The Influence of Famous Athletes on Health Beliefs and Practices: Mark McGwire, Child Abuse Prevention, and Androstenedione

Abstract

When Mark McGwire broke Roger Maris's home run record in September of 1998, he was instantly declared an American hero and held up as a positive role model for teenagers and young adults. The extensive media attention focused on McGwire made the general public aware of his use of a muscle-building dietary supplement, Androstenedione. It also increased the public's awareness of McGwire's public service to prevent child abuse. The present research assesses audience involvement with McGwire through parasocial interaction and identification, and the effects of that involvement on audience knowledge of and attitudes toward Androstenedione and child abuse prevention. Results indicate parasocial interaction with an athlete regarded as a public role model likely leads to audience identification with that person, which in turn promotes certain attitudes and beliefs. In this case, parasocial interaction and identification with Mark McGwire was strongly associated with knowledge of Androstenedione, intended use of the supplement, and concern for child abuse. Implications of this research for featuring celebrities in health communication campaigns are discussed.

Applying the Health Belief Model to Examine News Coverage Regarding Steroids in Sports by ABC, CBS, and NBC Between March 1990 and May 2008

“…In light of these findings, professional athletes' lives are in the spotlight and research suggests that their actions can exert an influence on society (Brown et al, 2003). Magic Johnson's influence on HIV prevention is well documented (Basil & Brown, 1994;Brown & Basil, 1995).…”

Athletes as PR Spokespeople: the NFL’s “A Crucial Catch” PR Campaign Explored

“…A key variable that determined the level of influence an athlete had on promoting a health-related behavior change, or the intention to change behavior, depended on fans' involvement or perceived closeness with the athlete (Brown & Basil, 2003). The construct of involvement in communication research often takes on one of four forms: 1) Transportation, 2) parasocial interactions, 3) identification, and 4) worship (Brown, 2011).…”

“…This scale consists of 20 Likert-type items, which have attained a Cronbach's alpha reliability of .87 (Brown, Basil, & Bocarnea, 2003). Brown and Bocarnea (2007a) explained, "fans frequently view a team or a player as an extension of themselves… [And] people commonly seek to adopt the values, beliefs, and behaviours of celebrities and media persona [with] whom they admire" (Brown & Bocarnea, 2007a, p. 303).…”

Steroid Prohormones: Effects on Body Composition in Athletes

“…Prosteroids were indirectly introduced with US Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990 (21 USCS Section 802), which defined anabolic steroids as "…any drug or hormonal substance that promotes muscle growth in a manner physiologically similar to testosterone…", while steroid prohormones were not classified as anabolic steroids and could be purchased legally as dietary supplements (Broeder 2003;Brown et al 2006). This document didn't appear to make a significant decrease in the use of anabolic steroids (Brainum 2008), but concern about the side effects linked to steroid use did lead to the development of another popular anabolic offering: prohormone nutritional supplements (Brown et al 2003). In December of 1996, androstenedione became available for over-the-counter sales in United States (Ziegenfuss et al 2002), with subsequent availability of several other prohormones (e.g.…”

“…androstenediol, DHEA, norandrostenedione). The non-critical promotion era of prosteroids in sport began with the disclosure of androstenedione use by Mark McGwire in 1998, who at the time was elite baseball player, which stimulated extensive media attention and dramatically increased the sales of prohormones among recreative and professional athletes (Brown et al 2003, Brown et al 2006). In the past decades, prohormones have been highly marketed in the field of sport as lean body mass builders, fat reduction agents, and anticatabolic compounds.…”