Year: 2014
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Collegiate student-athletes have been identified as an especially at-risk subgroup for heavy alcohol use as compared to the general college student population.Despite the intense physical demands required for athletic participation, national studies have found that intercollegiate athletes consumed more alcohol, engaged in more frequent heavy episodic drinking, and experienced more negative alcohol-related consequences as compared with nonathletes.A combination of structured open-ended and closed-ended questions was used in the current study.Data was collected from student-athletes across the United States through semistructured, individual interviews informed by the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991) and its constructs (attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control).Open coding was the chosen method for data analysis for the study.Codes, accompanied by descriptives, were organized into themes as they related to the research questions and the theory of planned behavior.Results show that nearly half (49%) of student-athletes report drinking five or more drinks in one-sitting, with the majority of student-athletes consuming alcohol only 1-2 times per week at parties.Student-athletes' attitudes towards heavy drinking and alcohol outcome expectancies are apparent in two themes: sexual risk taking and athletic training justification.Many respondents expressed alcohol-drinking relationships with other student-athletes at their
Author: Rodgers, Joseph
Language: English
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W41275766