Introduction:
The reason for questioning whether athletics has an affect on alcohol consumption is to investigate the activities and reasoning behind drinking habits of Bucknell athletes. Since “alcohol is the most widely used drug on American college campuses (1-7) with annual prevalence rates of approximately 82%-85%,”[1] it is not too far fetched to assume students consume a large quantity of alcohol.Our hypothesis, however, introduces another variable, the athlete. We believe that at Bucknell University, on average, an athlete consumes more alcohol than a non-athlete does. Although athletes are thought to be very self-conscious of their bodies and there are many strict rules set for them as far as coming to practice or to games under the slightest bit of influence.
Some investigators speculate that athletes would be more inclined to maintain top physical fitness and would therefore be less likely to drink than non-athletes. Recent research, however, has failed to support that position. Rather, it appears that athletes are as likely, and in many instances more likely than the general student population, to engage in deleterious alcohol consumption.[2]
Our hypothesis assumes that alcohol plays a major role in celebrations at the end of a game, scrimmage, or tournament. It may also play a bigger role in losses because of depression and disappointment. Another issue that comes to play when dealing with athletes and alcohol is competition. Athletes have a lot of stress just dealing with their self-esteem. An athlete who is being pressured by the coach may tend to resort to drinking as a way to cope. These are just a few of the issues that have to be continually dealt with by athletes alone. In addition to the added concerns, an athlete is still also a student and may use drinking to unwind, party, and reduce stress.
Athletes have stricter consequences targeted toward them if they get caught. They maybe suspended for a game, a season, scholarship taken away, or have their titles stripped. Athletes are very much in the school’s public attention because they represent Bucknell every time they put on the uniform and step out to play. These are some of the key issues that athletes have to contend with on an everyday basis and may provoke increased amounts of alcohol consumption. “Although coaches and team regulations almost always prohibit alcohol use during playing season and before games, the literary data we found indicated that, as a group, athletes drink more than non-athletes.”[3]
Literary Review:
There have been many policies and studies done on college campuses that address the issue of athletes and alcohol consumption, some more affective than others. The articles, studies, and viewpoints raised by these outside sources provide some insight into the study that we want to conduct. Many of the articles state evidence that our hypothesis as well as our reasoning for its occurrence is correct.
Our findings offered considerable support for the hypothesis that athletes consume more alcohol and face more consequences from use than non-athletes do. The number of alcoholic drinks the respondents consume per week and the percentage of students reporting episodes of binge drinking increased as the level of involvement in intercollegiate athletics increased from non-participant to team leader.[4]
Many articles seem to have come to the conclusion that athletes consume more alcohol than non-athletes. In one college study, 216 student athletes were found to have consumed “more alcohol per occasion than non-athletes.” Athletes consumed 54% while non-athletes consumed 36%. Binge drinking, measured as 5 or more drinks in a row, was found to have “increased as involvement in athletics increased.”
The division of involvement of athletics was broken up into: involved, somewhat involved, and not involved. The results for men binge drinking were 61%, 55%, and 43% respectively. As for the women the results were as follows; 50%, 46%, 36% for the same categories.[5]
Another common trend found in the studies concerning drinking and athletes was the concept that although athletes drink more than non-athletes, athletes in leadership roles drink even more due to the added stress. “The data indicate that team leaders (especially men) are poor role models and demonstrate heavier alcohol use and substance abuse-related problems.”
A study done of 51,483 students on 125 campuses in the US between 1994 and 1996 found that male team leaders binge drank a total of 64% in comparison to the 61% their teammates drank and the 45% for non-athletes. In contrast 49% of women team leaders were reported to binge drink while their teammates followed with 47% and finally 31% for non-athletes.
Aside from the issues of just influence on alcohol and athletes issues such as messages being set to fans can also be a concern. “[A]lcohol and sports are clearly connected in American society, as shown by the many commercial advertisements during televised sporting events.”[6] One solution is the banning of alcohol advertisements at games due to the influence it may have not only on the players but the fans.[7] This request was made to help prevent stimulating under-age drinking. The continual advertising during games and huge signs hung around may make the statement that drinking is acceptable and encouraged in the sports world. A bigger problem that can stem from the influence of advertisements is the issue of following role models in professional sports. Through television and magazine ads the promotion of alcohol behavior on college students and, even worse, high school students causes the wrong idea about what is ‘cool’ as well as what is accepted and expected of society from an athlete. Many believe that it is a coach’s responsibility to prevent the team from getting this idea.
"The athletics director at the University of North Carolina put the entire men's soccer team on probation and prohibited the team from playing two tournaments games after a freshman on the team was hospitalized for alcohol poisoning after attending a team party." Some educators have reached the point that they claim "sports programs are a center of binge drinking."[8]
One of the most intriguing articles that we discovered was an article in the Journal of American College Health called, Greeks and Athletes: Who Drinks, More? This article, published in January of 1999, really deals with some of the issues that we hypothesized about. The study of substance abuse was conducted on 51,483 college athletes at 125 institutions.Their results included numbers comparing athletes in Greek organization versus athletes who are not Greek affiliated. Behaviors such as binge drinking, hangovers, vomiting, things later regret, driving under the influence, missed classes, getting into arguments, and memory loss were covered. The differences between Greek and athlete were not the only variables analyzed in this study, the differences between men versus women were also observed. The results found are a good base for comparison to the results found at Bucknell.
The results of the study were that ”[s]tudents who participated in both Greek life and intercollegiate athletics consumed the most alcohol and engaged in the most binge drinking.” The most likely to endure negative consequences was the combination Greek/athlete, then Greek/non-athletes, non-Greek/athletes, and finally, non-Greek/non-athletes. Even though the combination of Greek and athlete is the worst off of all the categories it is still important to note, “The fraternity and sorority members are more involved in drinking than the athletes. Greek athletes consumed three to four times the amount of alcohol that their non-Greek, non-athletic counterparts did and experienced roughly twice as many reported episodes of bingeing in the previous fortnight.”[9]
Theory:
Some of the articles already deal with the idea of punishment and its effect on athletes' continuation of alcohol consumption. The affect of punishment, represented as marginal cost in the Rational Addition Model, is dependent on the marginal benefit. We assume that college students are not alcoholics that it is just a part of college life to drink. However, the differences in the consequences of drinking between an athlete and a non-athlete may lead to more drinking on the athlete’s part. “Athletes are under a considerable amount of pressure in terms of performance, academics, and time commitments; alcohol may appear to them as a normal way to relieve some of the pressures in the collegiate environment.”[10]
The logic behind the implementation of increased penalties, we assume, is to increase the marginal cost and reduce athlete’s drinking habits. Here, the non-athlete will not have an increase in marginal cost because we are focusing on the penalties only enforced for athletes. The optimal alcohol consumption is at Q* where MC=MB, however, with an increase in MC, the alcohol consumption of athletes decreases to Q1. The athletes, however, have extra incentives to drink due to competition, leading to a shift in their marginal benefits. This increase in MB causes the athletes to drink at Q2 more than they were drinking before the increased costs and more than non-athletes. “[A]lcohol provides a traditional means of celebration and of consolation. Thus, win or lose, it would be natural to look toward alcohol in the aftermath of an intercollegiate competition”[11]
AthleteNon-Athlete
Cost Cost
MC’MC MC
MB’
MB MB
Q1Q*Q2 Q*
Alcohol consumptionAlcohol consumption
If our assumption is wrong and there are students, both athlete and non-athlete, who are addicted to alcohol, then even with shifts in both MC and MB both groups will continue to drink. Except for the higher incentives and punishments on athletes, no real difference between athlete and non-athlete will be seen.
AthleteNon-Athlete
CostMB’Cost
MB MC’ MB
MCMC
Alcohol consumption Alcohol consumption
Results:
According to the results from our Bucknell study, athletes drink less than non-athletes during the student’s college years. In the graph Usual Drinks in an Evening we see that athletes consumed slightly more alcohol during there senior year in high school. Although there is an increase in drinking for both athletes and non-athletes from the fall semester of freshman year to the current spring semester, non-athletes are shown to drink more in both cases. (* It should be noted that the Means of Drinks on the y-axis of the graphs does not refer to the mean number of drinks consumed; The mean refers to the average number that was given by the student to answer the question. For example, a mean of 1 does not indicate that students drink an average of 1 drink; it indicates that the average answer given by students is in category 1, which indicates 1-2 drinks.)
In the graph Drinking Habits we see that, in the self-assessed drinking habits, athletes consider themselves lighter drinkers than the non-athletes. (Note that in this category, the lower the mean, the heavier the drinker and vice-versa.) In this graph, we also see that non-athletes drink more nights in a typical week and binge (under their own definition of bingeing) more nights in a typical week than athletes. Shown in the table under this category are the athlete’s self-assessed stress levels versus non-athletes. Here athletes are reported as having more stressful lives. The reason the means for athletes are lower is the setup of the survey and recording method used. Lastly, it is obvious that athletes limit their drinking by importance of athletics more than non-athletes.
In the graph Reasons to Drink we see that there is not a lot of importance in these reasons to drink. (Note: the lower the number, the higher the importance and vice-versa.) However, athletes feel that relaxation is a more important reason to drink than non-athletes. In all other reasons to drink, such as celebration, having a good time, getting drunk, having a reward, and fitting in, non-athletes find these reasons to be more important than athletes. We found it a bit surprising that non-athletes deem celebration a more important reason to drink than athletes. We thought that one of the main reasons for an athlete to drink would be to celebrate a victory. However, in comparison with non-athletes, we see that it is the non-athletes who think that celebration is a more important than athletes think it is.
We toyed with the idea of athletes drinking more in one sitting rather than more nights but this too was disproved by the fact that non-athletes drink more nights and more drinks per evening than athletes.
Conclusion:
Although our data has leads to a conclusion that does not support our initial hypothesis, the results are not conclusive because of the low rate of return of the survey from the student body. Our small sample size should also be taken in consideration. Out of some 155 students who answered most of the questions needed for our study, only 27 students were athletes. These are the main considerations that must be made, but there are more reasons why our data resulted in this way. For one, people may drink more when they are out of their game season. There is no way to differentiate these times in the questions asked. Also, seniors who have participated in varsity sports cannot be accounted for due to the fact that they may not consider themselves athletes after their season is over. This may be the case for some of the seniors when they filled out the survey.
We feel that we would have had a very different outcome had out sample size been bigger. The strong support of the hypothesis by other studies is a key factor in this belief. The questions we asked were just not adequate enough for a true comparison of data. In our study team leaders, Greek athletes, as well as all athletes not in season and senior were not identified. Another aspect of the survey that prevents us from comparing our data finding with that of other experiments is the categories. For example, the question about drinks per evening was broken down into 5 categories 0=no drinks, 1=1-2 drinks, 3=3-5 drinks, 4=6-9 drinks, 5=10 or more. Acquiring the means of these ranges makes comparisons to percentages of alcohol consumed by athletes and no athletes difficult.
Due to such bias in our sample and overall research it is hard to determine if our theories about marginal cost are realistic. As far as trying to control or prevent the alcohol consumption of athletes goes, we fear that the problem with this solution is the possibilities of pushing athletes to drink alone instead of in a party atmosphere. This dilemma would then causing more serious problems that could not be detected or controlled by the university. Taking this into consideration universities should penalize the entire student body and not pin point athletes who, as it is, have other pressures with which to contend. This can be done by revoking general privileges such as room selections and off campus housing instead of athletic privileges such as playing time. The increase in marginal cost for all students should result in a decrease in alcohol consumption for athletes as well as non-athletes.
Students
Cost MC’
MC
MBMB’
Q1 Q2
Alcohol consumption
After doing this research if asked the question, “Does Athletics have an affect on Alcohol Consumption?”I would have to say yes. Athletes, if not proved by our research are repeatedly showed to consume more alcohol than non. Despite the restrictions and added stress discussed within our research athletes find some higher marginal benefit to continue drinking. The fact that it is consistently more than non-athletes does prove one of our assumptions, that athletes are not yet alcoholics. The importance of exploring the marginal costs and benefits in alcohol consumption within athletics programs can lead to better solutions for fighting the problem.
Research Resources:
Journal of American College Health, Jan 1999 v47 i4 p187 (1) Greeks and Athletes: Who Drinks, More? Philip W. Meilman; Jami S. Leichliter; Cheryl A. Presley.
The Physician and Sportsmedicine, Feb 1991 v19 n2 p91 (10). A National Survey of alcohol and drug use by college athletes. William A. Anderson; Richard R. Albercht; Douglas B. Mckeag; David O. Hough; Chistopher A. McGrow.
Male Health Weekly Plus June 22, 1998 p4 (2) College athletes drink more than non-athletic students.
Journal of American College Health, May 1998 v46 n6 p257 (6). Alcohol use and related consequences among students with varying levels of involvement in college athletics. Jami S. Leichliter; Philip W. Meilman; Cheryl Presley; Jeffrey R. Cashin.
American Fitness March-April 1997 v15 n2 p9 (2). Cheers and jeers: are athletes and alcohol a good mix? Nancy Clark.
Skiing Nov 1997 v50 n3 p42 (1). Three sheets to the win. (alcohol dehydrogenase in the liver removes alcohol from the body and allows some athletes to compete relatively soon after consuming alcoholic beverages). Michael Finkel.