Purpose
The overall aim of this research project is to gain a greater understanding of the psychosociale risk and protective factors influencing young athletes’ health-compromising behaviors, including usage of painkillers, dietary supplements, doping, and participation in sports despite injuries. To achieve this aim, we adopted an integrative social cognitive approach and examined a range of theoretically informed personal and contextual factors hypothesized to protect or elicit the aforementioned health-compromising behaviors.
Project description
The research project is grounded in a social cognitive integrative framework and attempted to build on the groundwork from a systematic review and three empirical studies using a quantitative research design. In the empirical studies, we delved into the established risk and protective factors hypothesized to either serve as facilitative or protective precursors to health-compromising behaviors. The empirical sample consisted of over 820 adolescent athletes aged 15–20 years old, of whom could be regarded as being among the most ambitious and talented in their age group. The participants were recruited from Norwegian sports academy high schools and ice hockey clubs.
Results
The research projects’ results are presented in four research articles, each of which targeted a specific objective contributing to the overall aim of the research project.
The first article, published in Performance Enhancement & Health, was conducted as a systematic mixed-studies review synthesizing the personal and contextual factors influencing athletes’ health-compromising behaviors. Importantly, the results illustrate the dynamic interplay between intrapersonal characteristics and contextual factors summarized from athletes’ self-described perceptions of the sporting environment, which shapes their health-compromising behaviors. A wide range of theoretically informed personal and contextual factors were identified, functioning either as protective or eliciting factors.
The second article was published in Journal of Sports Sciences and sheds light on young ice hockey players’ intention to play through injuries. The results suggest that ice hockey players who perceived social pressure to ignore pain and injury from their important others (such as the coach, peers, or parents) intended to play when injured. Additionally, perceived pressure also seemed to increase players’ intention to play the game when injured by shaping more favorable attitudes and normative beliefs toward doing so and elicit a stronger temptation to keep playing after incurring an injury.
Third article, accepted for publication in PLOS ONE, examined contextual and personal antecedents associated with doping. Results suggest that athletes who perceived their sports environment as performance-oriented, characterized by an increased pressure to win and outperform others, were more likely to be tempted to use prohibited substances. Perceptions of a performance-oriented climate also appeared to shape athletes’ beliefs that using prohibited substances would yield more positive consequences than negative ones, making them more prone to doping. This tendency was particular notable among athletes who had moderate or high levels of perfectionistic concerns.
The fourth and final article is under review and aimed to investigate the potential risk of experimenting with dietary supplements. Results revealed that when young athletes used supplements at the start of the season to improve performance, they were more likely to view the use of supplements as acceptable and to report more favorable attitudes toward doping at the end of the season six months later.
Implication
The findings from the present research project and the examinations of the contextual and personal antecedents associated with health-compromising behaviors have important theoretical and practical implications. The findings presented in the articles suggest that athletes’ perceptions of a sports environment characterized by social pressure and a high performance orientation may increase their health-compromising behaviors, such as playing through injuries and turning to doping. Specifically, athletes who experience heightened pressure to train and compete despite being injured, to win at all costs, and to outperform others tend to show social cognitions (e.g., attitudes) favoring dysfunctional behavioral tendencies. The findings also indicate that athletes who are more perfectionistic and who are concerned about making mistakes are likely to be tempted to the allures of doping. Coaches, practitioners, and others aiming to prevent health-compromising behaviors among young athletes need to understand their important roles in influencing them. Thus, athletes’ entourage are encouraged to create environmental conditions that reduce social pressure and downgrade the importance of winning. Such environments should also echo a sports ethic that cultivates long-term perspectives on athletes’ health and careers. Finally, for global anti-doping systems, such as Anti-doping Norway and World Anti-Doping Agency, targeting athletes’ behavioral beliefs (e.g., attitudes) about injury and prohibited performance-enhancing substances may also be an important step in helping athletes refrain from risking their health in their pursuit of excellent performance.
Conclusion
The overall aim of this research project was to gain a greater understanding of the psychosocial risk and protective factors influencing young athletes’ health-compromising behaviors, including usage of painkillers, dietary supplements, doping, and participation in sports despite injuries. In summary of our main findings, sports environment characterized by social pressure and a predominant focus on performance are likely to increase young athletes’ intention to play through injuries and temptation to engage in doping. These environments can also influence young athletes’ social cognitions, making them more inclined to adopt health-compromising behaviors. Furthermore, athletes with perfectionistic concerns about making mistakes were more prone to succumbing to the temptation of doping, thus, emphasizing the role of perfectionism as a potential predisposing factor. Finally, the frequent use of dietary supplements among young athletes as a mean to improve performance increased their risk of developing permissive