ABSTRACT
This chapter examines anti-doping education policy, focuses on contemporary educational theory, and considers the scant availability of evidence-based intervention approaches. It highlights the gaps in the literature before offering recommendations for future areas of study. Longer term, maintenance approaches focus on dealing with the lasting consequences of doping to help drug users to stop doping and prevent them from relapsing. Doctoral research by Patterson has questioned the assumption that coaches are either willing or able to undertake an anti-doping role in practice. Information-focused programmes are the cornerstone of anti-doping education, as evidenced by the curricula driving global anti-doping programmes. The limited evidence base on the efficacy of anti-doping programmes is also accompanied by a patchy understanding of athletes’ – and athlete support personnel’s – perceptions of anti-doping education. Anti-doping education seeks to intervene in athletes’ lives with the intention of preventing the use of performance-enhancing substances and methods before onset.
