Sports participation and alcohol use revisited: A longitudinal study of Norwegian postmillennial adolescents

Recent developments in health behavior among adolescents may have been accompanied by changes in risk factors for alcohol use. Focusing on postmillennial cohorts of adolescents, we revisit the question of whether sports participation is a risk factor for alcohol use.

This study analyses data from four waves (2017-2020) of the MyLife longitudinal study. Participants were 3425 (45% boys) Norwegian adolescents attending middle school in 2017 (age range: 12-15 years). Annual questionnaire assessments included questions about frequency of sports practice, frequency of alcohol use/heavy episodic drinking, parental cohabitation, unstructured leisure time, sensation-seeking, and behavioral problems. We employed growth curve models (N = 2682) and fixed effects models (N = 3131).

Overall, we did not find systematic differences in initial alcohol use or development over time according to sports practice frequency at the first assessment. However, adolescents with the highest initial sports frequency had slightly lower initial alcohol use and a steeper increase (initial use: b = -0.06, p = .351; linear slope: b = -0.12, p = .218; quadratic curvature: b = 0.09, p = .004). There was no, or only a weak negative, association between change in sports practice and change in alcohol use after adjusting for potential time-varying confounders, b = -0.03, p = .065.

Contrary to most previous research, we found little evidence for an association between sports participation and alcohol use among Norwegian adolescents born after 2000. Sports activities might not require particular attention in the prevention of alcohol use.