Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 May;38(5):491-8.
doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2010.01.023.

Sports participation and problem alcohol use: a multi-wave national sample of adolescents

Darren Mays  1 , Lara Depadilla, Nancy J Thompson, Howard I Kushner, Michael Windle
Affiliations

Sports participation and problem alcohol use: a multi-wave national sample of adolescents

Darren Mays et al. Am J Prev Med. 2010 May.

Abstract

Background: Sports participation, though offering numerous developmental benefits for youths, has been associated with adolescent alcohol use. Differences also exist between men/boys and women/girls in both sports participation and patterns of alcohol-related behaviors, but there are few longitudinal investigations of this relationship.

Purpose: This study investigated the relationship between school-based sports participation and alcohol-related behaviors using data from a multiwave national study of adolescent men/boys and women/girls.

Methods: Nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, collected between 1994 and 2001, were analyzed in 2009 (n=8271). Latent growth modeling, accommodating the complex sampling design, was applied to examine whether participation in school-based sports was associated with initial levels and change in problem alcohol use over three waves of data collection.

Results: After taking into account time-invariant covariates including demographics and other predictors of alcohol use, greater involvement in sports during adolescence was associated with faster average acceleration in problem alcohol use over time among youths who took part in only sports. The findings suggest, however, that the relationship between sports participation and problem alcohol use depends on participation in sports in combination with other activities, but it does not differ between men/boys and women/girls.

Conclusions: Sports may represent an important and efficient context for selective interventions to prevent problem alcohol use and negative consequences of alcohol use among adolescents.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Latent growth model for the sample Note: Latent growth model among the entire sample (n = 8721). Model fit: χ2 (12) = 30.9, p = 0.002, CFI = 1.00, RMSEA = 0.01. Time-invariant (Wave-1) covariates not shown in the figure included gender, white race, age, parental alcoholism, friends’ drinking, and parental monitoring. Significant paths at p<0.05 are denoted by an asterisk. Error terms e1–e3 represent variability in measured problem alcohol use not explained by the model. Unstandardized coefficients are displayed. CFI, comparative fit index; PAU, problem alcohol use; RMSEA, root mean square error of approximation
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Barber BL, Stone MR, Hunt JE, Eccles JS. Benefits of activity participation: the roles of identity affirmation and peer group norm sharing. In: Mahoney JL, Larson RW, Eccles JS, editors. Organized activities as contexts of development: extracurricular activities, after-school and community programs. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; 2005. pp. 185–210.
    1. Sussman S, Pokhrel P, Ashmore RD, Brown BB. Adolescent peer group identification characteristics: a review of the literature. Addict Behav. 2007;32:1602–1627. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Eccles JS, Barber BL. Student council, volunteering, basketball, or marching band: what kind of extracurricular involvement matters? J Adolesc R. 1999;14:10–43.
    1. Eccles JS, Barber BL, Stone M, Hunt J. Extracurricular activities and adolescent development. J Soc Issues. 2003;59:865–889.
    1. Garry JP, Morrissey SL. Team sports participation and risk-taking behaviors among a biracial middle school population. Clin J Sport Med. 2000;10:185–190. - PubMed

Publication types