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According to research by the University of Texas at Austin, college students drink larger amounts of alcohol on football game days than on other well-known drinking days such as New Year's Eve and Halloween.

Kim Fromme, an author of the study and director of the University's Studies on Alcohol, Health and Risky Activities Laboratory, commented on the findings: "Most events associated with heavy drinking occur only once a year, such as Spring Break, or once in a lifetime, such as a 21st birthday, but the weekly football schedule presents students with more regular opportunities to drink."

Fromme and co-author Dan J. Neal of Kent State University observed students during the 2004-05 and 2005-06 University of Texas at Austin football seasons. They found that students were especially likely to drink more during high-profile games against conference or national rivals. However, the increased rates only occurred when students were actually on campus.

Fromme commented on this phenomenon: "These results indicate drinking is connected not only to the game itself, but to the social context associated with the event."

(Source: www.sciencedaily.com)

Labels: alcohol, sports, college-drinking

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A new study indicates that teenage boys involved in high school team sports are more likely to fight and binge drink than their peers who are not. The study also indicates that teenage boys involved in team sports are less likely to get depressed or smoke. Male high school athletes were found to be 1.4 times more likely to binge drink and 1.3 times more likely to fight.

The results come from a study conducted by Ohio's Injury Prevention Center, Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital. Researchers presented the results this week at the American Public Health Association's annual meeting and emphasized that team sports participation can have "protective and risk-enhancing" effects on high school students.

Researcher Susan Connor commented: "There is a lot of rhetoric that promotes sports team participation as a complete positive -- something that has no negative effects. Sports participation is kind of almost rhetorically positioned as a panacea for social ills; it will stop crime and alcohol and drug use.

"But all the bits and pieces of evidence suggest that's not really true. Our hypothesis was that sports team participation would not be overwhelmingly positive but it would have positive and negative effects, which is just what we found."

(Source: www.reuters.com)

Labels: binge drinking, violence, sports

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 0 Comments