Citation

Morente-Sanchez J, Mateo-March M, Zabala M. Int. J. Sport Psychol. 2014; 45(2): 157-170.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Edizioni Luigi Pozzi)

DOI

10.7352/IJSP.2014.45.157

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The aim was to compare attitudes towards doping in cyclists from the Spanish National road cycling teams. 33 cyclists aged 18.62 +/- 2.88 years were allocated to four groups (junior men, under-23 men, junior women, and elite women). We used the Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale (PEAS) and a qualitative open-ended questionnaire. The overall PEAS score (17-102) was 34.91 +/- 6.62. The word most associated with "doping" was "cheating" (% n: 42.42; % total answers: 14.89%), for "agents responsible for doping" it was "doctor" (84.85%, 30.11%), the "main reason" was "sport achievement" (100%, 50.75%) and the most proposed solution was "more controls" (36.36%; 29.27%). Many riders stated that "cycling and other sports are treated differently" (66.67%, 47.83%). Thus, Spanish elite road cyclists do not support doping, though younger cyclists showed more pro-doping attitudes; alongside controls, early age prevention programs may be effective to educate both cyclists and their close people.

Language: en