Doping prevalence among high School students in Ukraine: A study of knowledge attitudes and behaviour

Summary
It has been established that the doping prevalence in Ukraine might affect nearly 10 % of university students. Prevalence of doping varies greatly with level of sports’ results, kind of sports activity, and the aims of engaging in sport. Representatives of strength and cyclical kinds of sports are at a higher risk of doping prevalence. The opinion that using doping can lead to better sport results and development of muscles is widespread among Sports students, while Polytechnics students mostly consider that doping can improve appearance and increase muscles. In spite of the widespread opinion of doping pernicious effect on health, the opinion of athletes has an essential distinction from common beliefs. Sports-oriented students consider that doping does not impact on health negatively if it is used in a reasonable way. Among athletes the opinion that doping in small doses and in reasonable proportions would be beneficial is widespread. This study examined the attitude towards doping and behavior regarding doping amongst Ukrainian students.

Methodology
The sample consists of both Sports students and Polytechnics students. The first part of the study includes material of self-reported data of mass survey amongst students. The second part deals with focus groups’ interview materials in order to deeper investigate driving forces of doping behavior.

Results
Results suggest that doping use has some moral legitimacy among a significant number of athletes surveyed, and this point determines doping use. The motive of “necessity” looks like a mature explanation – an ideological scheme. One of the main reasons of doping use that athletes indicated was the self-affirmation motive, reaching high sport results, material welfare. A considerable proportion of students have lack of knowledge, in terms of side-effects, sources of information and testing procedure. A vast proportion of high performance athletes have admitted positive attitude towards doping. One of the main reasons to take a risk of using doping is an opportunity to have a compensation (tangible, social, ideological) for harm to health. This indicated that driving forces of doping behavior among sports students are mainly described by the self-affirmation motive, which in turn resulted in pecuniary component.

Significance for Clean Sport

The findings highlight a gap between policy and student behavior regarding doping. The evidence from these results may provide arguments for governing bodies and serve as a platform in creating educational programs for main stakeholders.