The aims of the project were:
1/ to diagnose attitudes of athletes toward doping and determine if they are influenced by athlete’s age, sex, and kinds of sports discipline practised (individual vs. team sports)
2/ to examine the relationship between goal orientations and attitudes toward doping
3/ to diagnose knowledge about doping among Polish athletes

Knowledge of the athletes about doping and anti-doping policy
Conclusions:
• Knowledge of Polish athletes concerning doping and anti-doping policy is unsatisfactory and its level is related to some socio-demographical variables, like gender, age, branch of sports discipline and length of sports career.
• Relatively better level of knowledge was observed in items concerning awareness of rights and duties of an athlete towards anti-doping controls
• Only minority of respondents drew their knowledge on doping from sources that could be regarded as reliable with reservation that internet which as the second in importance was not described in details (it can be a source of reliable knowledge promoted by anti-doping bodies, like the Polish Commission Against Doping in Sport, as well as source of web sites of doubtful value from the point of view of anti-doping policy)

Attitudes toward doping-free sport and anti-doping policy
Conclusions:
• Direction of attitudes of examined athletes was positive, however its strength is moderate, which calls for more education which should be focused not only on cognitive aspects doping and anti-doping policy, but also on its ethical issues including argumentation in aid of maintaining anti-doping policy.
• The most favourable was attitude toward anti-doping controls, the least - in attitude toward sanctions. This discrepancy was best illustrated by one of the athletes who expressed their opinion in the space provided: “Anti-doping controls should be more frequent but sanctions for taking performance-enhancing drugs should be eased”
• Attitudes turned out to be influenced by some socio-demographical variables, especially gender and age, and not by branch of sport, however, more research is needed in this respect.

Relationship between goal orientations and attitudes toward doping
Conclusions:
• A high task, low ego achievement goal orientation profile is most positively associated with attitudes toward doping and anti-doping policy.
• With increase in task orientation increase, while with increase in ego orientation decrease in strength attitude was observed.
• The results suggest that creating a motivational climate which promotes task orientation may be important not only for maintaining long term motivation toward practising sport and for sportpersonship, but also for attitudes toward doping and anti-doping policy

Social Psychology within the anti-doping area Baseline statistics and profiles of athletes’ attitude and knowledge An empirical presentation / Göran Svedsäter, Ingemar Wedman

An important objective of the project was to recognize if there are any special attitudes and knowledge profiles between the target groups.

Even though the selection and thereby the database became somewhat smaller than planned, the analyses reveal some interesting tendencies and finds.

The questionnaire confirms that significant differences exist in relation to the age groups junior and senior. This concerns all areas such as attitudes, subjectively experienced knowledge and what is regarded as important in relation to the fight against doping in sport.

In addition, it will be seen that ”region“ is significantly different in relation to most of the areas in the questionnaire. The clearest is the difference within ”personal knowledge” , in particular that Asia/Australia/New Zealand consistently score higher than the other regions.

It also appears from the questionnaire that ”gender” has no significance for how the respondents experience the various statements. This applies to all areas. The majority expresses a clear standpoint/attitude against use of doping in sport. In addition, there is distancing from the use of doping for shorter periods, even if the medical side effects are small. The respondents also express that even though the risk of being discovered is small, they would not use prohibited substances. In addition, the majority of athletes were not willing to use prohibited substances to become a well-known top athlete. In this context it is interesting that the group junior has a less clear anti –doping attitude than the senior group. It also appears that the group juniors has a less restrictive attitude to using doping as a one-off, and as a quick way to becoming well-known top athletes.

Even though the results indicate that the athletes have a clear attitude against doping it is both a concern and a challenge that there is still 10 – 15 % of the respondents who are of another opinion.

One of two athletes experience that the incidence of doping in sport is an increasing problem and that drug abuse in society has an impact on doping in sport. At the same time, approximately half express that attitudes in relation to doping can be influenced. This emphasises the necessity that the phenomenon doping should be both analysed and understood in relation to a sociological and social context.

Within ”personal knowledge” the results show that the group junior is experienced as having less knowledge in relation to all areas than the group senior. Concerning knowledge about doping controls and regulations, this can probably be explained by the fact that seniors have more experience as athletes.

In relation to knowledge about substances, negative effects, nutrition/supplements and not least ethics and fair play, it is disquieting that juniors experience having less knowledge in relation to these areas than seniors. This is a challenge since it is anticipated that knowledge about these areas can have a preventive effect on attitudes and any use of prohibited substances.

Within the area ”Fight against doping in sport” the respondents have given almost identical answers to the questions, and not assigned priorities to the various measures, as was the intention. Probably the respondents answered "how important it (generally) is to do something", and not how or which measures should be emphasised. This part therefore functions less adequately than desired, and has limited the possibility of analyses.

In spite of this, it appears from the material that many (70%) of the respondents express that doping controls both in competition and out of competition are very important for the future fight against doping in sport. The senior group states ”out of competition controls” as the most important measure.

The conclusion is that there exist differences between the age groups in many of the areas which are included in the questionnaire. Efforts should therefore be concentrated on increasing course / education offers for athletes, particularly in relation to the group juniors.

This study examined intermediate and high school students’ attitudes toward and behavior regarding steroids and sports supplements use with a sample of junior high school and high school students from Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island, New York. Behavior was measured by questions about respondents’ future steroid use, and current sports supplements use. Attitudes were measured through respondents’ reactions to whether it was appropriate for their peers and themselves to use steroids and sports supplements in a variety of corporeal situations, and the degree to which use of these substances impacted fairness and health issues. Respondents’ also decided whether the use of steroids and sports supplements was legitimate in three specific scenarios involving fictitious male and female high school students, and gave reasons for their decisions. The respondents’ answers and choices were described and assessed for the effect of gender and level of school (junior high school and senior high school). The effect of their clique identity on steroids and sports supplements attitudes and behavior was also assessed. The potential relationship between sports supplements and steroid use was described, and finally a profile presented of the respondents who predicted that they would be very likely to use steroids in the future.

The most consistent finding in the descriptive phase of the results was the negative reaction to steroid use by the great majority of respondents. Steroid use was perceived as inappropriate across all the descriptive measures, for respondents’ own behavior, the behavior of their peers, for specific fairness and health issues, and in the fictitious athletic and fitness scenarios. This rejection of steroid use was made independent of gender and level of school, although a small but statistically significant age effect was found. While some statistically significant male and female differences were found, these were differences of degree not differences in direction. Specifically, male and female participants never differed in their endorsement of steroid use (i.e., one group in favor and the other group against), only in the degree to which they felt that steroid use was wrong. Differences of degree also characterized the few differences between junior high school and high school participants. The negative attitudes about steroid use were also reflected in the clique analysis. This analysis showed some clique effects but no differences in direction. Members of the “jock” and “regular’ cliques expressed the most negative views about steroid use, while members of the “troublemakers” group expressed the least negative views.

The psychological and social factors of risk and protection vis-a-vis doping. A study among callers using a national anti-doping hotline "Ecoute dopage" = Les enquêtes épidémiologiques montrent que le dopage sportif est un phénomène massif en constante augmentation dans nos sociétés / Jean Bilard, J. Birouste, Gregory Ninot, A. Pastor, P. Salas

Nous avons vu qu’une politique de prévention du dopage doit s’attacher à connaître les raisons, les motivations, les comportements, les besoins, les attentes des acteurs et que pour cela, nous devions utiliser toutes les ressources disponibles.

Dans ce but, nous nous sommes proposé d’étudier les facteurs de protection psychosociaux vis-à-vis du dopage dans un corpus de données particulier constitué par les fiches d’entretiens téléphoniques du service « écoute dopage ». Nous avons choisi d’étudier les fiches des appelants adultes hommes non dopés et pratiquant les trois sports les plus représentés dans notre corpus: la musculation, le cyclisme et le football. Le contenu de chaque fiche a été interprété par deux chercheurs afin de dégager le ou  les facteurs de protection sous jacents référés dans la grille de cotation établie à partir des facteurs de protection psychosociaux vis-à-vis du dopage relevés dans la littérature et d’une pré-analyse des fiches d'écoute. Nous avons établi les occurrences de chaque
facteur en fonction de la population globale étudiée et pour les trois types de sports. Parcette recherche exploratoire quantitative et qualitative, nous espérions aboutir à des résultats originaux par rapport à ceux des études épidémiologiques.

Or nos résultats soulignent plutôt la prédominance de facteurs de protection classiques considérés par certains comme peu inefficaces. Notre étude confirme la prévalence du facteur « préoccupation pour la santé » comme protecteur vis-à-vis du dopage et donc l'importance de la prévention par ce canal. Les facteurs « respecter la loi », versant internalisé et «existence de contrôle par l’environnement », apparaissent comme bien plus importants que ne le décrit la littérature. Ils engagent les pouvoirs publics à poursuivre une attitude ferme (sanctions) et répressive (contrôles et investigations de la police). Nos travaux montrent par ailleurs que la "loi" sportive et sociale est un appui fort pour cadrer les conduites de santé même dans les milieux considérés comme peu sensibles (bodybuilders; cyclistes). Nous avons souligné quelques facteurs importants peu mentionnés dans la littérature comme l'attitude dubitative des sportifs vis-à-vis de la connaissance des médecins. Nous avons montré qu'il fallait développer la réflexion critique sur l'efficacité des produits et sur les conduites dopantes (balance risques / effets). Ce dernier point ouvre sur des actions de prévention telles que l'éducation à la santé, la mise en place de groupes de parole mais aussi sur des messages très spécifiques en fonction des sports pratiqués. Nous avons pu ainsi souligner le paradoxe des messages de prévention vis-à-vis des cyclistes axés sur les effets néfastes pour la santé des médicaments (corticoïdes) alors qu'ils en prennent pour rester en bonne santé. De la même manière nous avons vu de quelle façon les 33 anabolisants apparaissent pour les bodybuilders un excellent moyen de se donner une bonne image d'eux mêmes et donc de contribuer à leur santé mentale!

Notre recherche a surtout permis de distinguer des dynamiques différentes autour de la thématique du dopage et d'orienter les actions de prévention à partir du vécu et des représentations de la population sportive. Nous espérons enfin avoir ouvert des pistes de recherche pour des études cliniques complémentaires.

Facteurs bio-psycho-sociaux du dopage: etude a partir d'applants d'ecoute dopage  / Jean Bilard, J. Birouste, B. Goddard, D. Martinez, Gregory Ninot

Malgré une surexposition médiatique, le dopage est un phénomène social paradoxalement peu étudié et qui s’avère très hermétique aux chercheurs. Si tous les auteurs s’accordent à dire qu’il s’agit d’un véritable fléau à la fois sanitaire et social touchant les sportifs de tous niveaux, les résultats des travaux sur l’usage des produits dopants, aussi bien épidémiologiques que psychologiques, sont peu consensuels.

Cette faiblesse émerge probablement des règles et valeurs contradictoires du monde sportif (Mignon, 2002) qui promulgue à la fois la maxime « l’important c’est de participer » et la devise des jeux olympiques « citius, altius, fortius » qui pousse au dépassement des limites humaines et sociales et à l’utilisation de tous les moyens pour y parvenir.

Jusqu’aux années 1960, l’utilisation de substances permettant d’obtenir de meilleurs résultats ne faisait guère débat dans les rangs de la communauté sportive internationale. Les représentants des pouvoirs publics et institutions sportives ont alors tenté de réguler et limiter l’usage de produits visant à augmenter artificiellement les performances et considérés comme néfastes pour la santé par un cadre juridique. Les premiers contrôles antidopages ont vu le jour en application de la Loi n°65-472 du premier juin 1965 en France. Ainsi, du point de vue de la loi, est considérée comme « dopée » toute personne utilisant des procédés ou produits interdits qui figurent sur une liste déterminée par les pouvoirs publics, les institutions sportives, les institutions et ou organisations internationales. Néanmoins, n’est déclaré « dopé » que tout sportif ayant été contrôlé positif. La situation est donc très complexe puisqu’un athlète peut avoir une « conduite dopante » et ne pas être considéré juridiquement comme « dopé » dans la mesure où (1) il n’est pas « contrôlé positif » (« pas vu, pas pris »), (2) il est contrôlé hors du territoire (règles fédérales au pays), ou (3) il pratique une discipline sportive non réglementée.

Ainsi, la connaissance des facteurs précipitant la prise de produits ou procédés interdits n’apparaît possible qu’à partir d’athlètes détectés ou repentis, ce qui limite la compréhension d’un phénomène affectant un très large public de tout niveau de pratique.

Dans le cadre d’un contrat de recherche avec l’Agence Mondiale Anti-Dopage (AMA-WADA), l’objectif de l’étude est de montrer en quoi des sportifs « dopés » s’exprimant anonymement par la médiation du téléphone apportent une voie inédite etprobante pour la connaissance des facteurs précipitant la consommation de produits ou procédés interdits. Pour le Master 2 Recherche SMH, nous nous focaliserons sur trois disciplines majeures en terme de nombre de pratiquants et de consommateurs et en terme d’efficacité avérée des produits, la musculation, le cyclisme et le football.

La partie introduction présente, tout d’abord une revue de la littérature sur les vulnérabilités multifactorielles conduisant au dopage dans les trois sports étudiés, figure également les limites méthodologiques et théoriques des modèles explicatifs, et enfin la présentation d’un dispositif d’écoute dopage. Dans la seconde partie, nous aborderons la problématique et l’hypothèse de l’étude, suivra la méthodologie mise en place pour mettre à l’épreuve cette hypothèse. La présentation des résultats et la discussion qui en découle seront présentées dans les dernières parties du mémoire et nous verrons si nous pouvons valider ou non notre hypothèse de départ.

Background: The 'False Consensus Effect' (FCE), by which people perceive their own actions as relatively common behaviour, might be exploited to gauge whether a person engages in controversial behaviour, such as performance enhancing drug (PED) use.

Hypothesis: It is assumed that people's own behaviour, owing to the FCE, affects their estimation of the prevalence of that behaviour. It is further hypothesised that a person's estimate of PED population use is a reliable indicator of the doping behaviour of that person, in lieu of self-reports.

Testing the hypothesis: Over- or underestimation is calculated from investigating known groups (i.e. users vs. non-users), using a short questionnaire, and a known prevalence rate from official reports or
sample evidence. It is proposed that sample evidence from self-reported behaviour should be verified using objective biochemical analyses.

In order to find proofs of concept for the existence of false consensus, a pilot study was conducted. Data were collected among competitive UK student-athletes (n = 124) using a web-based anonymous questionnaire. User (n = 9) vs. non-user (n = 76) groups were established using self-reported information on doping use and intention to use PEDs in hypothetical situations. Observed differences in the mean estimation of doping made by the user group exceeded the estimation made by the non-user group (35.11% vs. 15.34% for general doping and 34.25% vs. 26.30% in hypothetical situations, respectively), thus providing preliminary evidence in support of the FCE concept in relation to doping.

Implications of the hypothesis: The presence of the FCE in estimating doping prevalence or behaviour in others suggests that the FCE based approach may be an avenue for developing an indirect self-report mechanism for PED use behaviour. The method may be successfully adapted to the estimation of prevalence of behaviours where direct self-reports are assumed to be distorted by socially desirable responding. Thus this method can enhance available information on socially undesirable, health compromising behaviour (i.e. PED use) for policy makers and healthcare professionals. The importance of the method lies in its usefulness in epidemiological studies, not in individual assessments.

The Development and Validation of a Doping Attitudes and Behaviour Scale / S. Guerin, K. Kirby, A.Moran

Athletes’ use of prohibited ergogenic substances for performance enhancement is a form of cheating behaviour which can jeopardise both their health and their careers. Given such importance, it is not surprising that the problem of drug-use in competitive sport has been widely studied. Unfortunately, research in this field has at least three obvious limitations. First, few studies have attempted to explain why athletes are willing to use these substances, given the risks involved (Anshel, 2005). Second, little effort has been made to understand the theoretical mechanisms underlying cheating/doping behaviour in athletes. Finally, there is a paucity of research on elite athletes’ attitudes to, and beliefs about, doping in sport. These oversights are unfortunate because antidoping measures cannot be fully effective unless they are based on solid evidence about why athletes (especially elite performers) engage in drug-taking in the first place. To address these gaps in the literature, the first phase of the present study examines the psychological variables underlying attitudes to drug use in sport.
To date, 375 high performance (HP) athletes have been surveyed on their attitudes to doping, and a number of relevant psychological variables have also been measured. Interesting findings have emerged on the perceived and reported incidence of doping in sport, athletes’ knowledge of doping substances and differences in attitudes between various demographic groups. Statistical results also show some significant relationships emerging between doping attitudes and psychological characteristics, including perfectionist tendencies and motivational variables. This is the first time an empirical investigation has examined such a multitude of relationships, and the results have guided the next stage of the research; a qualitative focus on the views of athletes
who have direct experience of doping.

Phase 2 of the study involved exhaustive searches of media reports, seeking athletes who publicly admitted to engaging in doping practices. Over a 30-month period, this list extended to almost 80 elite athletes who were identified as potential interview candidates for this qualitative phase of the research. Following the compilation of the list, efforts were made to contact these athletes through their national governing bodies, national anti-doping agencies, and journalists with whom they had spoken in the past.
However, this proved much more difficult than originally anticipated for two reasons:
(a) because it was not possible to obtain contact details for high profile athletes and
(b) because those who were contacted were not willing to partake in the research, despite assurances of anonymity and confidentiality. The sample size totals 4 athletes who have
admitted doping offences, but in light of the very limited number of potential participants and the sensitive nature of the research topic, this was a reasonable number from which to extract a thematic analysis. Interesting explorations of both the internal and external sources of influence on athletes’ doping practices emerged, along with more in-depth analysis of the psychological variables which may guide doping decisions.

The final stage of the research, the development and validation of a doping attitudes and behaviour scale (DABS) will be informed by findings from both the aforementioned quantitative and qualitative research studies.

Ablauf einer Kombikontrolle (Dopingkontrollfilm der NADA)

This video shows a doping control procedure in which an urine sample and a blood sample are obtained. The video is made by NADA Germany and Professional Worldwide Controls (PWC).

Psychological determinants of doping behaviour through the testimony of sanctioned athletes / Mattia Piffaretti

Objectives:
A) The main objective of the study is to gain knowledge about the psychological and psycho-social determinants of their doping behaviour, by interviewing sanctioned athletes.

B) Moreover, the investigation aims to assess how athletes experience the banning period, while identifying their specific needs. With such intelligence, the study aims to launch a new project encompassing:
1) PRIMARY PREVENTION: to enrich the prevention campaigns for young athletes with the testimonials of experienced athletes
2) SECUNDARY PREVENTION: to improve detection of psychological attitudes and risky behaviours in young athletes
3) TERTIARY PREVENTION: to contribute to the set-up of a prevention programme to decrease sanctioned athletes‟ relapse risk and to improve their chances for a sport and/or professional relocation

Summary: Current research indicates motivational orientations (Kleinert and Jüngling, 2007; Donahue et al., 2006), perception of sport‟s culture and attitude towards substance abuse (Ohl et Buissonneau, 2009) and obsessive passion (Vallerand et al., 2003) as possible psychological determinants of deviant behaviour in sports, and more particularly of athletes‟ substance abuse. In this study, 11 athletes who were condemned for their substance abuse by their national or international Federation, and were willing to speak out about their deviant behaviour, were interviewed through a theory-based interview guide. In particular, questions focused on the motivational orientations of the athletes, the perception they have about their environment, and the perception of the challenges like career transitions, injury or competitive pressure. Interview data were analysed sound qualitative research methods.

Main results: First of all, the study allowed to clarify the role of the athletes‟ awareness, sport transition, motivations, stress level and perception of anti-doping and ethical norms in their sporting environment, on the risk to violate the anti-dopoing code. Secundarily, it shed a light on the psychological and emotional reactions of the athletes who are banned from their sport for a long period, while throwing a light on their specific needs, to minimise risks of relapse or psychological distress.

The working sheet for:

Improving and Proving: A Handbook for the evaluation of anti-doping education programmes

Barrie Houlihan and Sarah Melville
Institute of Sport and Leisure Policy and Institute of Youth Sport,
Loughborough University, UK