Survey of adolescents’ attitudes to doping in sports

ˑ: 

PhD, Associate Professor E.G. Vershinin1
Dr.Sc.Soc., Professor V.V. Delaru1
1Volgograd State Medical University, Volgograd

Keywords: prohibited medications in sports, adolescents’ attitudes

Introduction. The issues of sports medicalization to enhance athletic performance in pursuit of excellence in sports have always been essential and never had a single valued solution concerning the use of permitted and prohibited performance-enhancing substances not only in views of athletes, but also in views of coaches, sports medicine physicians and sports officials [3, 4, 5]. That’s why, analysis of adolescents’ attitudes towards the use of prohibited medications is of particular interest as most adolescents actively engaged in athletics are informed about “sport and para-sports events” which they discuss with their peers, by the way, a particular group of adolescents achieves a great deal and considers sports as a future profession being the most prestigious one in this age group [2]. On the other hand, legal ethics concepts developing at the aged of 12-16 (partly under their peers’ influence) define mainly their future attitudes, beliefs and values, etc [1, 6].

Materials and methods. In the overall study of sports medicalization we surveyed 2069 adolescents (representative sample of 7th to 10 th grades students in Volgograd) to find out their attitude to the use of prohibited medications in sports. 935(45,2%) respondents were males, 1134 (54,8%) respondents were females. 1098(53,1%) respondents were teenagers aged 13-14( the 7th  to the 8 th grade students ); among them 488 (44,4%) were males and 610 (55,6%) were females. 971 (46,9%) respondents were adolescents aged 15-16(the 9th  to the 10 th grade students) ; among them 447 (46,0%) were males and524 (54,0%) were females. 1293 (62,5%) respondents engaged in athletics. Statistical analyses were performed with the use of statistical package “STATISTIСA” (StatSoft, Tulsa, USA, 2010). Pearson’s chi- squared test was applied to assess the significance of differences. Differences equal to p<0,05 were considered to be statistically significant.

Results and discussion. 15,6% of adolescents believed that not less than half of the athletes use the prohibited performance-enhancing substances  to pursuit of excellence in sports; 22,6%  of respondents pointed to 20-30% of athletes; 28,7%  of respondents pointed to about 10% of athletes; 18,0%  of respondents pointed only to some of athletes and 14,9% had difficulty in responding.

11,8% of adolescents endorsed the use the prohibited performance-enhancing substances  to pursuit of excellence in sports ( especially if it enhances performance  and a drug test won’t be performed in competitions). In the aged group mentioned above adolescents (13,6% among the age of 13-14 and 10,0% among the age of 15-16) (р=0,000535) held this view. At the same time, the gender factor was statistically reliable: 17,6% of male respondents and 7,2% (р=0,0001) of female respondents (in the13-14 age group - 21,4% of males and 7,4% of females (р=0,0021) and in the age 15-16 group - 13,5%  of males and 7,1%of females) held this view.

18,5% of  adolescents, mostly female adolescents, had some doubt about it; 20,6% of females and  16,0% (p=0,0001) of males correspondingly; in the13-14 age group - 21,0% of females and 18,2%of males; in the age 15-16 group - 20,2%  of females and 13,6% (p =0,0351) of males.  56,4% of respondents refuted permition to use the prohibited medications. Adolescents mostly at the age of 15-16 had this view (61,1% and 52,2% correspondingly in the age 13-14group (p =0,000535); the impact of gender factor was not revealed (13,3% had difficulty in responding).

So, adolescents consider the use of prohibited medications by athletes to be common in their practice and their attitude turned out to be as follows: positive in every nine, neutral in one third and negative in half of them. Male attitudes at the age of  13-14 turned out to be more positive (but in 3-4 years some of them will be aware of not permitting such way to pursuit of excellence in sports and that’s why, a negative attitude is seen more often at the age of 15-16).

Conclusion. The study showed that adolescents’ attitudes towards the use of prohibited medications are ambivalent: half of them possess a negative attitude, but a particular part supports it and a greater number doesn’t have any definite opinion. Most adolescents are latent to permission or prohibition of drug intake on the prohibited list, but the issue arises in case of actively engaging in athletics in pursuit of excellence in sports in lack  of performance-enhancing. Factual anomie, i.e. both absence of adolescents’ negative attitudes towards this deviate practice due to psychological peculiarities of adolescents and maximalism, weak comprehension of possible negative consequences in mid and long terms of negative consequences from their actions (for themselves also), unclear  moral and ethics principles in lower tolerance to asocial influence, results in positive solution on the use of performance-enhancing substances [1, 6],

References

  1. Avdulova T.P. Psikhologiya podrostkovogo vozrasta [Psychology of adolescence]. Moscow: Akademiya publ., 2012, 240 p.
  2. Vershinin E.G., Delaru V.V. Prestizhnost professiy kak refleksiya tsennostnykh orientatsiy podrostkov g. Volgograda [Prestige of professions as reflection of value orientations of adolescents in Volgograd]. Sotsiologiya goroda, 2014, no. 4, pp. 27-36.
  3. Vershinin E.G., Delaru V. V. Razreshennye preparaty v detskom sporte: rezultaty anketirovaniya vrachey sportivnoy meditsiny [Authorized drugs in children's sports: survey results of doctors of sports medicine]. Pediatricheskaya farmakologiya, 2015, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 485-487.
  4. Kukes V.G., Gorodetsky V.V. Sportivnaya farmakologiya: dostizheniya, problemy, perspektivy [Sports pharmacology: achievements, problems, perspectives]. Sportivnaya meditsina: nauka i praktika, 2010, no. 1 (1), pp. 12-15.
  5. Seifulla R.D., Gudivok Ya. S., Gorchakova N.A., Gunina L.M. Farmakologiya sporta [Sports pharmacology]. Kiev: Olimpiyskaya literatura publ., 2010, 640 p.
  6. Tolstykh N.N., Prikhozhan A. M. Psikhologiya podrostkovogo vozrasta [Psychology of adolescence] Textbook. Moscow: Yurayt publ., 2016, 408 p.

Corresponding author:

werschinin_eugen@list.ru

Abstract. In the overall study of sports medicalization we questioned 2069 adolescents (representative samplings of students from the 7th  to the 10 th grades conducted in Volgograd) to find out their attitude to the use of prohibited medications in sports. Statistical analyses were performed with the use of statistical package “STATISTIСA” (StatSoft, Tulsa, USA, 2010). Questionnaire from  the 7th  to the 10 th grade students showed that adolescents’ attitudes towards drug intake on the prohibited list turned out to be as follows: 56,4%had a negative attitude ; 11,8% had a positive attitude; 31,8% had a neutral attitude. Male respondents and respondents aged 13 -14 showed a more positive attitude towards drug intake on the prohibited list than respondents aged 15-16. Most adolescents are latent to permission or prohibition of drug intake on the prohibited list, but the issue arises under certain circumstances (enhancing athletic performance in pursuit of excellence in sports; absence of drug test in youth competition, even to achieve the sport of setting records, etc). Due to psychological peculiarities of adolescents and absence of adolescents’ negative attitudes towards this deviate practice the respondents endorse the use of performance-enhancing substances.