Authors
Davies, FM and Foxall, GR
Date
2011
Keywords
Sport; adolescents; health; alcohol.
Country of research
United Kingdom
Summary of findings
The authors claim that this is the first UK investigation of the
links between sporting involvement and alcohol consumption among
high school students (most previous research is from the
USA). The authors provide a review of literature emphasising
the intimate relationship between alcohol and sponsoring, watching
and participating in sport. They also review literature on,
mostly USA, research on the use of alcohol by young athletes, which
indicated that athletes were more likely than non-athletes to binge
drink because of socialisation, celebration and stress
management. There were little differences between the alcohol
consumption of female athletes and non-athletes. Some studies
indicate that these patterns are established in secondary
school.
This study was based on the theory of reasoned
action to predict the likelihood of alcohol use (in the near
future, ‘next weekend’ and the longer term) from attitudes to
alcohol consumption and subjective norms (peer and parental
attitudes; athlete and non-athlete friends) and their relationship
to sporting involvement. Within this context the study
explored a number of hypotheses; Young male athletes will have a
more positive attitude to drinking alcohol/getting drunk/believe
that their peer group will approve of getting drunk than
non-athletes.
The study was undertaken in a South Wales city
via a self-completion questionnaire from Year 10 students (14/15
years old) in a stratified sample of five schools (prior focus
groups were used to explore many of the issues). There were a
total of 296 satisfactorily completed questionnaires (164 males,
132 females). Involvement in and identification with sport
were measured using the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale.
Using a measure of 3 days participation per week and high
importance, 66 boys and 18 girls were identified as athletes.
Current consumption, attitudes to alcohol and its consumption and
perceived likelihood of short and long term consumption were
measured.
The findings indicate that male athletes
scored higher than non-athletes on all measures of intention to
drink, or get drunk and showed a more positive attitude towards
getting drunk, although not all differences were statistically
significant. However, they had a less positive attitude to
drinking alcohol. Male athletes believed that their friends
would be more approving of drinking and getting drunk, although
they had a less positive attitude to drinking alcohol.
Because the female sample of athletes was small (n: 18) the authors
emphasise caution. Means for the likelihood of drinking and
getting drunk on the weekend were higher for female athletes than
non-athletes; although differences were not statistically
significant. Female athletes had a significantly more
negative attitude toward drinking alcohol and had more negative
attitudes to drinking alcohol. For female athletes, friends’
approval of all drinking behaviours was slightly higher for female
athletes than non-athletes (although it was only significant for
approval of drinking at age 18). Girls’ current behaviour
appeared to be highly influenced by their peer groups while for
boys parental approval/disapproval was also significant.
The authors conclude that male teenage
athletes appear to have a higher level of involvement with alcohol
particularly in terms of excess consumption than non-athletes,
although they may be ambivalent about whether this is a good thing.
The evidence suggests that male athletes believe that they will
consume alcohol and get drunk more often than non-athletes. There
is little evidence that female athletes have or will have more
involvement with alcohol.
The authors admit a number of limitations with
the study: attitudes and intentions to consume alcohol are
vulnerable to a number of competing pressures to conform to social
and peer expectations; young males may exaggerate consumption and
young women understate it; athletes may play down their consumption
of alcohol. However they state that there is evidence that
intentions are good predictors of behaviour in relation to alcohol
consumption.
The authors conclude that males may be socialised at a
relatively young age into a masculine culture in which alcohol is
accepted as a normal accompaniment to sporting activity and this
may affect their expectations of both current and future behaviour
(despite having more negative attitudes to alcohol). The
authors speculate that perhaps the sports played by boys are more
likely to have alcohol sponsorship than girls’ sports; that boys’
sports are more likely to have communal post games activities
organised around alcohol; that certain sports attract risk takers
with a propensity for sensation-seeking. They propose that a
larger sample of females is required to explore such issues and
that any future research should include an analysis of the choice
of preferred sports and psychometric analyses.
Methodology
Survey
Source of reference
Journal of Applied Social
Psychology, 41(9), 2284-2311
Web reference
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2011.00806.x/abstract
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