Relationship between General and Sport-Related Drinking Motives and Athlete Alcohol Use and Problems

Substance Misuse in Elite Athletes: Early Detection, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment

Sports medicine physicians and athletic trainers regularly encounter athletes who misuse substances that put them at risk for adverse health, social, interpersonal, academic, psychological, and performance effects. The three most encountered substances are alcohol (binge drinking), cannabis (marijuana), and tobacco/nicotine vaping. Early detection using self-report screening instruments, adverse consequences questionnaires, and urine testing are reviewed. Brief interventions that involve personalized feedback, goal setting, support system involvement, psychoeducation, contingency management, and/or motivational interviewing are highlighted. Lack of response to brief intervention or progression to a substance use disorder should prompt the consideration of referral to a substance specialty level of care.

Heavy Drinking among High School Student Athletes and Non-Athletes: Do Differences Emerge as Early as the Ninth Grade?

High school athletes have been identified as a high-risk group for heavy drinking. Little is known, however, about the timing of when student athlete heavy drinking begins to diverge from that of non-athletes. Objectives: The aim of the current study is to examine differences in changes in heavy drinking among ninth grade student athletes and non-athletes across the academic year. We hypothesized that student athletes would report greater increases in heavy drinking compared to non-athletes from fall to spring semester. Ninth grade students (N = 217) aged 13 to 15 completed questionnaires on heavy drinking indices, quantity of peak drinking, frequency of binge drinking, and estimated blood alcohol concentration (eBAC) during the fall and spring semesters. Consistent with our hypothesis, student athletes reported significantly greater increases in heavy drinking compared to non-athletes from fall to spring semester. Additionally, there was a significant increase in all three indices of heavy drinking for student athletes, whereas there were no significant changes for non-athletes. Results demonstrate divergence in the quantity and frequency of heavy drinking between student athletes and non-athletes during the ninth grade. These findings indicate the optimal timing of preventive intervention programs may be different for student athletes and non-athletes. Results also suggest that preventive intervention program targeting heavy drinking should be implemented for high school student athletes as early as the fall semester of the ninth grade when students are transitioning to high school.

Sport-Related and Psychosocial Factors Associated With Motives and Consequences Of Alcohol and Cannabis Use Among NCAA Athletes: A Systematic Review

AIMS

To review differences in alcohol- and cannabis-related motives and consequences among National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletes as a function of athlete characteristics (e.g. gender and competition season status).

METHODS

Procedures followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. PubMed, PsycINFO and manual reference list review were used to identify studies that reported alcohol- or cannabis-related motives and consequences among NCAA athletes as a function of gender, race, season status, division level or sport-type through December 2019. Relevant findings and any reported psychosocial correlates were extracted by two independent reviewers.

RESULTS

The majority of studies (K = 15) focused on alcohol-related motives or consequences, with one examining cannabis-related motives, and no studies examined cannabis-related consequences. Social drinking motives were strongest among men and White NCAA athletes, and athlete-specific motives were most salient for men and in-season athletes. Cannabis use motives for positive reinforcement (e.g. enhancement) and coping were also strongest during the in-season. Negative alcohol-related consequences were greatest among men, athletes of color and out-of-season athletes, although women and in-season athletes experienced more consequences in athletic performance. Our exploratory aim revealed two studies that examined psychosocial correlates, and the results indicate that sensation-seeking, stress and negative affect were associated with more alcohol-related consequences.

CONCLUSION

NCAA athletes are a heterogenous population, and their motives and consequences of use appear to vary across multiple athlete factors (e.g., gender). This review highlights the gaps in the literature and suggests future research directions to identify the risk and protective factors for substance use among NCAA athletes.

Alcohol and Athletics: A Study of Canadian Student-Athlete Risk

American student-athletes (SAs) are at heightened risk for hazardous alcohol consumption compared with their nonathlete peers. However, little is known about this risk or the influence of psychosocial predictors on drinking behavior among Canadian SAs. This study compared rates of alcohol use across Canadian SAs and nonathletes and investigated whether the use of athlete-specific psychosocial predictors can improve the prediction of alcohol use outcomes in SAs. Participants (179 varsity athletes and 366 nonathletes) completed anonymous self-report questionnaires. Results suggest that Canadian athletes are at a heightened risk for experiencing alcohol-related problems compared with nonathletes, with general psychosocial predictors explaining the majority of variance in SA alcohol use. However, and quite notably, athlete-specific positive reinforcement motives predicted SA binge drinking. This research provides some of the first evidence of drinking-related problems among Canadian SAs and supports the potential use of preventative efforts to help SAs develop safe strategies for alcohol use.

Relevance of Athlete-Specific Psychosocial Factors in High School Student-Athlete Alcohol Consumption

Background: Research suggests that adolescent student-athletes are at heightened risk for alcohol consumption. The identification of unique, modifiable risk factors for alcohol use in this population is needed. Purpose/Objectives: Building on previous work highlighting the importance of each of athlete-specific drinking motives and alcohol expectancies, this study investigated whether athlete-specific psychosocial predictors optimize our ability to predict adolescent athlete alcohol consumption after accounting for general psychosocial predictors. Methods: Participants were 352 current high school student-athletes who completed a self-report questionnaire about their alcohol use attitudes, behaviors, and cognitions. Results: Hierarchical regression revealed that among the total sample, gender, class year, liquid courage/sociability, sexuality, and negative alcohol expectancies, and negative athletic-functioning alcohol expectancies predicted alcohol consumption. Among lifetime drinkers, gender, class year, enhancement motives, conformity motives (negative), negative athlete-functioning alcohol expectancies, and sport-related coping motives predicted alcohol consumption. Conclusions/Importance: Negative athletic-functioning alcohol expectancies and sport-related coping motives emerged as important, athlete-specific predictors of adolescent athlete alcohol use. These factors provide important opportunities for targeted prevention efforts.

Risks associated with alcohol and marijuana use among college student athletes: The case for involving athletic personnel in prevention and intervention

The purpose of this study was to describe alcohol and marijuana use patterns and related consequences among student athletes. A total of 12,510 students (n=1,233 athletes) completed four cross-sectional online annual surveys as part of a multi-site campus initiative. Chi-square tests of independence, t-tests, and regression models evaluated differences in alcohol and marijuana use between athletes and non-athletes. The prevalence of binge drinking and high intensity drinking was significantly higher among student athletes than non-athletes, even after controlling for demographic characteristics. Thirteen percent of student athletes experienced an alcohol-related injury during the past year; this was more common among binge drinkers than non-binge drinkers (20.5% and 2.6%, respectively). Among student athletes, past-month binge drinking and past-year marijuana use were significantly associated with lowered GPA (ps<.01). Skipping class was twice as prevalent among student athletes who used marijuana as compared with athletes who did not use marijuana, but no differences were found related to binge drinking. Components for a training for athletic personnel to reduce risks for alcohol-related injury and academic consequences that are associated with alcohol and marijuana use among student athletes are described. Involving athletic personnel might be an important strategy to identify and intervene with high-risk student athletes.