Perfectionism and Attitudes Towards Doping in Athletes: The Mediating Role of Achievement Goal Orientations

Doping is of increasing concern for those involved in sport. With this in mind, researchers have sought to determine factors that increase the risk of doping. Perfectionism is one such factor. Perfectionism is a multidimensional personality characteristic comprised of excessively high personal standards (perfectionistic strivings) and overly critical evaluations (perfectionistic concerns). While numerous studies have shown that perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns predict attitudes towards doping in athletes, it is currently unclear why this is the case. In this regard, achievement goal orientations may be important. Goal orientations reflect tendencies to judge success based on the development and demonstration of self-referenced (task) or normative (ego) competence. Perfectionistic strivings and concerns are related to both task- and ego-orientations (albeit to different degrees). Consequently, the present study provided a first examination of whether achievement goal orientations mediated the relationship between perfectionism and attitudes towards doping. Following institutional ethical approval, 135 athletes (mean age 24.4 years) completed measures of perfectionistic strivings, perfectionistic concerns, ego-orientation, task-orientation, and attitudes towards doping. Using bias-corrected bootstrapping of indirect effects, ego-orientation mediated the relationships between perfectionistic strivings and attitudes towards doping (indirect effect = .07, 95% CI = .01,.18) and perfectionistic concerns and attitudes towards doping (indirect effect = .08, 95% CI = .01,.20). Overall, the findings imply that both perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns may instil the belief that success is defined by beating others. This belief may impart the tendency to consider doping as socially acceptable and necessary. \ud Keywords: Perfectionism, achievement goals, doping, athlete