High-performance athletes' attitude towards doping: Validation of the Spanish version of the Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale for Colombia

Background: Doping is the use of substances to achieve a better performance in sports. This practice is considered to be growing worldwide. Despite regulations by the World Anti-Doping Agency, 14-39% of high-performance athletes have consumed prohibited substances at least once in their sports career. The attitudes towards this type of consumption are used as predictors of the intent of usage of prohibited substances to improve physical performance. Objective: This study aimed to validate the Spanish Version of the Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale of high-performance athletes in the Colombian context. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was performed with a convenience sampling of 112 athletes aged 15 and older, registered in a State Sports Institute in Medellín, Colombia in 2016. The participants self-completed Petróczi and Aidman instrument, Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale, adapted into Spanish by Morente-Sánchez, et al. in 2014. The reliability of the scale was assessed using Cronbach's Internal Consistency Coefficient and an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to evaluate the scale's structure. Results: The scale had a reliability of 0.87 and the factor analysis confirmed the unidimensionality. Of all the athletes participating in the research, the Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale average was 35.8 of 102 points, indicating a low tendency of attitudes towards doping. Conclusion: The psychometric properties of the 17 items of the Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale are adequate and could be used when assessing attitudes towards doping of high-performance athletes in similar contexts. This information could be used for the purposes of developing educational strategies for doping prevention in our athletes.