An intervention to optimise coach-created motivational climates and reduce athlete willingness to dope (CoachMADE): a three-country cluster randomised controlled trial

Abstract

ObjectivesCoach-centred antidoping education is scarce. We tested the efficacy of a motivationally informed antidoping intervention for coaches, with their athletes’ willingness to dope as the primary outcome.MethodsWe delivered a cluster randomised controlled trial in Australia, the UK and Greece. This study was a parallel group, two-condition, superiority trial. Participants were 130 coaches and 919 athletes. Coaches in the intervention group attended two workshops and received supplementary information to support them in adopting a motivationally supportive communication style when discussing doping-related issues with their athletes. Coaches in the control condition attended a standard antidoping workshop that provided up-to-date information on antidoping issues yet excluded any motivation-related content. Assessments of willingness to dope (primary outcome) and other secondary outcomes were taken at baseline, postintervention (3 months) and at a 2-month follow up.ResultsCompared with athletes in the control group, athletes in the intervention group reported greater reductions in willingness to take prohibited substances (effect size g=0.17) and psychological need frustration (g=0.23) at postintervention, and greater increases in antidoping knowledge (g=0.27) at follow-up. Coaches in the intervention group reported at postintervention greater increases in efficacy to create an antidoping culture (g=0.40) and in perceived effectiveness of need supporting behaviours (g=0.45) to deal with doping-related situations. They also reported greater decreases in doping attitudes (g=0.24) and perceived effectiveness of need thwarting behaviours (g=0.35).ConclusionsAntidoping education programmes should consider incorporating principles of motivation, as these could be beneficial to coaches and their athletes. We offer suggestions to strengthen these programmes, as most of the effects we observed were not sustained at follow-up.Trial registration numberThis trial has been registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=371465&isReview=true).

Education Interventions to Improve Knowledge, Beliefs, Intentions and Practices with Respect to Dietary Supplements and Doping Substances: A Narrative Review

“…Table 2 presents the research designs and key findings of the reviewed interventions grouped by design quality from highest to lowest. The majority of the interventions were delivered using a pretest post-test control group design [35,38,[41][42][43][44]46,47,50,51,[53][54][55][56], which controls for several threats to internal validity [65]. However, other studies used quasi-experimental designs [33,34,39,40,48,49,57], which does not guarantee that the groups were comparable at baseline.…”

“…The interventions were carried out in a diverse range of countries. Seven studies were conducted in the United States of America [41][42][43][44]48,54,56], five in the United Kingdom [45,47,50,51,53], three in Greece [35,47,53], two in Iran [33,46], two in Italy [37,49], one in Japan [36], Spain [34], Sweden [52], Germany [39], Malaysia [40], Australia [57], Canada [38], and Norway [55]. The sample size ranged from 35 to 20,800 and participants were older than 12 years of age.…”

“…The most used were lectures and presentations [36,37,40,42,43,48,51,52,55,58], group discussions [33,34,40,[46][47][48], and written materials in the form of booklets, handouts, leaflets, posters, brochures and pamphlets that were mainly used in studies that used active control groups [40][41][42][43][44]. Some interventions used role playing [33,47] and physical activity including weight room training sessions and strength training sessions [43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55]. Others also used online presentations [45,51], problem-solving [37,47], and seminars [37,49].…”

“…The interventions were delivered by the investigators themselves [36,40,48], trained facilitators/staff [33,44,47,53,55], physical education teachers [34,35,57], coaches and squad leaders [41,54], track and field athletes [45], and health workers [52]. Some studies were implemented by a combination of different professionals to tackle different aspects of the intervention.…”

Το Περιεχόμενο Και Οι Παράγοντες Διαμόρφωσης Της Αυτό-Ομιλίας Των Μαθητών/Τριων Στο Μάθημα Της Φυσικής Αγωγής

“…Πιο αναλυτικά, για την ικανοποίηση της ανάγκης για ικανότητα και την ματαίωση της ανάγκης για αυτονομία όπου οι δείκτες ήταν χαμηλοί. Παρόλο που η αξιοπιστία και η εγκυρότητα των κλιμάκων έχει επιβεβαιωθεί Ntoumanis et al, 2020;Vlachopoulos, 2007;Vlachopoulos et al, 2010), φαίνεται ότι η αναθεώρηση τους, μέσω προσθήκης στοιχείων μπορεί να βοηθήσει στη βελτίωση της αξιοπιστίας των κλιμάκων. .…”