Personality traits, attitudes, and perceptions of legitimacy towards anti-doping programs among athletes

Summary: 

This project will examine the personality traits (Dark Triad), attitudes and perceptions of legitimacy towards anti-doping programmes held by athletes in selected sports in Kenya. The outcomes of this study may allow prompt identification of athletes who are at risk to doping due to their personality traits and attitudes towards doping and information gained may assist ADAK on where to direct resources in intelligence testing and anti-doping education for effective programming. 

 
Methodology

This project will be achieved through cross-sectional descriptive quantitative survey design among 399 athletes across seven (7) purposively selected counties in Kenya through disproportionate stratified random sampling.

Self-report questionnaire will be used for data collection regarding athletes’ personality traits using Dark Triad of Personality (SD3) Questionnaire and attitudes towards doping using 8-item modified version of the Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale (PEAS).

Athletes’ perceptions of legitimacy towards anti-doping programs will be collected through an adopted questionnaire from anti-doping work from the perspectives of the elite athletes in University of Gävle, Sweden. Data obtained will be analysed using SPSS Software. Descriptive values will be calculated and used to structure and summarise the data. Bivariate Correlation analysis will be calculated to determine the correlations between different variables. Differences between different variables will be explored using cross-tabulations and chi-square tests, augmented with logistic regression to analyse relationships. Thematic analysis will be performed by identifying themes in analysing perceptions of legitimacy.

Results

This is an ongoing two-years research project whose results are expected to be presented in 2025.

Potential Impact

The findings of this study will assist ADAK on where to direct resources in intelligence testing and anti-doping education for successful programming. The findings of this study might reveal evidence-based information about WADA anti-doping programs from perspectives of Kenyan athletes which may be of specific interest in policy formulation towards amending/improving WADA protocols especially for African countries, where studies on the same are scarce. Further, the findings of this study might help ADAK in developing and structuring anti-doping control programs in different sports disciplines as well as athletes age categories, experience and gender in Kenya. Additionally, Kenyatta University will benefit from the outcomes of this study since it will aid in the development of their curriculum in exercise and sports science, sports management, and recreation management. Lastly, the information derived from this research will enrich the present knowledge in global anti-doping and provide valuable information for future research in the field of Exercise and Sports science.