Using Control Balance Theory to Examine Sports Doping Among Professional Athletes in Iran

Abstract

The use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) is one of the most important issues in the world of sports. At its very heart, this issue speaks to athletic integrity and competitive fairness. When athletes engage in doping, they are committing acts of deviance. The main purpose of this research, accordingly, is to explain why athletes use illegal PEDs. Specifically, we use Tittle’s control balance theory as a conceptual framework. A sample of 852 professional athletes from Iran was used to test assumptions related to control balance theory, and the findings of the study generally indicated that the components of control balance theory predicted athletes’ doping behavior. In addition, the moderating relationships of the control balance model indicated that the relationship between the control deficit and PED use was moderated by the variance in self-control, opportunity, motivation, constraint, perceived benefits, and provocations. Specific results, policy implications, and study limitations are discussed.

Antisocial Behavior in Soccer Players: Using an Integrated Mediation Model of Personal Control and Social Learning Theory

“…Our results find support for this assertion where athletes with high control deficit are more likely to engage in antisocial behavior that would restore their reduced control. This finding is consistent with previous works in the sports field (Kabiri, Shadmanfaat, and Donner, 2019; Kabiri, Shadmanfaat, and Willits, 2019).…”

“…It is influenced by personal controls and the social learning process as described by three competitive criminological theories: social learning (Akers, 1998), self‐control (Gottfredson and Hirschi, 1990), and control balance theory (Tittle, 1995). This is consistent with previous research in the sport domain (Chan et al., 2015; Chen et al., 2019; Kabiri et al., 2018a, 2018b, ; Kabiri and Donner, 2019; Kabiri, Shadmanfaat, and Donner, 2019; Kabiri, Shadmanfaat, and Willits, 2019; Miller, Roberts, and Ommundsen, 2005; Ohl et al., 2015; Ruiz et al., 2019; Spruit et al., 2019). Our study supports previous research that documents athletes’ personal control (low self‐control and control deficit) and social learning process increases the possibility of engagement in aggressive and cheating behaviors (i.e., antisocial behaviors).…”

“…Some scholars argue that the limitation of an integrated model stems from measurement issues (Cochran et al., 2017; Matsueda and Anderson, 1998), while others have emphasized that these mediating relationships can be found in some samples (Burruss, Holt, and Bossler, 2019). Further, recent studies in criminology have indicated that there are significant relationships between self‐control, social learning, and control balance theories (e.g., Baron and Forde, 2007; Curry, 2005; Curry and Piquero, 2003; Higgins and Lauterbach, 2004; Hughes, Antonaccio, and Botchkovar, 2015; Kabiri, Shadmanfaat, and Donner, 2019; Kabiri, Shadmanfaat, and Willits, 2019).…”

“…In one exception, Kabiri, Shadmanfaat, and Willits (2019) have shown that there are notable relationships between personal self‐control (self‐control capacity and self‐control desire), social learning components (differential associations, differential reinforcements, imitation, and definitions), and control balance constructs (sport control deficit and general control deficit). Athletes with low levels of self‐control perceive higher control deficit in both sports and social domains and perceive low levels of deterrence of deviant behavior in sport (i.e., illegal performance‐enhancing drug use) (Kabiri, Shadmanfaat, and Donner, 2019). Curry (2005) proposed that control ratio imbalances affect deviance both directly and indirectly through constraints.…”

Control Deficits, Conditioning Factors, and Playing through Pain and Injury among Iranian Professional Soccer Players

“…Across these studies, the utility of control balance theory has been generally supported by the data [ 29 ], especially regarding the core proposition that control imbalance can motivate people to engage in deviant behavior to restore a sense of control. However, the efficacy of control balance theory has not been extensively tested in Asian sample populations [ 30 ], and this theory has not been utilized to examine and account for some athletes’ tendency to play despite injuries and pain [ 31 , 32 ].…”