Moral competence, dilemma discussion, and sports: unraveling the significance of framework, competitive level, and sporting experience

Background and Study Aim. Stimulation of moral development is one of the most important tasks of modern education. Findings of recent studies indicate its importance for sound development of a young person. Research Objective: Examine the impact of moral dilemma discussions, the level of competitiveness, and years of sports training (experience) on athletes' morality. Material and Methods. The research study was conducted by the diagnostic survey method and was based on a quasi-experimental design with experimental and control (CG) groups. A sample of 352 university students in sport and physical education-related faculties participated in the study. They were assessed using Lind’s Moral Judgement Test (MJT) and the Moral Judgement Test in Physical Education (MJT-PE). Results. There were no interaction effects between years of sport practice and levels of general moral competence in an overall group. However, in terms of the sport-specific domain of moral competence, there was a tendency towards statistical significance of an interaction effect (p=0.07) on the levels of moral competence. This was in addition to the main effect (p=0.001) that differentiated the experimental and control groups. The findings indicated that the experimental group scored significantly higher (p=0.0008) on MJT-PE C-index than their control group peers. This disparity can be attributed to the amateur sports students in the experimental group, who exhibited significantly higher levels of moral competence compared to their amateur counterparts in the control group (p=0.0022). Conclusions. This study underscores the positive impact of dilemma discussions on athletes' moral competence within the realm of physical education and sports. The findings strongly suggest that implementing structured dilemma discussions can significantly benefit amateur athletes. This emphasizes the critical importance of incorporating ethical deliberations into athletic training programs, especially for Physical Education and Sports educators.