Relevance of Athlete-Specific Psychosocial Factors in High School Student-Athlete Alcohol Consumption

Background: Research suggests that adolescent student-athletes are at heightened risk for alcohol consumption. The identification of unique, modifiable risk factors for alcohol use in this population is needed. Purpose/Objectives: Building on previous work highlighting the importance of each of athl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Substance use & misuse 2021, Vol.56 (2), p.264-274
Main Authors: Olthuis, Janine V., Zamboanga, Byron L., Perrotte, Jessica K., McAulay, Taylor
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescents
alcohol expectancies
Alcohol use
Athletes
Bravery
Conformity
Consumption
Coping
Drinking behavior
drinking motives
Gender
injunctive norms
Prevention programs
Psychosocial factors
Risk factors
Secondary schools
Self report
Sexuality
Sociability
Sports
Students
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Summary:Background: Research suggests that adolescent student-athletes are at heightened risk for alcohol consumption. The identification of unique, modifiable risk factors for alcohol use in this population is needed. Purpose/Objectives: Building on previous work highlighting the importance of each of athlete-specific drinking motives and alcohol expectancies, this study investigated whether athlete-specific psychosocial predictors optimize our ability to predict adolescent athlete alcohol consumption after accounting for general psychosocial predictors. Methods: Participants were 352 current high school student-athletes who completed a self-report questionnaire about their alcohol use attitudes, behaviors, and cognitions. Results: Hierarchical regression revealed that among the total sample, gender, class year, liquid courage/sociability, sexuality, and negative alcohol expectancies, and negative athletic-functioning alcohol expectancies predicted alcohol consumption. Among lifetime drinkers, gender, class year, enhancement motives, conformity motives (negative), negative athlete-functioning alcohol expectancies, and sport-related coping motives predicted alcohol consumption. Conclusions/Importance: Negative athletic-functioning alcohol expectancies and sport-related coping motives emerged as important, athlete-specific predictors of adolescent athlete alcohol use. These factors provide important opportunities for targeted prevention efforts.
ISSN:1082-6084
1532-2491
DOI:10.1080/10826084.2020.1861629