Capturing doping attitudes by self-report declarations and implicit assessment: a methodology study.

Area of Science:

• Sports Science
• Psychology
• Doping Control

Background:

• Understanding athletes' attitudes towards performance enhancement is crucial for anti-doping interventions.
• Indirect methods are needed to capture complex attitudes beyond verbal declarations.
• This pilot study aimed to develop and validate an implicit doping attitude assessment method.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a performance-enhancement implicit association test (PE-IAT) for assessing implicit doping attitudes.
• To explore the relationship between implicit doping attitudes and declared attitudes or behavioral intentions.
• To evaluate the PE-IAT's potential in informing anti-doping strategies.

Main Methods:

• Adapted the conventional Implicit Association Test (IAT) by incorporating 'doping' vs. 'nutrition supplements' categories.
• Administered the PE-IAT, Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale (PEAS), and doping belief questionnaires to 111 sports science undergraduates.
• Analyzed response times and correlations between implicit measures, explicit attitudes, and behavioral intentions.

Main Results:

• The PE-IAT indicated less favorable implicit evaluations of doping substances, with longer response times for 'good-doping' combinations.
• The PE-IAT measure showed no significant correlation with declared doping attitudes (r = .181, p = .142).
• Participants considering doping use exhibited significantly less implicit negativity towards banned substances (U = 109.00, p = .047).

Conclusions:

• The PE-IAT shows promise for capturing undeclared doping attitudes and predicting behavior, aiding targeted anti-doping interventions.
• Initial validity evidence is encouraging, suggesting the PE-IAT can complement existing assessment methods.
• Further refinement of the PE-IAT protocol and stimulus materials is recommended for improved validity and reliability.