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The Susceptibles, Chancers, Pragmatists, and Fair Players: An Examination of the Sport Drug Control Model for Adolescent Athletes, Cluster Effects, and Norm Values Among Adolescent Athletes

Nicholls, Adam R.; Levy, Andrew R.; Meir, Rudi; Sanctuary, Colin; Jones, Leigh; Baghurst, Timothy; Thompson, Mark A.; Perry, John L.

Authors

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Professor Adam Nicholls A.Nicholls@hull.ac.uk
Professor of Psychology/ Leader of the Sport Psychology and Coaching Group

Andrew R. Levy

Rudi Meir

Colin Sanctuary

Leigh Jones

Timothy Baghurst

Mark A. Thompson

John L. Perry



Abstract

© Copyright © 2020 Nicholls, Levy, Meir, Sanctuary, Jones, Baghurst, Thompson and Perry. Although there are few high-profile cases of adolescent athletes being caught doping, up to a third of young athletes may dope. In order to generate a more accurate understanding of why adolescent athletes dope, it is important to validate models that help to explain this behavior. The aims of this study were 3-fold: firstly, to test the Sport Drug Control Model for Adolescent Athletes (SDCM-AA); secondly, to generate athlete profiles that would help quantify the proportion of athletes who are at risk of doping; and thirdly, to create norm values for the Adolescent Sport Doping Inventory (ASDI), which would allow national doping organizations, sporting organizations, and clubs to benchmark the scores of their athletes for key psycho-social variables linked to doping. A total of 2208 adolescent athletes from the United Kingdom, Australia, Hong Kong, and the United States completed the ASDI. The data presented an appropriate fit to the SDCM-AA model, in which 54% of the variance in susceptibility to doping was explained in the model, and 44.8% of attitudes toward doping was accounted for. Four distinct clusters of athletes emerged: the Susceptibles (i.e., identified with the benefits of doping, were willing to cheat, and viewed little threat), the Chancers (i.e., identified with the benefits of doping, scored high on willingness to cheat, and were highly influenced by their reference group, but had an average score for threat, self-esteem, and legitimacy), the Pragmatists (i.e., did not engage with any aspects of doping, but were more susceptible than the fair players), and Fair Players (i.e., high levels of sportspersonship, unwilling to cheat, and viewed doping as a threat). The revised SDCM-AA appears a valid model that helps explain the factors associated with doping attitudes and doping susceptibility. Adolescent athletes can be classified into one of four clusters, in relation to doping. Their cluster group could influence the content of the anti-doping education they receive.

Citation

Nicholls, A. R., Levy, A. R., Meir, R., Sanctuary, C., Jones, L., Baghurst, T., …Perry, J. L. (2020). The Susceptibles, Chancers, Pragmatists, and Fair Players: An Examination of the Sport Drug Control Model for Adolescent Athletes, Cluster Effects, and Norm Values Among Adolescent Athletes. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, Article 1564. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01564

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jun 10, 2020
Publication Date Jul 10, 2020
Deposit Date Jun 10, 2020
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Frontiers in Psychology
Electronic ISSN 1664-1078
Publisher Frontiers Media
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 11
Article Number 1564
DOI https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01564
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3520218
Publisher URL https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01564/full

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Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2020 Nicholls, Levy, Meir, Sanctuary, Jones, Baghurst, Thompson and Perry. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted
which does not comply with these terms.





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