The impact of participation in sports on substance use during adolescence
Open Access
Author:
Rowe, Brendan
Area of Honors:
Criminology
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Eric P Baumer, Thesis Supervisor Stacy Silver, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
No keywords
Abstract:
Are adolescents who participate in sports less likely to use substances like drugs and alcohol? Prior work done on this topic finds conflicting results suggesting that there can be both positive and negative impacts of sports participation on substance use. The research done in this thesis looks to contribute additional insights by examining the question in a large sample of middle- and high-school students in the United States. By utilizing previous research and theories, a hypothesis is laid out anticipating that participation in organized sports leads to a decrease in alcohol and drug use. This thesis looks at this topic through those involved in organized sports because previous research shows this kind of sporting activity to be the most beneficial to adolescents. Through statistical analysis on data from the 2018 Monitoring the Future Study this thesis can provide a more comprehensive assessment of the relationship between participation in sports and drug and alcohol use. The results show that participation in sports significantly reduces alcohol use but not other drug use. Additionally, the study reveals that involvement in organized sports affects youth alcohol consumption by altering their rate of unstructured socializing, which reflects the amount of time spent with peers in unsupervised settings. Overall, the study indicates that sports participation reduces unstructured socializing, which in turn leads to less frequent alcohol use. These studies give us meaningful results that can be applied to larger topics of substance use and delinquency.
