ST. LOUIS A study of youth sports found evidence of cheating, taunting, even intentionally trying to hurt an opponent.

And the bad behavior wasn t limited to the kids. Some coaches admitted yelling at athletes even verbally abusing them, and some players said they were struck.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis, and at Notre Dame.

It involved 803 athletes ages 9 to 15, along with 189 parents and 61 coaches.

Results were recently published in the Journal of Research in Character Education.

There has been a hot debate in the news media about the overall quality of youth sport programs, but incredibly little research to support backers or detractors, said David Shields, an education professor at Missouri-St. Louis and one of the authors of the study. This study supports some of the views of each.

Among the findings: