Changing athletes' attitudes towards doping has been shown as crucial in prevention efforts in combating doping in sports, with dispositional goal orientation and perceptions of coach motivational climate identified as factors shaping doping attitudes among athletes. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between dispositional goal orientation and motivational climate attitudes towards doping among Kenyan Endurance runners. A cross-sectional survey design was used to collect data from 323 Kenyan runners with 215 males (66.6%) and 108 females (33.3%). The study assessed athletes' goal orientation through the Task and Ego Goal Orientation Sport Questionnaire, perceptions of coach motivational climate through Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire, and attitudes towards doping through Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, Mann-Whitney U tests and Kruskall-Wallis H tests was used for data analysis. The study found significant inverse relationships between mastery climate and doping attitudes (rho = -.242; p < .001), as well as between task orientation and doping attitudes (rho = -.158; p < .004). Conversely, performance climate (rho = .362; p < .001) and ego orientation (rho = .362; p < .001) showed significant positive relationships with doping attitudes. There were no significant differences in doping attitudes based on age (U = 11582.500, p <.191), gender (U = 11437.500, p <.827) and athlete’s length of experience (χ2 (2) = 1.359, p < .507). The study concludes that fostering mastery-oriented coach motivational climate and promoting task-oriented goal orientation could effectively cultivate anti-doping attitudes among athletes and enhance clean sport.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This research received no external funding

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The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Kenyatta University Ethical Review Board (KUERB) UNDER approval number PKU/1074/11124, issued on September 17, 2019 and research permit from National Commission for Science, Technology, and Innovation (NACOSTI) under license number NACOSTI/P/19/985.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author Kevin Kipchumba on request