Dopning utanför idrotten – individualisering och muskulösa skönhetsideal:
En studie av dopning i grundskola, gymnasium och på gym i Kalmar kommun
David Hoff
Socialhögskolan, Lunds universitet
Abstract
Doping outside sport – individualization and muscular body ideals: A Study of doping use in elementary schools, high schools and fitness centers in Kalmar Municipality
The use of performance enhancing drugs, especially anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) has emerged as a social problem outside competitive sports, linked to substance abuse and crime. The purpose of this article is to analyze the use of doping and attitudes to doping outside the competitive sports context in relation to age, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and branch of sport. The article is based on a survey study carried out in Kalmar Municipality at elementary schools (age=appr. 14; n=383), high schools (age=appr. 16; n=208) and fitness centers (n=327). The results showed that 1% of the girls and 2% of boys at elementary school, and 2% of girls and boys at high school, reported use of banned substances. 5% of the girls and 15% of the boys at high school had been offered illegal substances. At fitness centers, 4% of the women and 5% of the men reported doping use, most commonly in the age group 31-35 (15%). Gender differences were smaller than previous studies would suggest. Ethnic and socio-economic factors had only minor effects on prevalence of doping, which was more common among individuals who practiced strength sports and martial arts. Regarding attitudes towards doping, a large proportion of the pupils at elementary schools (45%) and students at high schools (56%) claimed that it is up to the individual to decide whether or not to use doping substances. The results are discussed from the perspective of individualization processes in society and in connection to influences from muscular body ideals, where doping together with work-out are analyzed as effective means for body transformations in individual (body-)identity projects.
Click here to read the article – in Swedish – in Scandinavian Sport Studies Forum
About the Author
DAVID HOFF is Associate Professor in Social Work, at the School of Social Work, Lund University. David has a PhD in Sociology of Law, and his interests in social and sport issues (often combined) has emerged during his time at the Department of Sport Sciences at Malmö University and the Department of Social Work at Linnaeus University. His main research interests include different perspectives on doping in sports as well as outside the sport context (e.g. as a social issue of abuse). The focus of his research is on individual and social driving forces for doping in relation to processes and trends in society. He has a qualitative methodological approach in his research, and he has recently completed an interview study of Swedish elite athletes who have been using illegal performing-enhancing substances. David has also written about the system of governance in relation to doping in sport from a sociological of law perspective. At present he is conducting an interview study of performance enhancing drugs users in fitness centers as part of a study of doping outside competitive sport. He is also working in a research project on physical activity and sport in drug abuse treatment. His latest publications include ”Doping, risk and abuse: An interview study of elite athletes with a history of steroid use” (Performance Enhancement and Health, 2012; 1; 2; 61-65), and Doping- och antidopingforskning – En inventering av samhälls- och beteendevetenskaplig forskning och publikationer 2004-2007 (FoU-rapport 2008:1. Stockholm: Riksidrottsförbundet).
Read more at idrottsforum.org about
- doping in sports
- fitness as practice and industry
- children and youth sports
- Swedish sports, sport policy and sport studies
