Master' student S. Tewari¹
Master' student A.S. Gonashvili¹
Dr.Sc.Soc., Professor M.V. Sinyutin^{1, 2
1}St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg
²Sociological Institute RAS, St. Petersburg

Keywords: opinion poll, sociological survey, doping, sport, Saint Petersburg residents.

Background. The problem of doping is getting more urgent in the sporting life of the modern society. Many experts see it as part of a more general problem of today's society, seeking to increase the productivity of human activity, to maximize achievements (Hoberman, 2009). So this issue should be studied in the context of the complex inclusion of sport in the system of social relations.

The relational approach (White, 2008; Crossley, 2010; Donati, 2011; Gonashvili, 2015; Sinyutin, Karapetyan, 2015) can be used to identify the social configuration of a sport where the importance of society goes beyond the passive external environment and forms the active role of the relationship of mutual construction. As a result, attitudes and relations formed by society are realized in the social space of sport. On the other hand, knowledge of the processes of public opinion formation makes it possible to foresee the directions of its development.

Since the important structural complexes of public opinion in the country are big cities, it was decided to refer to the study of public opinion in Saint Petersburg as an example. The attitudes and positions of citizens regarding the problem of doping in sports are considered to be significant components of the social structure of relations, which construct both the sports culture and the configuration of doping practices.

The objective of the study was to determine the structure of perception and interpretation of the problem of doping in modern sports by the Saint Petersburg residents.

Methods and structure. To solve the problems of this article, the authors had analyzed the results of a telephone survey of Saint Petersburg residents performed in December 2017 by a method of personal standardized interviewing on a computer system for telephone interviewing «CATI». The general aggregate for this study was the adult population (18 years and older) of Saint Petersburg. The number of respondents totaled 1,000 people. The sample was quoted stratified. The parameters under study were gender, age, proportion of respondents with higher education, area of residence. The representativeness of the sample is ensured by random selection of phone numbers from the complete area array of phones of Saint Petersburg residents.

Study results and discussion. Confirmed earlier repeatedly revealed the fact that the Saint Petersburg residents consider health highly important. We managed to find that the majority of Petersburgers dismiss the possibility of risking their health for the sake of success in some sport. 58.1% of the surveyed residents definitely dismiss a possibility of sacrificing their health for the sake of sports achievements; 16,3% rather dismiss this possibility; a 13.4% rather admit such a possibility, and only 9.2% definitely admit it. Men, young people, and less educated citizens are much more loyal to the health risk. Typically, the approval of the risk for the sake of sports advance is most inherent to the citizens with minimal and maximum revenues.

It turned out that 77,4% of respondents are negative about the use of strength, endurance, reaction speed enhancing drugs by athletes, while 15,6% are positive about it. The dependence of answers on demographic parameters is noticeable, as well as a high index of the positive attitude of the military personnel (21.4%), which contrasts with the average value in other categories of respondents (9.7%). It was found that 79.0 % of respondents are negative about the use of doping in sports, and 7.7% are positive.

As seen from the study, the Saint Petersburg citizens mostly believe that it is unacceptable to justify the use of doping for any purpose, such as fame, prestige or money. 64.6% of respondents definitely do not justify the use of doping, 14.4% rather do not allow doping, 10.9% rather allow it and 7.3% definitely positive about using doping. Like in the case of risk, attitudes are most critical among elderly, more educated women and those representing polar positions in the income hierarchy.

Most respondents opposed the idea of allowing athletes to use any type of doping. 65,0% of respondents are highly negative about it, 16,5% - rather negative, 7,7% - rather positive, 6,9% - certainly positive about using doping. In the social structure of answers it is especially noticeable that men (9,9%) are often more positive about doping rather than women (4,6%), as well as citizens earning 10 times more than the subsistence minimum (15,0%) compared to those whose income corresponds to it (1,7%).

The most susceptible to doping sports named by the respondents were as follows: track and field athletics (47,7%), weightlifting (26,3%), skiing (25,4%), biathlon (16,7%), swimming (13,8%). It should be taken into account that when answering this question the respondents were to choose three sports that increased the percentages. Key social indicators showed a quite predictable slight variation of attitudes to particular sports.

Conclusion. Sociological survey has identified the trends of constructing the attitudes to doping in sports among Saint Petersburg residents. It has been observed that negative attitudes towards doping are increasing with age and education level, and women are more negative about it than men. The Saint Petersburg residents believe 5 sports are most susceptible to doping (athletics, weightlifting, skiing, biathlon, and swimming). Citizens’ attitudes are considered in the context of their impact on the considerations of athletes in decision-making. As a result, the construction of the negative attitude to the use of doping in the urban sports culture of Saint Petersburg has been proved.

References

1. Gonashvili A.S. Sistemno-relyatsionny podkhod k problemam sportivnoy morali i etiki Fair Play [Systemic-relational approach to issues of morals and fair play ethics in sport sports reserve athletes' training]. Fizicheskaya kultura: vospitanie, obrazovanie, trenirovka, 2015, no. 6, pp. 6-9.
2. Sinyutin M.V., Karapetyan R.V. Fenomen sporta v diskurse ekonomicheskoy sotsiologii [Phenomenon of sports in discourse of economic sociology]. Vestnik SPbGU. Ser. 12, no. 1, 2015, pp. 128-134.
3. Hoberman J. 50 let primeneniya dopinga i farmakologizatsiya povsednevnoy zhizni [50 years of doping and pharmacologization of everyday life]. Logos, 2009, no. 6 (73), pp. 134-146.
4. Donati P. Relational Sociology. A New Paradigm for the Social Sciences. London and New York: Routledge, 2011, 272 p.
5. Crossley N. Towards Relational Sociology. London: Routledge, 2010, 228 p.
6. White H.C. Identity and Control. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008, 456 p.

Corresponding author: gon.01.07.94@yandex.ru

Abstract

The study analyzes attitudes of the Saint Petersburg residents to doping in sports by an opinion poll and sociological analysis. Theoretically, the study was governed by the relational sociological approach to find the social mindsets in relation to the modern sports. The study was performed at Saint Petersburg Center of Sociological and Online Surveys in December 2017. The opinion poll and sociological data analysis found the doping-related attitude construction models in the sample. It was found that the negative attitudes to doping tend to grow with age and education level being normally more expressed in the female population. The sample named the track and field sports, weightlifting, skiing, biathlon and swimming as the most susceptible to doping disciplines. The sample mindsets were analyzed in the context of their effects on the athletes’ agendas; and it was found that the negative attitudes to doping are dominant in the urban culture of the Saint Petersburg residents.