Attitudes towards doping among sport sciences students

Abstract

Doping is a concern not only in sport but also in society, given that it is a pressing issue that must be dealt with in the education of future physical activity and sport professionals. The objective of this study was to ascertain the attitudes towards doping of students in the Bachelor's in Physical Activity and Sport Sciences at the University of Valencia. A questionnaire designed specifically for this study whose content was based on similar questionnaires was administered to 347 students of both sexes. The main results include that 94.25% of students are against the possible legalisation of doping, while 5.75% are in favour. When asked in what cases would they take performance-enhancing drugs as athletes, the three main reasons were: 1) to earn large amounts of money; b) to increase their athletic performance and win an Olympic gold medal; and c) to be one of the most successful athletes in history and become world-famous. Each of them was chosen by around one fifth of the sample. Differences were also found in the sex variable. In the majority of situations posited, twice as many men would take performance-enhancing drugs as women. Therefore, and although most of the students are against the legalisation of doping, some of them would take performance-enhancing drugs if they were high-performance athletes.