College athletes’ drinking motives and competitive seasonal status: Additional examination of the athlete drinking scale

Abstract

The Athlete Drinking Scale (ADS) was designed to assess a set of drinking motives unique to intercollegiate athletes. Although results from initial validation studies were promising (Martens, M. P., Watson, J. C., Royland, E. M., Beck, N. C. 2005. Development of the athlete drinking scale. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors 19:158–164; Martens, M. P., Labrie, J. W., Hummer, J. F., Pedersen, E. R. 2008. Understanding sport-related drinking motives in college athletes: Psychometric analyses of the athlete drinking scale. Addictive Behaviors 33:974–977), to date only cross-sectional studies on the measure have been published. The purposes of this longitudinal study were to determine whether the factor structure of the ADS remains consistent across a group of athletes’ competitive season and off-season, determine whether scores on the ADS increased during athletes’ competitive seasons, and assess the relationships among athlete-specific drinking motives and drinking behaviors across these two time points. Complete data were obtained from 153 athletes representing 11 varsity sports teams competing at the NationalCollegiate Athletic Association Division I level. Longitudinal confirmatory factor analysis at the subscale level indicated that fit indices for the hypothesized three-factor model of the ADS were excellent. Repeated measures ANOVA indicated that athlete-specific drinking motives increased during the athletes’ competitive seasons, and scores on the ADS subscales were associated with alcohol use and alcohol-related problems at both time points. Results provide support for the validity of the ADS and have implications for researchers and clinicians working in the area of alcohol prevention among collegiate athletes.