College Athletes And Their Drinking Habits example essay topic

College athletes and their drinking habits is a big deal to a lot of different people. These athletes are looked up to by so many, that most people think them drinking during their sports season is wrong. People have many questions about this issue. Are athletes coaches aware of their players drinking and how often they " re doing it? Do athletes drink more often than non-athletes? Did these athletes drink in high school or did they just start in college to fit in?

Has the rate of athletes drinking gone up or down recently? People wonder all of these things. College athletes drinking during their respective sports seasons is wrong. They are supposed to be healthy people that a lot of younger kids look up to. In order to be a college athlete you are supposed to be working hard to improve yourself. You " re not supposed to be out partying with the people that come to your games to watch you perform.

In a lot of cases, colleges are paying for these athletes tuition too. Do athletes drink more than non-athletes? That question is asked by many people around college campuses. Of course a lot of people would assume that the answer to that would have to be no.

Athletes are always at practice or studying, right? Well, that's not always the case. The Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport did a study in 2001. They surveyed three different groups of students, college athletes, students that were athletes in high school but not in college, and non-athletes. These students were surveyed on their drinking habits like how often they drank, how much they drank, and the number of times they binge drink. The results that came back were amazing.

The group of non-athletic students drank significantly less than the two athletic groups of students. In fact, the athletes drank almost two times as much and as often as the non-athletes. That number alone is amazing. How can athletes be drinking twice as much as non-athletes? They are supposed to be busy with sports.

That is one of the main reasons they are at college, because they are better at a certain sport than any of the non-athletes. So shouldn't they be practicing? Another thing that was shown in this study was that most athletes developed their drinking habits when they were in high school. Almost 85% of the athletes said that they drank just as much, if not more in high school than in college. (Hildebrand A 31) So to say that drinking habits are started in high school is wrong would make no sense according to this study.

Even the non-athletes stated that if they didn't drink in high school they didn't drink in college either. Most people's views are the exact opposite of what this shows. Athletes are supposed to be the students that are well behaved and are role models to young kids that watch them play sports. The non-athletes are supposed to be the students that show up to these sporting events drunk and make fools of themselves. But I guess its more along the lines of the athletes making fools of themselves after their games. The binge drinking numbers followed along with the rest of the study.

Once again, the athlete group binge drank significantly more than the non-athlete group. These findings are probably pretty scary to most people. The students that are getting their college paid for by the University's money are also the ones spending a lot of their time partying. This is recognized nationally as a very serious problem. So if the rate of college athletes that drink is so high right now has it always been that way or has there been a sudden increase? Well, The Physician and Sports Medicine did a study on the same thing as the Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, except they did it 10 years earlier.

Their results, however, were drastically different. Their study concluded that non-athletes were drinking more than the athletes were. Although the number of athletes drinking was on a steady increase which may explain how we got to where we are today (McGrew 92). So all of this drinking that is going on must just be happening at the smaller schools where it's easier to get away with it, right? Well, the studies from both of the previous magazines show that this is also not true. Their studies showed that Division I athletes were drinking more than Division II or Division athletes.

So then it must be the smaller less popular sports that are accounting for this large drinking percentage. Wrong again, the studies also showed that out of all the athletes that drink, football players account for 40% of that total (McGrew 93). Football is considered one of the most popular college sports. So where is this happening?

Is it all over the country or just in certain parts? The Big Ten is one of college sports' biggest and most competitive conferences. When athletes within the Big Ten were surveyed, it turned out that 62% of the athletes drank. But the Big Ten isn't the only part of the country where this is going on. As far as regions of the country go the East Coast had a rate of 92% of athletes drinking compared to 87% in the Midwest (McGrew 95). One thing that you have to remember about these numbers is that they could be off because of things like students lying on the surveys which could sway the numbers either way.

So the fact that athletes drink more than non-athletes has been established. But why do they drink more? A study by Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise magazine showed a few different reasons why this happens. The study showed that athletes put more importance on socializing and parties. They tend to have large groups of friends, many are non-athletes that have nothing better to do than to pressure athletes to party. Also, the fact that most athletes tend to have 5 or more close friends, they often get confused on what decisions should be made because of the different opinions by their friends.

Most athletes also spend a great amount of time socializing with fellow students, so they tend to hear about more parties, or are more likely to get invited to parties because of their athlete status. The thing about this is how can athletes get sucked into the peer pressure that is being given to them. Toben Nelson, the author of this article, "Alcohol and College Athletes", says, "Studies show that athletes have a greater exposure to alcohol prevention efforts and possess unique motivation to limit their alcohol use. Yet they are still drinking more than non-athletes who do not have these privileges". This really doesn't make any sense. If they have greater exposure to programs that are there to help them, how can they still be drinking at a higher rate than the students who don't have these privileges.

One thing that keeps a lot of people from drinking, athletes or non-athletes, is what their parents were like when they were growing up. If a students parent was an alcoholic they might be less likely to drink because they have seen the effects that alcoholism can have. Nelson found in his study that, "Athletes were as likely as non-athletes to report that at least one parent drank alcohol while they were growing up. However, athletes were more likely to say that their family did not approve of drinking". This is yet another fact that does not make sense to why athletes are drinking more. If their parents are not approving of it in college they probably didn't approve of it in high school either.

But, as was stated earlier, most athletes start drinking when they are in high school and they carry that habit into college. Drinking in college is something that will most likely never go away. But the fact that it spreads to college athletics is sad. Athletes are role models that people look up to. They shouldn't be out partying and causing trouble when they are expected to be improving themselves at what they are good at. There have been many programs added to try and decrease the rate of college athletes drinking.

These programs do not seem to be working since the rate of college athletes drinking is still rising and if something is not done about it, it might be something that is a major problem in the near future. McGrew, Christopher. "A National Survey of Alcohol and Drug Use by College Athletes". The Physician and Sports medicine. (1991): Expanded Academic Index. InfoTrac.

U of Minnesota Lib., Minneapolis. 28 Oct. 2003. Hildebrand, Kathryn. "Comparison of Patterns of Alcohol Use Between High School and College Athletes and Non-Athletes". Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. (2001): Expanded Academic Index.

InfoTrac. 28 Oct. 2003. Lipsyte, Robert. "College Athletes and Binge Drinking". The New York Times. InfoTrac.

28 Oct. 2003. Nelson, Toben. "Alcohol and College Athletes". Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. InfoTrac. 28 Oct. 2003.