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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Competitive Sport Involvement and Substance Use among Adolescents: A Nationwide Study

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Pages 156-165 | Published online: 07 Oct 2014
 

Abstract

Background: The empirical research examining the impact of sports participation on alcohol and other drug use has produced mixed results. Part of this problem may be the result of how different types of sports participation create different experiences that shape certain types of behaviors that either facilitate or deter substance use. Objectives. We examined the association between different types of competitive sports participation and substance use among a nationally representative sample of adolescents. Methods: Two recent cross-sections from the Monitoring the Future were merged to capture a large subsection of adolescents who participate in either high-contact sports (football, wrestling, hockey, and lacrosse), semicontact sports (baseball, basketball, field hockey, and soccer), and noncontact sports (cross-country, gymnastics, swimming, tennis, track, and volleyball). Results: Multivariate analyses revealed that adolescents who participated in high-contact sports had higher odds of using substances during the past 30 days and initiating substance use at early ages. Further, adolescents who participated in noncontact sports had lower odds to indicate smoking cigarettes and marijuana during the past 30 days. Conclusions: Parents, educators, and policy makers need to consider that some sporting contexts may be a catalyst to engage in risky behaviors like substance use.

THE AUTHORS

Dr. Philip Veliz is an assistant research professor at the University of Michigan Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG). His current research focuses on examining how different types of competitive sports participation influences substance use among adolescents and young adults. In particular, he has been focusing on the use and misuse of prescription opioids among male athletes who participate in high contact sports. Moreover, he is also currently working with various longitudinal data sets to examine if participation in sports during high school limits the risk of substance use and abuse during the transition into young adulthood.

Dr. Carol Boyd is a Deborah J. Oakley Collegiate Professor of Nursing, research professor at the Institute for Research on Women & Gender (IRWG), and a professor in Women's Studies (all at the University of Michigan). She has conducted mixed-method studies that use innovative technologies to examine the relationship between gender and health behaviors. Dr. Boyd is known as a methodologist who designs studies aimed at hidden populations (e.g. drug users, adolescents, prisoners, low resource communities). Her current research focuses on prescription medication adherence and misuse, maternity waiting homes in Liberia and clinical interventions to increase medication adherence in high-risk populations. Dr. Boyd's international experiences include teaching, mentoring, and research in China, Ghana, Liberia, Poland, and Zambia.

Dr. Sean Esteban McCabe is an educator, social worker, and research professor at the University of Michigan Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG). He received his M.S.W., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. His current research focuses on the epidemiology, etiology, and prevention of substance use disorders among adolescents and young adults. He is currently working on several projects examining the medical use, nonmedical use, and diversion of prescription medications. Dr. McCabe specializes in using the Internet for survey research and he is currently developing web-based intervention programs aimed at reducing prescription medication misuse among adolescents.

GLOSSARY

  • Monitoring the Future (MTF): The Monitoring the Future (MTF) has been collected annually in the United States since 1975 and is one of the largest and most comprehensive surveys on adolescent substance use.

  • High-Contact Sports: Includes sports that involve continual violent contact that officially sanction hitting, knocking, or wrestling (or tackling) opponents to the ground. Football, ice hockey, lacrosse, and wrestling were identified as high-contact sports for this study.

  • Semi-Contact Sports: Includes sports that involve sporadic violent contact that may be officially sanctioned within the rules of the sport. Baseball, basketball, field hockey, or soccer, were identified as semi-contact sports for this study.

  • Non-Contact Sports: Includes sports where no contact can occur between participants due to either official rules or the structure of the playing field. Cross-country, gymnastics, swimming, tennis, track, or volleyball were identified as semi-contact sports for this study.

Notice of correction:

The affiliations have been updated for authors two and three since the original online publication date of October 7, 2014.

Notes

1 The MTF provides different surveys for 8th and 10th graders (four separate forms) when compared to 12th graders (six separate forms). Form 1 (for 8th and 10th graders) was chosen for this study given that it had questions that related to competitive sports participation and questions regarding age of initiation of substance use. Form 5 (for 12th graders) has questions related to competitive sports participation, but does not provide any questions related to age of initiation of substance use (a critical variable needed for this study).

2 The lowest grade when adolescents used either cocaine, crack, inhalants, or steroids was used to create the variable for early onset of ‘Other illicit’ drug use.

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