title: Examining athletes' attitudes toward using anabolic steroids and their knowledge of the possible effects.
abstract: One goal of contemporary sports leaders is to eradicate the use of banned drugs in competitive sport. A common approach to achieving this outcome is to provide athletes with adequate education about the effects of drug use. Ostensibly, educational programs about the deleterious effects of using anabolic steroids are thought to discourage their intake. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between the athletes' knowledge about the long-term effects of anabolic steroids and their attitudes toward this type of drug. Multiple regression analyses indicated relatively low R2's and correlations between the various components of subjects' knowledge and their attitude toward steroid ingestion. This suggests that educational programs for athletes about taking anabolic steroids may have limited value in terms of creating appropriate, responsible attitudes toward this illegal, unethical, and medically questionable practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University at Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Anshel
authors.forename: K G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Russell
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D045930:Anabolic Agents; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D004300:Doping in Sports / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004522:Educational Status; D004989:Ethics; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D009517:New South Wales; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014142:Track and Field
chemical_list: D045930:Anabolic Agents