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We explored the relationships among locus of control, moral disengagement in sport, and rule transgression of athletes and whether or not moral disengagement mediates the relationship between locus of control and rule transgression. The participants were 462 athletes at a college in Taiwan. The instruments were the Sport Locus of Control Scale, the Moral Disengagement in Sport Scale, and the Rule Transgression Scale. The results revealed that a high external locus of control was positively related to moral disengagement in sport and frequent rule transgression. The relationship between locus of control and rule transgression was mediated by moral disengagement in sport. We suggest that athletes with an external locus of control should receive moral education to the end of enhancing the quality of sports contests and competitions through fewer rule transgressions and greater moral engagement.
Keywords: locus of control, moral disengagement, rule transgression, sport, athletes.
In ancient Greece, laureateship or the pursuit of victory was advocated as the main objective in sports contests and the importance of sportsmanship was stressed (Bizley, 1997). In their pursuit of victory and sense of achievement, people may rationalize violent or deviant misconduct, particularly in the sport context. This mechanism has been termed moral disengagement in sport (Boardley & Kavussanu, 2007). As defined by Bandura (1991), moral disengagement is a process of convincing oneself that ethical standards are merely applied in a particular context and one may separate moral reactions from misconduct by disabling the mechanism of self-condemnation (Fiske, 2004). Moral disengagement can be viewed as an individual's act of defending, displacing, or diffusing his or her responsibility for misconduct in order to protect his or her own character (Tsai, Lo, & Kuan, 2012).
Previous researchers have found moral disengagement to be frequently and closely associated with rule transgressions, such as drug abuse (Passini, 2012) and violence (Page & Scalora, 2004). In their research into moral disengagement in sport, Tsai et al. (2012) found higher levels of moral disengagement among rugby, handball, and basketball players than there were among individuals who played other sports. According to Silva (1983), athletes who played contact sports were more likely than athletes who played noncontact sports to believe in the legitimacy of aggressive behaviors in competition and tended to have higher levels of...