Performance-Enhancing Drug Use Among Professional Athletes: A Longitudinal Test of Social Learning Theory

This article tests Akers's social learning theory with self-reported panel data on performance-enhancing drug (PED) use among a sample of professional athletes (n = 510). Using latent growth curve modeling we find that intraindividual differences exist in the developmental growth trajectories of PED use and the social learning process. Specifically, both PED use and the social learning process increase over time, while those who begin with high and low levels of PED consumption and social learning replicate these patterns throughout the sports life cycle. In addition, using structural equation modeling, we find modest to moderate contemporaneous and lagged, direct, indirect, and reciprocal effects between the social learning process and PED use in a manner consistent with the theory.