Psychological Perspective of Doping in Recreational Sports Among High School Students in Nigeria
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31949/ijsm.v5i4.15405Abstract
Recreational sports are expected to be free from unhealthy competition and mainly for the purpose of fun and enjoyment. However, it has been discovered that doping practices in the form of performance enhancement drugs has gone beyond competitive sports and extended to recreational sports. The goal of this study is to gather psychological perspectives leading to doping among high school students with an insight on behavioral and motivational factors. Participants included 600 high school students from across the country. Participation was voluntary. Mixed methods of quantitative and in-depth interviews were used to collect data. descriptive statistics, correlations, regression analyses were used for inferential tests. Findings indicated that; 51% of the respondents were Male while 49% was female. The statistical significance for testing was at 0.05. the study shows that self-control and moral disengagement have significant relationships with doping in recreational sports. It was concluded that awareness of the psychological basis of doping among participants in recreational sports in high schools in Nigeria is essential in order to curb doping practices and protect the main spirit and purpose of recreational sports which is for fun and enjoyment.
Keywords:
doping, recreational sports, psychological perspective, moral disengagement, motivatioDownloads
References
Akindutire, I.O., Adegboyega, J.A., & Olanipekun, J.A. (2019). Doping knowledge and practice among elite athletes in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. European Scientific Journal, 8(4) 152-163.
Bandura, A. (1999). Moral disengagement in the perpetration of inhumanities. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3(3), 193-209.
Bandura, A. (2002). Selective moral disengagement in the exercise of moral agency. Journal of Moral Education, 31(2), 101-119.
Baumeister, R. F., Campbell, J. D., Krueger, J. I., & Vohs, K. D. (2003). Does high self-esteem cause better performance, interpersonal success, happiness, or healthier lifestyles? Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 4(1), 1-44.
Baumeister, R. F., Heatherton, T. F., & Tice, D. M. (1994). Losing control: How and why people fail at self-regulation. San Diego: Academic Press.
Christiansen, A. V., Frenger, M., Chirico, A., & Pitsch, W. (2023). Recreational Athletes' Use of Performance-Enhancing Substances: Results from the First European Randomized Response Technique Survey. Sports medicine - open, 9(1), 1.
Duckworth, A. L., Gendler, T. S., & Gross, J. J. (2014). Self-control in school-age children. Educational Psychologist, 49(3), 199-217.
Girelli L, Cavicchiolo E, Alivernini F, Manganelli S, Chirico A, Galli F, Cozzolino M and Lucidi F (2020) Doping Use in High-School Students: Measuring Attitudes, Self-Efficacy, and Moral Disengagement Across Genders and Countries. Frontial Psychology, 11:663.
Gottfredson, M. R., & Hirschi, T. (1990). A General Theory of Crime. Stanford University Press.
Kavussanu, M. (2008). Moral disengagement and the justification of doping. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 30(3), 363-375.
Kleiber, D. A., & McGuire, F. A. (2016). Leisure and human development. Sagamore Publishing.
Lucidi, F., Grano, C., Leone, L., Lombardo, C., & Pesce, C. (2004). Determinants of the intention to use doping substances: An empirical contribution in a sample of Italian adolescents. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 35(2), 133-148.
Macellina. Y. I., Odia, B., Oladipo, A.A., Kenneth, O.I., Ayorinde, O.J, Yewande, O.K., Ukeme, J. I., & Babatunde, A.K. (2018). Perception of Nigeria university athletes about performance-enhancing substances and drug testing. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 10(3), 567-578.
Petróczi, A. (2007). Attitudes and doping: A structural equation analysis of the relationship between athletes' attitudes, sport orientation and doping behaviour. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy, 2(34).
Petróczi, A., and Strauss, B. (2015). Understanding the psychology behind performance-enhancement by doping. Psychological Sport Exercise 16, 137–139.
Reardon, C. L., & Creado, S. (2014). Drug abuse in athletes. Substance Abuse and Rehabilitation, 5, 95-105.
Smith, A. C. T., & Stewart, B. (2015). Drug policy in sport: Hidden assumptions and inherent contradictions. Drug and Alcohol Review, 34(6), 576-582.
Stebbins, R. A. (2013). The idea of leisure: First principles. Transaction Publishers.
Tangney, J. P., Baumeister, R. F., & Boone, A. L. (2004). High self-control predicts good adjustment, less pathology, better grades, and interpersonal success. Journal of Personality, 72(2), 271-324.
World Anti-Doping Agency. (2021). World Anti-Doping Code. Retrieved from WADA Website.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Olufemi Adegbola Adegbesan, Oluwatoyin Mercy Jayeoba, AbduRahman Adebayo Owoade
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
_.png){kind=logo}
_(2).png){kind=logo}
.png)
.png)
.png)
