Comparing Alcohol Use Patterns of Female Student-Athletes and Their Team Captains in Intercollegiate Softball Teams

Research has shown that among college students, athletes specifically, are at an increased risk for alcohol consumption when compared to the general student population (Cashin, Presley, & Meilman, 1998; Lewis, 2008; Presley, Leichliter, & Meilman, 1993; Wechsler, Dowdall, Davenport, & Castillo, 1995). Additionally, among athletic teams, select individuals are designated to be team captains with a responsibility to influence members of the group (Kozub & Pease, 2001). Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine if team captains' drinking behavior differed from non-captains; and to discover relationships between non-captain alcohol use, a coach's emphasis, and a team's additional alcohol policy. Forty-two teams were represented with 618 female softball players completing the survey (Mage = 19.8, SD = 1.2) completed the Core Alcohol and Drug Survey (Presley, Meilman, Cashin, & Lyerla, 1996). Data were examined using traditional statistics and Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) to assess questions of interest. When employing multilevel modeling, findings showed that only team captains' alcohol usage was significantly related to non-captain alcohol use on the same team t(38) = 4.96, p <.001. Thus, findings align with previous work showing that interpersonal relationships influence college aged individuals' drinking patterns (Borsari & Carey, 2001; Thombs, 2000). Furthermore, results highlight the fact that prevention programs must target team-captains' drinking behavior if a reduction in overall team alcohol consumption is to be achieved.