Alcohol Comsumption: Drinking Motives

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among drinking motives, sport-related achievement motivations and alcohol consumption in a population of student athletes. Interaction effects for each type of drinking motive and achievement motivations were observed. The results indicated that there was a relationship between all three ADS subscales and alcohol use, as well as one SOQ subscale and alcohol use, but these relationships were moderated by both gender and athletic status. Implications for these finding are discussed below.

Initial analysis revealed the prevalence of heavy alcohol consumption among this student athlete population; with 68.9% of participants scoring +8 on the AUDIT. This is consistent with and adds to the rising body of research regarding the high rates of hazardous drinking behaviours in university sports people (Brenner and Swanik, 2007; Doumas, 2013; Leichliter et al., 1998; Nelson and Wechsler, 2001; Weschler et al., 1997). Furthermore, as predicted, we found greater levels of hazardous drinking in male athletes compared to female athletes. This is in accordance with previous research (O’Brien et al., 2007; Weaver et al., 2013) highlighting the significant gender differences in relation to alcohol consumption and confirms the need to control for this variable. Young and White (2000) suggest that women tend to be more health conscious than men; and therefore it is possible that women drink less due to the negative health consequences associated with heavy alcohol consumption.

The ADS was used in order to examine sport-specific psychosocial reasons for alcohol consumption; supporting the hypothesis, the ADS predicted a substantial proportion of the unique variance in AUDIT scores. ...

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...8+ on the AUDIT). In this sample, 68.9% of participants fell into such category. This rate is consistent with previous research on UK university students (Heather et al., 2011; Webb et al., 1996) and highlights the significant drinking culture experienced on campus. Whilst it has been suggested that most students become more responsible with age (Moore et al., 2005), and when they leave university and assume roles of responsibility (Heather et al., 2011); it is obvious that there is a need to provide better education and support to this ‘high-risk’ population.

In summary, it is clear to see that alcohol consumption remains a cause for concern. The prevalence of such high levels of hazardous alcohol consumption demonstrated in the study raises important questions regarding alcohol advice and prevention strategies employed in English universities, or lack of.