A call for policy guidance on psychometric testing in doping control in sport

'Clean athlete status' cannot be certified: Calling for caution, evidence and transparency in 'alternative' anti-doping systems

Athletes, sponsors and sport organisations all have a vested interest in upholding the values of clean sport. Despite the considerable and concerted efforts of the global anti-doping system over two decades, the present system is imperfect. Capitalising upon consequent frustrations of athletes, event organisers and sponsors, alternative anti-doping systems have emerged outside the global regulatory framework. The operating principles of these systems raise several concerns, notably including accountability, legitimacy and fairness to athletes. In this paper, we scrutinise the Clean Protocol™, which is the most comprehensive alternative system, for its shortcomings through detailed analysis of its alleged logical and scientific merits. Specifically, we draw the attention of the anti-doping community - including researchers and practitioners - to the potential pitfalls of using assessment tools beyond the scope for which they have been validated, and implementing new approaches without validation. Further, we argue that whilst protecting clean sport is critically important to all stakeholders, protocols that put athletes in disadvantageous positions and/or pose risks to their professional and personal lives lack legitimacy. We criticise the use of anti-doping data and scientific research out of context, and highlight unintended harms that are likely to arise from the widespread implementation of such protocols in parallel with - or in place of - the existing global anti-doping framework.

Australian athletes' knowledge of the WADA Prohibited Substances List and performance enhancing substances

BACKGROUND

This study investigated athlete knowledge of the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited Substances List and the effects of four well-known performance enhancing substances (PES).

METHODS

A sample of 1925 elite and sub-elite athletes (mean age 20.6 years) completed a questionnaire about the banned status of 30 substances/methods and their knowledge of the effects of amphetamines, anabolic steroids, growth hormone and erythropoietin.

RESULTS

Athletes showed limited understanding of the WADA Prohibited Substances List, scoring 32.2% correct, 36.3% incorrect, and 31.4% indicated they did not know the status of 30 substances. Responses of >50% correct were given for only eight substances/method: anabolic steroids, amphetamines, blood doping, erythropoietin, caffeine, vitamins/minerals, protein powders and iron. Athletes demonstrated moderate knowledge of the desired effects of the four PES (49% correct), but poor knowledge of their adverse effects (29% correct). Age, sex, ethnicity, professional/amateur status, and current competition level were significant predictors of the number of correct responses (r² = 0.16, p < 0.05). Athletes most likely to provide correct responses were male, 19-22 year-olds, Caucasian, professional and international representatives.

CONCLUSION

This comprehensive study of anti-doping demonstrated that Australian athletes had limited knowledge of a wide range of substances and PES. Better targeted drug education towards younger and non-professional athletes and evaluation of current anti-doping programs are warranted.

Influences of perfectionism and motivational climate on attitudes towards doping among Korean national athletes: a cross sectional study

BACKGROUND

The motives for elite athletes to dope are related primarily to maintaining and improving their physical performance. Especially, elite athletes training to compete in the Olympics may feel unique situational pressure, which may in turn induce powerful motivation for doping and predict doping behavior. This study aimed to investigate possible factors associated with attitudes towards doping in Korean national athletes who competed in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

METHODS

A total of 198 athletes (95 female, 103 male) completed the questionnaire, which covered demographic information, doping-related experiences, Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale (PEAS), Perfectionism in Sports Scale (PSS; coach's criticism, concern over mistakes, and personal standards), and Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire-2 (PMCSQ-2; ego-involving and task-involving climates). Pearson's correlation coefficients were used to identify correlations among PEAS, PSS, and PMCSQ-2 scores, and stepwise multiple linear regression was performed to investigate possible factors significantly associated with attitudes towards doping.

RESULTS

The coach's criticism of PSS was slightly or weakly related to the concern over mistakes of PSS and the ego-involving climate of PMCSQ-2, respectively. And the concern over mistakes sub-scale of perfectionism was related to attitudes towards doping, but weakly.

CONCLUSIONS

Effective anti-doping policy should meet athletes' perfectionism, and more studies that identify other factors that influence athletes' doping attitudes are needed.

Health Psychological Constructs as Predictors of Doping Susceptibility in Adolescent Athletes

BACKGROUND

Doping is a highly relevant problem in sport, even in adolescent athletes. Knowledge of the psychological factors that influence doping susceptibility in young elite athletes remains sparse.

OBJECTIVES

This study investigated the predictive potential of different health-psychological constructs and well-being on doping susceptibility. The main hypotheses to be tested were positive associations of fear of failure, external locus of control, and ego-oriented goal orientation as well as negative associations of confidence of success, task orientation, internal locus of control, and performance motivation with doping susceptibility. Low levels of well-being are furthermore expected to be associated with doping susceptibility.

METHODS

Within this cross-sectional study, 1,265 Austrian junior athletes aged between 14 and 19 years responded to a paper-pencil questionnaire.

RESULTS

Performance motivation was a negative, while depressive mood, self-esteem, fear of failure and ego-oriented goal orientation were positive predictors of doping susceptibility. In addition, participants who were offered performance enhancing substances in the past were particularly susceptible to doping.

CONCLUSIONS

The study corroborates the predictive value of classical psychological constructs in doping research, initially analyzed in view of adult athletes, also for adolescents' doping susceptibility.