cognitive correlations and psychological morbidities of doping in adolescent athletes in kermanshah, iran

objective: this study aimed to determine the relations between cognitive variables (self efficacy, locus of control, and dysfunctional attitudes) and psychological morbidities with using doping agents in adolescent athletes. methods: we conducted a case-control study in kermanshah among adolescent athletes using 50 athletic drug users with reported use as a case group and 50 athletic nonusers and 50 nonathletic nonusers as controls that were matched on salient demographics. controls selected by a simple random sampling. they were then studied by self-efficacy questionnaire, locus of control scale, dysfunctional attitude scale, and general health questionnaire. hypotheses tested by variance analysis and tukey’s test. results: our findings showed that athletic drug users had a lower self-efficacy, more dysfunctional attitudes, and exhibited external locus of control rather than control groups. they were also more sensitive to psychological morbidity. most of relations were statistically significant. conclusion: our findings were in accordance with the theoretical basis of cognitive psychology and they are comparable to most of the similar studies.