Competitive Sports Participation and Substance Use Among Adolescents and Young Adults: Making Sense of a Paradox Philip Veliz, PhD Institute for Research on Women & Gender The Great Sports Myth? • Participation in sport is essentially good for the healthy development of adolescents and young adults. Are Sports Good or Bad for Adolescents and Young Adults? • Two debates in the Sociology of Sport. • Sports are Good: Sports socialize adolescents and young adults to a set of values that promote positive physical, cognitive, and emotional development. • Sports are Bad: Sports are a distraction to fully engage in academics, and socializes participants to a set of norms that facilitates deviance (e.g., “Win at all costs”, “Play through pain”, “People only remember champions”). The Health Paradox: Sports and Substance Use • Research that focuses on sport participant versus non-participant. – Sport participants are at a greater risk of alcohol consumption – Sport participants are at a greater risk of smokeless tobacco use – Sport participants are at a greater risk of using performance enhancing drugs Understanding Athlete Substance Use by Examining Sports Based on Level of Contact • The majority of empirical studies focus on sport participation as a homogenous concept (i.e., collapsing all participants into one group). • This is problematic because certain types of sports provide vastly different experiences (e.g., Football versus Tennis). Adolescent Substance Use and Different Types of Sports Participation • Studies using nationally representative data of adolescents in the U.S. have found the following: – Participation in High Contact Sports is associated with a higher risk of… • • • • • Binge Drinking Cigarette use Marijuana use Nonmedical use of prescription pain killers Nonmedical use of prescription stimulants – Participation in Non-Contact Sports is associated with a lower risk of… • Cigarette use • Marijuana use Does This Theoretical Model Work Among College Athletes in the NCAA? • Despite the research on adolescent athletes, this theoretical model has not been applied to college athletes. – Very few national surveys ask respondents about involvement in different types of sports. – Lack of publically available data on college athletes. Data and Methods • The data comes from two major sources – The 2013 Monitoring the Future (12th graders) – 2012-2013 NCAA National Study of Substance Use Habits of College Student-Athletes (College Athletes) • Dependent Variables (Substance Use) – Past Year Alcohol Use – Past Year Marijuana Use – Past Year Cocaine Use – Past Year Steroid Use – Past Year Amphetamine Use Sports Based on Level of Contact • Males • Contact Sports – Football, Ice Hockey, Lacrosse, Wrestling • Semi-Contact Sports – Baseball, Basketball, Soccer • Non-Contact Sports – Golf, Swimming, Tennis, Track • Females • Contact Sports – Ice Hockey, Lacrosse • Semi-Contact Sports – Basketball, Field Hockey, Soccer, Softball • Non-Contact Sports – Crew, Golf, Gymnastics, Swimming, Tennis, Track, Volleyball Overall Percentage of Alcohol Use Within the Last 12 Months 94% 100% 86% 80% 72% 65% 83% 82% 80% 65% 67% 65% 82% 63% 60% Alcohol Use (12th Grade) 40% 20% Alcohol Use (College) 0% Contact Sports SemiContact Sports NonContact Sports Male Athletes Contact Sports SemiContact Sports NonContact Sports Female Athletes Overall Percentage of Marijuana Use Within the Last 12 Months 60% 48% 42% 41% 39% 40% 33% 31% 25% 23% 32% 23% 20% 17% 14% 0% Contact Sports SemiContact Sports NonContact Sports Male Athletes Contact Sports SemiContact Sports NonContact Sports Female Athletes Marijuana Use (12th Grade) Marijuana Use (College) Overall Percentage of Cocaine Use Within the Last 12 Months 8% 6% 5.9% Cocaine Use (12th Grade) 5.6% 4.6% 4% Cocaine Use (College) 3.4% 2.4% 2.1% 2% 1.5% 1.7% 1.0% 1.7% 0.6% 0.3% 0% Contact Sports SemiContact Sports NonContact Sports Male Athletes Contact Sports SemiContact Sports NonContact Sports Female Athletes Overall Percentage of Steroids Use Within the Last 12 Months 4% 3% 3.0% 2.8% 1.8% 2% 1% Steriods Use (12th Grade) 0.8% Steriods Use (College) 1.8% 0.5% 0.8% 0.2% 0.3% 0.6% 0.2% 0.1% 0% Contact Sports SemiContact Sports NonContact Sports Male Athletes Contact Sports SemiContact Sports NonContact Sports Female Athletes Overall Percentage of Amphetamine Use Within the Last 12 Months 20% Ampetamine Use (12th Grade Athletes) 15.8% 15% Ampetamine Use (College Athletes) 11.1% 10% 9.0% 9.3% 9.1% 6.7% 7.0% 5.3% 5% 4.4% 6.3% 4.2% 2.9% 0% Contact Sports SemiContact Sports NonContact Sports Male Athletes Contact Sports SemiContact Sports NonContact Sports Female Athletes Summary • Contact sports had the highest prevalence rates among athletes for alcohol, marijuana use, cocaine use, and steroid use. • 12th grade athletes, particularly athletes in contact sports, had higher prevalence rates for illegal substances when compared to college athletes. Conclusions • Possible explanations – (1) High contact sports may foster behaviors that are conducive of engaging in risky behaviors like substance use. – (2) Youth who are more prone to engaging in risky behaviors select into high risk/contact sports. • Next Steps (i.e., Interventions to target athletes needs to begin during adolescence)
© Copyright 2024