TY - INPR A1 - Petroczi, Andrea A1 - Backhouse, Susan H. A1 - Barkoukis, Vassilis A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Elbe, Anne-Marie A1 - Lazuras, Larnbros A1 - Lucidi, Fabio T1 - A call for policy guidance on psychometric testing in doping control in sport T2 - International journal of drug policy N2 - One of the fundamental challenges in anti-doping is identifying athletes who use, or are at risk of using, prohibited performance enhancing substances. The growing trend to employ a forensic approach to doping control aims to integrate information from social sciences (e.g., psychology of doping) into organised intelligence to protect clean sport. Beyond the foreseeable consequences of a positive identification as a doping user, this task is further complicated by the discrepancy between what constitutes a doping offence in the World Anti-Doping Code and operationalized in doping research. Whilst psychology plays an important role in developing our understanding of doping behaviour in order to inform intervention and prevention, its contribution to the array of doping diagnostic tools is still in its infancy. In both research and forensic settings, we must acknowledge that (1) socially desirable responding confounds self-reported psychometric test results and (2) that the cognitive complexity surrounding test performance means that the response-time based measures and the lie detector tests for revealing concealed life-events (e.g., doping use) are prone to produce false or non-interpretable outcomes in field settings. Differences in social-cognitive characteristics of doping behaviour that are tested at group level (doping users vs. non-users) cannot be extrapolated to individuals; nor these psychometric measures used for individual diagnostics. In this paper, we present a position statement calling for policy guidance on appropriate use of psychometric assessments in the pursuit of clean sport. We argue that, to date, both self-reported and response-time based psychometric tests for doping have been designed, tested and validated to explore how athletes feel and think about doping in order to develop a better understanding of doping behaviour, not to establish evidence for doping. A false 'positive' psychological profile for doping affects not only the individual 'clean' athlete but also their entourage, their organisation and sport itself. The proposed policy guidance aims to protect the global athletic community against social, ethical and legal consequences from potential misuse of psychological tests, including erroneous or incompetent applications as forensic diagnostic tools in both practice and research. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - Prohibited performance enhancement KW - Athlete KW - Drug KW - Anti-doping KW - Attitude Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2015.04.022 SN - 0955-3959 SN - 1873-4758 VL - 26 IS - 11 SP - 1130 EP - 1139 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - INPR A1 - Petroczi, Andrea A1 - Backhouse, Susan H. A1 - Barkoukis, Vassilis A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Elbe, Anne-Marie A1 - Lazuras, Lambros A1 - Lucidi, Fabio T1 - A matter of mind-set in the interpretation of forensic application T2 - International journal of drug policy Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2015.06.007 SN - 0955-3959 SN - 1873-4758 VL - 26 IS - 11 SP - 1142 EP - 1143 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mallia, Luca A1 - Lazuras, Lambros A1 - Barkoukis, Vassilis A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Baumgarten, Franz A1 - Tsorbatzoudis, Haralambos A1 - Zelli, Arnaldo A1 - Lucidi, Fabio T1 - Doping use in sport teams: The development and validation of measures of team-based efficacy beliefs and moral disengagement from a cross-national perspective JF - Psychology of sport and exercise : PSE ; an official journal of the European Federation of Sport Psychology N2 - Method: The first study relied on focus group data collected from twenty-one team sport professionals (mean age = 34; SD = 11.65). Four hundred and fourteen adolescent athletes (mean age = 16.69; SD = 1.55) participated in the second study, whereas seven hundred forty-nine adolescent team athletes (mean age = 16.43; SD = 1.69) participated in the third study. For the latter two studies, team athletes were recruited across Italy, Germany and Greece and provided data on the new team measures. Only athletes participating in the third study provided data on doping intentions. Results: The findings of the three studies supported the empirical goals of the investigation and provided evidence for the factor structure, reliability and validity of the team instruments. Furthermore, multi group findings supported the hypothesis that the new instruments would have equivalent measurement and validity characteristics across the three European countries. The conclusions focus on the conceptual and practical implications of these findings. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KW - Adolescents KW - Self-regulatory efficacy KW - Collective efficacy KW - Confirmative factor analysis KW - Item development KW - Social cognitive theory Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2016.04.005 SN - 1469-0292 SN - 1878-5476 VL - 25 SP - 78 EP - 88 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lazuras, Lambros A1 - Barkoukis, Vassilis A1 - Mallia, Luca A1 - Lucidi, Fabio A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - More than a feeling: The role of anticipated regret in predicting doping intentions in adolescent athletes JF - Psychology of sport and exercise : PSE ; an official journal of the European Federation of Sport Psychology N2 - Objectives: Anticipated affective responses influence decision-making processes in profound ways. The present study emphasized the role of anticipated regret and assessed the additive and interactive effects of anticipated regret in predicting doping intentions among adolescent athletes. Design: Survey-based, correlational. Method: Two hundred and sixteen adolescent athletes (M age = 17.37, SD = 1.68, 79.1% males) from team sports took part in the study and completed structured and anonymous questionnaires on social cognitive variables relevant to doping use, anticipated regret from engaging in doping and doping intentions. Results: Variance-based structural equation modeling showed that anticipated regret significantly predicted doping intentions over and above the effects of past use of doping substances and nutritional supplements, and other social cognitive predictors, and the overall model predicted 72% of the variance in doping intentions. Further analysis of interaction effects showed that anticipated regret significantly interacted with past use of nutritional supplements, and subjective and descriptive social norms in predicting doping intentions. Conclusions: Anticipated regret represents a theoretically relevant and important predictor of doping intentions in sports, and can have a protective role against pro-doping use intentions among athletes with past use of nutritional supplements. Regret also appears to be relevant to social norms and expectations, thus, highlighting for the first time a normative component in the process linking anticipated affective responses with behavioural intentions. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KW - Anticipated regret KW - Doping KW - Social norms KW - Adolescents Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2017.03.003 SN - 1469-0292 SN - 1878-5476 VL - 30 SP - 196 EP - 204 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lazuras, Lambros A1 - Barkoukis, Vassilis A1 - Loukovitis, Andreas A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Hudson, Andy A1 - Mallia, Luca A1 - Michaelides, Michalis A1 - Muzi, Milena A1 - Petroczi, Andrea A1 - Zelli, Arnaldo T1 - Corrigendum: "I Want It All, and I Want It Now": Lifetime Prevalence and Reasons for Using and Abstaining from Controlled Performance and Appearance Enhancing Substances (PAES) among Young Exercisers and Amateur Athletes in Five European Countries (Frontiers in psychology. - 8 (2017), 717.) T2 - Frontiers in psychology KW - doping KW - behavioral reasoning KW - exercise KW - fitness KW - recreational sport KW - young adults Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01162 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 9 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lazuras, Lambros A1 - Barkoukis, Vassilis A1 - Loukovitis, Andreas A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Hudson, Andy A1 - Mallia, Luca A1 - Michaelides, Michalis A1 - Muzi, Milena A1 - Petroczi, Andrea A1 - Zelli, Arnaldo T1 - "I Want It All, and I Want It Now": Lifetime Prevalence and Reasons for Using and Abstaining from Controlled Performance and Appearance Enhancing Substances (PAES) among Young Exercisers and Amateur Athletes in Five European Countries JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - Doping use in recreational sports is an emerging issue that has received limited attention so far in the psychological literature. The present study assessed the lifetime prevalence of controlled performance and appearance enhancing substances ( PAES), and used behavioral reasoning theory to identify the reasons for using and for avoiding using controlled PAES in young exercisers across five European countries, in the context of the "SAFE YOU" Project. Participants were 915 young amateur athletes and exercisers (M = 21.62; SD = 2.62) from Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Italy, and UK who completed an anonymous questionnaire that included measures of self-reported use of controlled PAES, as well as reasons for using and not using controlled PAES. The results of the descriptive analyses demonstrated that almost one out five exercisers in the sample had a previous experience with controlled PAES. Higher prevalence rates were found in Greece and Cyprus and lower in Italy. The most frequently reported reasons for using controlled PAES included achieving the desired results faster; pushing the self to the (physical) limits; and recovering faster after exercise/training. Furthermore, the most frequently reported reasons for not using controlled PAES involved worry about any possible adverse health effects; not feeling the need for using them; and wanting to see what can be achieved naturally without using any controlled PAES. The findings of the present study indicate that the use of controlled PAES is fast becoming a crisis in amateur sports and exercise settings and highlight the need for preventive action and concerted anti-doping education efforts. KW - doping KW - behavioral reasoning KW - exercise KW - fitness KW - recreational sport KW - young adults Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00717 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 8 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER -