Examining Awareness, Attitude, and Experience of Young Athletes Towards Banned Usage of Illegal Drugs in Selangor

Abstract

Drug abuse occurs in all sports and at most levels of sports competition. A young athlete may lead to drug abuse for several reasons including pressure to perform, treatment of injuries, and release from physical pain. This study examines the relationship between awareness, attitude, and experiences of young athletes towards the banned usage of illegal drugs in the University of Selangor. The present study conducts a quantitative research approach and collects data through a questionnaire survey from 150 undergraduate students between 18 to 27 years old. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software is used to analyse the data. It is found that awareness, attitude, and experience have a significant relationship with the knowledge, and understanding of students towards the usage of banned drugs. Although young athletes acquire information about banned illegal drugs and realise the negative impact of the drugs, they tend to consume due to their attitude and desire to win a competition. The present study implies that universities need to increase the awareness among university students of the hazardous impact of using illegal drugs in sports and implement strict measures to curb the untoward incidents that might happen to the young athletes for taking the drugs. Besides, the prevention of drug abuse should be placed as a top priority as far as the sports agenda is concerned in this country.