title: Predicting attitude towards performance enhancing substance use: a comprehensive test of the Sport Drug Control Model with elite Australian athletes.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study presents a comprehensive examination of the Sport Drug Control Model via survey data of elite Australian athletes.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional nationwide mail survey.
  
  
  METHODS
  A mail survey of 1237 elite Australian athletes was conducted. Structural equation modelling was employed to test the model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Morality (personal moral stance on performance-enhancing substances use), reference group opinion (perceived moral stance of reference group on performance-enhancing substances use) and legitimacy (perceptions of the drug testing and appeals processes) evidenced significant relationships with attitude towards performance-enhancing substances use, which in turn was positively associated with doping behaviour. The model accounted for 81% and 13% of the variance in attitude towards performance-enhancing substances use and doping behaviour, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings validate the usefulness of the Sport Drug Control Model for understanding influences on performance-enhancing substances use. Nevertheless, there is a need to survey athletes representing a broader range of competition levels and cross-cultural research to test the model's applicability to other populations of athletes.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer Control, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia. Electronic address: g.jalleh@curtin.edu.au.
authors.forename: Geoffrey
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jalleh
authors.affiliation: Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer Control, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Donovan
authors.affiliation: School of Human Movement Studies, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Jobling
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D056352:Athletes / Q000523:psychology*; D001315:Australia; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004300:Doping in Sports / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D058573:Performance-Enhancing Substances; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D058573:Performance-Enhancing Substances
keywords: Doping in sport; Performance-enhancing substances