Are Drinking Games Sports? College Athlete Participation in Drinking Games and Alcohol-Related Problems

Contextualizing Students’ Alcohol Use Perceptions and Practices within French Culture: An Analysis of Gender and Drinking among Sport Science College Students

“…In line with previous findings from the United States and United Kingdom, beer drinking in particular remains a salient symbol of many sportsmen's identities (Peralta, 2007, Sparkes et al, 2007. We are aware that such reporting could well be due to male students wishing to promote a specific "presentation of self" (Goffman, 1990) that conforms to traditional notions of "masculine" or "macho" sportsmen who can party hard, drink to excess, engage in all manner of drinking games (Grossbard et al, 2007a), and still turn out to do battle on the athletic field of play.…”

“…Alcohol-related health problems, including morbidity and mortality, have been documented in youth populations, especially in university/college populations. Many factors have been found to mediate the association between alcohol use and related problems, including context of use (Courtenay, 2000;Fuchs & Le Hénaff, 2014), social determinants (Turrisi, Mastroleo, Mallett, Larimer, & Kilmer, 2007), significant others/sexual partners (Grossbard et al, 2007a), transition into adulthood (Allen-Collinson & Brown, 2012;Christie-Mizell & Peralta, 2009), socio-economic status (Bélanger, Ohl, Berchtold, Akre, & Suris, 2012), race/ethnicity (Neff, Prihoda, & Hoppe, 1991;Peralta & Steele, 2009), and gender identity norms (Iwamoto, Corbin, Lejuez, & MacPherson, 2014;Mahalik, Burns, & Syzdek, 2007;Moradi & Parent, 2013;Peralta, 2007). Also important is the nature of cultural activities associated with excessive alcohol use-for example, the formal and informal practices of sport as a highly gendered (and at times, gender-segregated) institution (Choquet & Com-Ruelle, 2009;Turrisi, Mallett, Mastroleo, & Larimer, 2006).…”

Risk Factors for Alcohol Abuse Among College Athletes

“…The risk factors of sport participation, athletic identity, and sport type have been studied in athletic populations and are influential in the amount of alcohol consumed by athletes (Grossbard, Geisner, Neighbors, Kilmer, & Larimer, 2007;Grossbard et al, 2009;Hildebrand et al, 2001;Leichliter et al, 1998;NCAA, 2006). However, this research is underdeveloped and I am attempting to clarify the role that sport participation, athletic identity, and sport type play in the alcohol consumption of college athletes.…”

“…However, many different definitions of sport participation have been used in research. Some researchers have classified college athletes as individuals who participate in intercollegiate athletics, while others have included intramural, recreational, and intercollegiate athletes in the college athlete category (e.g., Grossbard et al, 2007;Ward & Gryczynski, 2007). Researchers have also classified athletes by levels of involvement in athletics (Leichliter et al, 1998;Wechsler et al, 1997), and even former athletes have been included in research (Hildebrand et al, 2001).…”

“…As the definition of athlete has changed, so have the findings. For example, Grossbard et al (2007) found that intramural athletes drank significantly more than nonathletes. In addition, intramural and intercollegiate athletes drank significantly more than nonathletes, but there was no significant difference between intramural and intercollegiate athletes in alcohol consumption.…”