Coaches may help deter abuse among athletes

By Krystnell Storr NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Participating in a teen relationship abuse prevention program may equip and encourage high school coaches to intervene when they witness abusive behavior among athletes, according to a new study. The program, called Coaching Boys Into Men (CBIM), trains coaches to deliver 15-minute scripted discussions once a week during the athletic season. “The coaches gained as much from delivering the program as the athletes who received it,” said Maria Catrina D. Jaime, the study’s lead author from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania. Since coaches are important role models for youth, it is rewarding that they found the CBIM program easy to do during the sport season and felt that it added value for their athletes and coaching staff,” she told Reuters Health.