Adolescent Anabolic Steroid Use, Gender, Physical Activity, and Other Problem Behaviors

Abstract

To test the comparative value of strain theory and problem behavior theory as explanations of adolescent anabolic steroid use, this study examined gender-specific relationships among steroid use, physical activity, and other problem behaviors. Based on the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 1997 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a nationally representative sample of over 16,000 U.S. public and private high school students, binge drinking, cocaine use, fighting, and sexual risk-taking were associated with higher odds of lifetime steroid use. In gender-specific analyses, steroid use was strongly associated with female fighting and smokeless tobacco use as well as male sexual risk. Neither athletic participation nor strength conditioning predicted odds of steroid use after controlling for problem behaviors, nor did steroid-using athletes report more frequent use than steroid-using nonathletes. The study's limitations and policy implications were noted. These data suggest that other problem behaviors such as substance use, fighting, and sexual risk are better predictors of adolescent steroid use than physical activity. Interventions to prevent steroid use should not be limited to male participants in organized sports programs, but should also target adolescents identified as at risk for other problem behaviors.

Keywords:

• anabolic steroids
• problem behavior
• physical activity
• gender
• adolescent
• strain theory
• problem behavior theory
• smokeless tobacco

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kathleen E. Miller

Kathleen E. Miller, Ph.D., is a sociologist and a research scientist at the Research Institute on Addictions in Buffalo, New York. Her research interests focus primarily on adolescent and young adult health-risk behaviors such as substance use, sexual risk-taking, and suicidality. She has recently become principal investigator of a exploratory study of athletic involvement, gender, and substance use by college students.

Joseph H. Hoffman

Joseph H. Hoffman has a Master's degree in Mathematics, and is a data analyst at the Research Institute on Addictions in Buffalo, New York. His current research involves secondary data analysis of two longitudinal studies of youth from the Buffalo, New York area, concernig the development of gambling and alcohol use in youth.

Grace M. Barnes

Grace M. Barnes has Ph.D. in Sociology and is a senior research scientist at the Research Institute on Addictions in Buffalo, New York as well as an adjunct associate professor at the University at Buffalo. Her research interests include family influences on the development of adolescent substance use and other problem behaviors, including gambling.

Don Sabo

Don Sabo, Ph.D. is professor of sociology at D'Youville College, and director of the Center for Research on Physical Activity, Sport & Health. He has conducted numerous nationwide studies of the links among sport, health, and educational outcomes. An avid scholar on gender relations, his recent book Prison Masculinities (Temple University) focuses on the USA prison system.

Merrill J. Melnick

Merrill J. Melnick, Ph.D., has been a professor of physical education and sport at S.U.N.Y. Brockport for 33 years. A native New Yorker, he has also held adjunct faculty appointments at universities in Finland, Israel, England, New Zealnd, and Norway. He has authored or edited nearly a hundred publications in physical education, sociology of sport, and social psychology of sport, including Sports Fans: The Psychology and Social Impact of Spectators (Routledge) and Contemporary Issues in Sociology of Sport (Human Kinetics).

Michael P. Farrell

Michael P. Farrell received his B.A. and Ph.D degrees from Yale University. He is currently professor and chair of the department of sociology, University at Buffalo, SUNY. Author of numerous articles and books on adolescent and parental development in families and groups, his most recent book is Collaborative Circles: Friendship Dynamics and Creative Work (University of Chicago).