gender, and sport type (combat or non-combat) whether they predicted variation in moral and behavioral constructs. Fifty-three participants included adolescent and young adult individual sport athletes between the ages of 12 and 22. Correlational and multivariate analyses were conducted to examine relationships among variables. Moral disengagement demonstrated a significant positive association with antisocial behavior in sport. Moral identity was not significantly related to antisocial behavior and showed only a small, non-significant association with prosocial behavior. Years of participation in wrestling and sport type did not significantly predict moral identity, moral disengagement, or social behavior. Gender differences emerged for moral disengagement and antisocial behavior, with female wrestlers reporting lower levels of both. These findings suggest that cognitive mechanisms used to justify behavior may play a more central role in antisocial conduct than moral self-concept alone. The results contribute to ongoing discussions regarding the developmental implications of participation in combat sports and provide groundwork for future research examining moral processes and behavior in individual sport contexts.
Author: Ybarra, Julia Isabella
Institution: University of Northern Colorado
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7212096156