Sowing sport integrity: co-creation of an educational module for fraud prevention in elite sport schools

Background: Fraudulent behaviors such as doping and match-fixing need to be addressed early in physical education to safeguard sport integrity and, more generally, promote positive youth development. Past research has highlighted the potential of moral interventions in targeting different types of fraudulent behaviors in sport. Moral interventions address moral psychological drivers, including moral identity, anticipated guilt, and moral disengagement. While these interventions proved effective, they often focused narrowly on specific fraudulent behaviors (e.g. doping) and were not easy to implement due to their extended duration. Purpose: The present manuscript describes and reflects on the co-creation and evaluation of a moral intervention (in the form of an educational module) designed to help prevent fraud in sport among young athletes. The focus was thus on the co-creation process of a concise, adolescent-appropriate, and easy-to-implement intervention for schools and various sport settings with limited resources. Method: A participatory co-creation approach was employed, comprising a series of iterative phases including conceptualization, material development, and prototyping. The co-creation involved close collaboration with athletes, coaches, federation representatives, and sport integrity experts, as well as other partners from the education and sport sectors in Flanders. Diverse methodologies, including co-creation sessions, interviews with diverse stakeholders, and an extensive literature review on the subjects of sport integrity and moral psychology aided the multi-informant development. We conducted multiple rounds of prototyping, ultimately engaging 144 young athletes in the development and evaluation of the intervention. Findings: The novel intervention comprises four interactive components addressing the (im)morality of athletes as well as factual information regarding multiple types of fraud in sport (e.g. doping, match-fixing, and identity fraud), aided by different interactive teaching methods, such as dilemma training with realistic fraud scenarios. It has a duration of around 75–90 min. End-users reported high appreciation (satisfaction, participation, and perceived effects) suggesting that the intervention achieved its intended aims from the participants’ perspective. Conclusion: Our findings illustrate the potential of co-created educational modules for addressing moral challenges with young athletes. The involvement of diverse stakeholders was highly beneficial, ensuring nuance through multiple perspectives, realistic intervention materials, and a broad network facilitating the sustainable implementation of the intervention. Impact statement: Our study provides scholars and practitioners with practical insights to support future co-creation efforts regarding sport integrity interventions. Furthermore, the co-created intervention offers educators an accessible way to introduce and openly discuss fraud in sport with young (elite) athletes as they begin their careers.