Study on Coaches’ and Athletes’ Attitude Towards the Consumption of Doping Substances

• Published in: Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai. Educatio artis gymnasticae Vol. 69; no. 2; pp. 75 - 104
• Main Authors: BERBECARU, Claudia, VASILE, Luciela, CROITORU, Doina, STĂNESCU, Monica
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cluj University Press 30.08.2024
• Subjects: anti-doping; athletes; coaches; doping substances
• ISSN: 1453-4223; 2065-9547
• DOI: 10.24193/subbeag.69(2).14

Doping continues to attract the attention of specialists in the field of Sports Science due to its frequency of occurrence and the need for scientific substantiation of educational interventions. In all the conditional factors of doping behaviour, coaches and athletes are the key factors. Coaches are often identified as a potential enabler in athletes' doping, but precisely for this reason, they continue to be identified with their status as important potential agents in doping prevention. In turn, the athlete is the product of his own development and social-educational-cultural factors. The behavior of rejection or acceptance of the use of prohibited substances is determined by internal, subjective factors and external, social-environmental factors. An extensive model of risk factors, at international level, shows that interventions are needed at different levels for the educational effect to increase. In order to identify the attitude of coaches and athletes working in the Romanian sports system, between February and April 2022, online, with the help of Google forms, two questionnaires about anti-doping knowledge and attitudes were applied, one for athletes and one for coaches. The analysis of the results found that experienced coaches are better informed and have objective views on the impact of doping in sport. On the other hand, athletes resort to doping under peer pressure, lack of time required for training and as a result of competition pressure. Knowledge of these attitudinal peculiarities allows the formulation of recommendations on educational activities in the field of anti-doping education. Keywords: coaches, athletes, anti-doping, doping substances