The Influence of Sport Participation on African American Youth Binge Drinking

Abstract

Background: The many negative consequences and high rates of use associated with youth binge drinking make further study into its causes and correlates vital. Sport participation is a relevant factor in predicting drinking behaviors among youth in need of further research. Objectives: The current study tests the influence of specific types of sport participation on the binge drinking behaviors of African American youth through binary logistic regression. Study of this particular sample is vital as race and sport participation have been shown to be critical variables associated with variations in drinking behaviors. Results: Results indicated that various types of sport participation were uniquely associated with drinking behaviors. Conclusion/Importance: Results are framed through social learning, social bond, and the power sport hypothesis in accordance with previous research.

Keywords:

• Underage drinking
• sport participation
• juvenile delinquency

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Cheerleading was excluded from the analysis as data collection for participation was not included in all years (2006–2016) of survey administration.

2 Results including the full range of sport participation and collapsed categories of contact vs. noncontact sport were considered in the final model of the logistic regression and are available upon request. Results regarding analysis of the full range of sports indicated only ice hockey and gymnastics were significant and positively associated with binge drinking. Neither of the collapsed categories of contact vs. noncontact sport participation was statistically significant to binge drinking in either step 2 or 3.