Adolescent pathways to adulthood drinking: sport activity involvement is not necessarily risky or protectiveAddiction 103 (s1) , 69–83
Use pattern-centered methods to examine how adolescents' alcohol use and sports activities are related both to childhood sport and problem behavior and to heavy drinking in early adulthood.
Pattern-centered analyses revealed that the relation between adolescent sport activity and age 28 heavy alcohol use obtained primarily for sport participants who were also using more than the average amount of alcohol and other drugs at age 18. Similarly, children who were characterized by relatively high levels of sport participation, aggression and other problem behavior at age 12 were more likely than expected by chance to become sport participants who used more than the average amount of alcohol and other drugs at age 18.
The results indicate that childhood problem behavior and adolescent sport participation can, but do not necessarily, presage heavy drinking in adulthood and that pattern-centered analytical techniques are useful for revealing such theoretically generated predictions.
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