Predicting attitude towards performance enhancing substance use: A comprehensive test of the Sport Drug Control Model with elite Australian athletes

Objectives: This study presents a comprehensive examination of the Sport Drug Control Model via survey data of elite Australian athletes. Design: A cross-sectional nationwide mail survey. Methods: A mail survey of 1237 elite Australian athletes was conducted. Structural equation modelling was employed to test the model. Results: Morality (personal moral stance on performance-enhancing substances use), reference group opinion (perceived moral stance of reference group on performance-enhancing substances use) and legitimacy (perceptions of the drug testing and appeals processes) evidenced significant relationships with attitude towards performance-enhancing substances use, which in turn was positively associated with doping behaviour. The model accounted for 81% and 13% of the variance in attitude towards performance-enhancing substances use and doping behaviour, respectively. Conclusions: These findings validate the usefulness of the Sport Drug Control Model for understanding influences on performance-enhancing substances use. Nevertheless, there is a need to survey athletes representing a broader range of competition levels and cross-cultural research to test the model’s applicability to other populations of athletes

Process Evaluation of the Act-Belong-Commit Mentally Healthy WA campaign: First 12 months data

Objective: To assess the extent of partnerships established by and exposure obtained for the Act-Belong-Commit Campaign in the six intervention towns in the first 12 months from October 2005 to September 2006.Methods: In each town, data were collated on media exposure, partnerships established and co-branding of community-based events and activities under the Act-Belong-Commit banner.Results: In the first 12 months of the Campaign, four press advertisements were developed and placed twice a month for 12 months in a local newspaper in each town. The total coverage area was 45,350 cm2, with a media buy of $63,000. The campaign generated a total of 124 campaign-related press articles in these local newspapers (27,538 cm2), equating to approximately$38,000 worth of paid media in terms of coverage area (cm2). In total, 59 key partnerships were established, holding 115 co-branded community events and activities. The Campaign attracted 21 sponsorships for partners, totalling approximately $250,000, with a further$40,000 for merchandise resources.Conclusions:The partnerships with community organisations facilitated the co-banding of events and activities which provided opportunities for individuals to Act-Belong-Commit. The Campaign officers were successful in forming ongoing partnerships in each of the towns, no doubt because the campaign offered these partners significant benefits for their co-operation. The Campaign officers were instrumental in securing sponsorships of community events and activities which provided substantial funding to the sponsored organisations and further opportunities to promote the Act-Belong-Commit message. A substantial amount of unpaid media was generated mainly through good working relationships with the local media, again because the campaign offered them not only paid advertising but good stories and picture opportunities at local events.Implications:Establishing strong working relationships with partners, including the media, is dependent on being able to offer partners something of value to them in return. All health promotion efforts, but particularly those dealing with small community-based organisations or country town branches of larger organisations need to ensure that their efforts to engage partners is accompanied by an understanding of the partner organisations? needs

Positively Versus Negatively Framed Product Attributes: The

ABSTRACT Previous studies have shown that the positive framing of a meat product attribute (i.e., 75% lean) results in more positive evaluation of the product than its presumed equivalent negative framing (25% fat). Other framing studies, particularly those dealing with health messages, show mixed results, although there is a tendency in favor of negative framing. Involvement has been hypothesized to account for these conflicting results, in that under high-involvement conditions, negative framing has been found to be superior, with positive framing superior under low-involvement conditions. This article replicates the original meat product study with respect to product attribute framing, and extends this by analyzing the data with respect to subjects' involvement in dietary fat decisions. The study also explores the relationship between framing effects and the influence of the frame on some decision-making reference point

Impact Evaluation of the Act-Belong-Commit Mental Health Promotion Campaign

Purpose – Act-Belong-Commit is a community-based positive mental health promotion campaign that targets individuals to engage in activities that enhance their mental health while targeting community organisations that provide such activities to promote their activities under the banner of the Act-Belong-Commit message. This paper aims to detail key findings from a population impact evaluation of the campaign conducted in 2010.Design/methodology/approach – Computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) were conducted on a randomly selected adult sample (n=1,113) using quotas to obtain equal representation by age and gender. The questionnaire contained items gauging campaign reach, the impact of the campaign on individual beliefs and behaviours, and perceived societal impact of the campaign on mental illness stigma and openness to mental health issues.Findings – The campaign reached 75 per cent of the population. Amongst those exposed to the campaign, 25 per cent reported changing the way they thought about mental health and mental illness, and 20 per cent reported some behaviour change. The campaign was perceived to be effective in making people more open about mental health issues (77 per cent of reached respondents) and reducing stigma surrounding mental illness (68 per cent of reached respondents).Practical implications – The campaign provides a framework for increasing mental health literacy on a population scale.Originality/value – With its focus on the positive aspects of mental health, the paper shows that the campaign is unique in promoting behaviours that people can and should do to build and maintain good mental health, while also encouraging community organisations and groups that provide mentally healthy activities to partner with the campaign to make mental health “everybody's business”

Perfectionistic profiles among elite athletes and differences in their motivational orientations

Although there is an emerging body of research that has examined perfectionistic clusters in the general population, few studies have explored such profiles in athlete samples. The purposes of this research were to explore perfectionistic profiles within a sample of elite athletes and the differences between them on key motivational variables. A sample of 423 elite athletes (179 males, 244 females) aged between 14 and 66 years (M = 25.64; SD = 8.57) from a variety of team (e.g., rowing, hockey, baseball, rugby) and individual sports (e.g., cycling, athletics, triathlon, gymnastics) completed a multisection questionnaire including measures of sport perfectionism, motivation regulation, achievement goals, and fear of failure. Cluster analyses revealed the existence of three perfectionism profiles, namely, nonperfectionists, maladaptive perfectionists, and adaptive perfectionists. Subsequent analyses generally supported the robustness of these perfectionism profiles in terms of differential motivational orientations (achievement goals, fear of failure, and motivation regulation) in hypothesized directions. Overall, the differences in motivational orientations between the three clusters supported a categorical conceptualization of perfectionism

Predictors of sun protection behaviours and sunburn among Australian adolescents

BACKGROUND: Excessive sun exposure and sunburn increase individuals' risk of skin cancer. It is especially important to prevent sunburn in childhood due to the higher relative risk of skin cancer across the life span compared to risk associated with sunburn episodes experienced later in life. This study examined demographic and attitudinal factors associated with engagement in a range of sun protection behaviours (wearing a hat, wearing protective clothing, staying in the shade, and staying indoors during the middle of the day) and the frequency of sunburn among Western Australian adolescents to provide insights of relevance for future sun protection campaigns. METHODS: Cross-sectional telephone surveys were conducted annually with Western Australians between 2005/06 and 2014/15. The results from 4150 adolescents aged 14-17 years were used to conduct a path analysis of factors predicting various sun protection behaviours and sunburn. RESULTS: Significant primary predictors of the sun protection behaviours included in the study were skin type (sun sensitivity), gender, tanning-related attitudes and behaviours, and perceived relevance of public service advertisements that advocate sun protection. Of the four sun protection behaviours investigated, staying in the shade and staying indoors during the middle of the day were associated with a lower frequency of sunburn. CONCLUSION: There is a particular need to target sun protection messages at adolescent males who are less likely to engage in the most effective sun protection behaviours and demonstrate an increased propensity to experience sunburn. The results suggest that such future sun protection messages should include a focus on the importance of staying in the shade or indoors during periods of high UV radiation to increase awareness of the efficacy of these methods of avoiding skin cancer

Key Issues and Challenges for Managing and Evaluating B2B E-Commerce Projects within the Australian Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

The use of Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce within the Australian pharmaceutical supply chain can potentially assist in setting up an infrastructure which supports complex, multiparty Internet-based trading and transactions among pharmaceutical manufacturers, wholesalers, hospitals, pharmacies, medical supply importers and exporters, and other players in the healthcare system. Effective use of B2B e-commerce can help these organizations reduce costs in supplying and distributing medicines and other medical-related products to the general public. However, despite high expectations for realizing the benefits of B2B e-commerce in the pharmaceutical supply chain, issues surrounding its evaluation and management remain poorly understood and relatively under-researched. This chapter presents case study findings on key management and evaluation issues and challenges in adopting and utilizing B2B e-commerce systems on eight pharmaceutical organizations in Australia. The key objectives of this study are: (1) to establish current practices and norms in evaluating B2B e-commerce investments and projects in the pharmaceutical industry; and (2) to identify key B2B e-commerce management issues and challenges within the Australian pharmaceutical supply chain. A key contribution of this chapter is the identification and examination of key issues and challenges faced by the pharmaceutical organizations undertaking B2B e-commerce activities within their supply chain. The findings will guide senior executives in these organizations to develop their own approaches or strategies to manage the opportunities and threats that exist in the Australian pharmaceutical supply chain

Evaluation of B2B pharmaceutical supply chain in Australia

© 2015 by IGI Global. All rights reserved. The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most innovative and research-intensive industries in the world. For example, five out of the top global Research and Development (R&D) companies were pharmaceutical companies. However, the industry is lagging behind other industries in adopting Business-to-Business (B2B) and supply chain technologies. With supply chain costs constituting around 25-40% of an organization's operating expenses, it is imperative for senior pharmaceutical executives to minimize this cost. Hence, the main objective of this chapter is to identify key B2B e-commerce management, evaluation, and benefits realization factors and challenges within the Australian pharmaceutical supply chain. The results of this study suggest that pharmaceutical companies not only need to carefully examine their B2B investment management and evaluation practices but also must invest in using appropriate evaluation methodologies for identifying and managing benefits, risks, and costs associated with their investments in B2B and supply chains