Social Psychology of Doping in Sport: A Literature Review

Prof Susan Backhouse Institute of Sport, Physical Activity & Leisure

Backhouse, McKenna, Atkins & Robinson (2007)

Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs

Risk and protective factors

Models and theories Education/intervention programs

Review Focus

103 peer reviewed papers

“The evidence base undermines strategic planning and limits the

capacity to target appropriate and efficacious education programmes

to abate doping in sport”

years on

98%

63 records identified through

handsearching

15173 records identified through

database searching

9687 records after duplicates removed

9687 screened by title

419 screened by abstract

257 full-text articles assessed for

eligibility

204 records included

53 records excluded

162 records excluded

9268 records excluded

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

No.

of p

ublic

atio

ns

Year

Publication growth

27.2

6.06

Method expansion

Quantitative - Questionnaire

Quantitative – experimental

Qualitative - interviews/focus

groups

Mixed methods

Other

Behaviour Intention

Attitude

Subjective norm

Perceived behavioural

control

(Ajzen, 1985; Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980; Lazarus et al. 2010)

Self-regulatory efficacy

Personal morality/sportspers

onship

Drive for Muscularity/

Thinness

Supplement use

Motivation profiles

Anticipated regret

Willingness

Susceptibility

Doping avoidance

Situational temptation

Intentions Behaviour

Doping is a

complex behavior

Sample

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Elite Competitive Adolescents Athletesupport

personnel

Gym users General public

No.

of s

tudi

es

“Athlete Support

Personnel”

Coach / trainer

Manager

Agent

Team staff / official

Medical/paramedical personnel

Parent

Any other person working with, treating or assisting an

Athlete participating in

or preparing for sport

N ~3,893 7

1

3

9 mixed samples

✓ /x ✓

Assessing the true incidence of drug use in sport is problematic…

…athletes, support personnel and general public believe that doping is highly prevalent

7%

Michie, van Stralen & West. Implementation Science 2011, 6:42

Quantity and quality of studies

has increased

Absence of evidence limits

prevention planning

Methodological diversity

Programmes of research

Education/Interventions

Athlete support personnel

Cross-cultural

Global landscape

Clearer understanding of doping behaviour

emerging

Periods of instability

Integrated models

Threats to legitimacy

S.Backhouse@leedsbeckett.ac.uk

@susanbackhouse

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Carnegie Clean Sport Research Team