Frequency of competition and aggression in professional ice hockey

The relationship between frequency of competition and aggression was examined in professional ice hockey. Data on the 9,318 aggressive incidents which occurred in 840 NHL games were collected from official game reports. Aggression in 345 intradivisional games, where teams played each other seven or eight times, was compared to that in 495 interdivisional games, where teams competed with each other only three times. The 13 measures of aggression were the subject-defined aggressive penalties (Widmeyer & Birch, 1978). Results of the MANOVA supported the hypothesis that when teams competed move frequently (intradivisional) there was move aggression (p<0.001) than when they competed less frequently (interdivisional). Univariate analyses revealed significant differences for fighting, roughing, cross checking, high sticking, elbowing, slashing, and charging (all p s<0.01). In addition, it was shown within both intradivisional and interdivisional competition that aggression increased as the number of meetings between the teams increased. Results were seen as supporting Sherif et al.'s (1961) intergroup conflict theory. Implications of the effects that unbalanced schedules have on aggression were discussed.