EFFECTS OF TRASH TALK ON HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES

Abstract

Trash talk is a captivating, complex part of sports that is often overlooked. The purpose of this paper was to explore how trash talk affects high school athletes. 63 male and female high school athletes completed a survey containing both quantitative and qualitative questions examining how often they trash talked, how often they were the target of trash talk, how large of a role their peers played in teaching them how to trash talk, how often trash talk affected them in a negative way, how early they started using trash talk, and their purpose for using trash talk. Results revealed that high school athletes trash talk often, and they use it with a specific purpose (hinder their opponent’s performance/improve their own performance). They start using it from an early age (pre-adolescence), and they learn it primarily thanks to their teammates, parents, coaches, and professionals. Furthermore, trash talk experiences differ between gender, age, and sport played. Males, older athletes, and contact sport athletes have more experience trash talking than females, younger athletes, and non-contact sport athletes, respectively. Trash talk affects high school athletes in a negative way both on and off the field. Thus, trash talk has reached a level of normative acceptance and has both immediate and long-lasting negative effects on high school athletes, and it may harm their mental health. Competition in sport is now more than merely physical; trash talk enhances the mental component of sports beyond what it is thus far.