Utility of the Athlete Drinking Scale for assessing drinking motives among high school athletes

Research suggests that high school athletes are at greater risk for heavy alcohol use and alcohol-related problems than their non-athlete peers. Drinking motives unique to the athletic experience may contribute to elevated use. The Athlete Drinking Scale (ADS) was designed to assess sport-related motives for alcohol use, but has not yet been validated among high school athletes. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the ADS among a sample of high school athletes. Participants were 216 high school student-athlete drinkers who completed anonymous self-report surveys. A confirmatory factor analysis resulted in a revised three-factor solution with a satisfactory overall model fit. Path analyses indicated that the Positive Reinforcement motives subscale was the only ADS subscale that was significantly associated with alcohol use and alcohol-related problems when controlling for the effects of the other factors (i.e., age and gender) in this population. The ADS may be a valuable assessment tool for researchers and clinicians involved in alcohol prevention efforts for high school athletes.