The "work hard-play hard" mentality of many athletes, especially those who are also members of fraternities and sororities, may put them at risk for alcohol abuse, a new national study shows.
Fraternity and sorority members who also play intercollegiate sports drink three times more alcohol on a weekly basis than students who don't participate in both activities, according to the Core Institute, a federally funded project based at Southern Illinois University Carbondale that annually tracks drinking and drug use by tens of thousands of American college students. Statistics appear in the January 1999 issue of the Journal of American College Health.
The institute's figures reveal fraternity athletes consume 16 drinks a week, fraternity members who aren't athletes average 13 drinks a week, non-Greek athletes have eight and men who aren't in either group consume five.
Meanwhile, nearly twice as many dually affiliated college men (78 percent) admit they binge drink (consume five or more drinks in one sitting) compared with 40 percent of non-Greek, non-athletic college men who binge drink in a two-week period.
The trends also are true for collegiate women who join both sororities and intercollegiate sports teams, the report shows.
Sorority athletes consume seven drinks a week while women who don't pledge and play sports drink only two. Sixty-two percent of the dually affiliated college women said they binge drink in a two-week period, compared with 25 percent of females who are unaffiliated.
"We need to do a better job in reaching this high-risk population," said Philip W. Meilman, co-director of the Core Institute and head of Cornell's Counseling and Psychological Services in Gannett Health Center.
"The 'work hard-play hard' ethic is especially pronounced in this group. They may look like they're having a good time, but they're paying a very high price for it," he added.
Findings come from an anonymous, confidential poll of 45,871 students at 125 colleges and universities around the country between 1994 and 1996. Four percent of those surveyed fit the Greek-athlete profile.
"The findings are clear and consistent," said Cheryl A. Presley, executive director of the Core Institute at SIUC. "Male Greek athletes consume the most alcohol, more of them binge drink and higher percentages of them suffer adverse consequences as a result."
Their choices could sideline them forever, said Jami S. Leichliter, assistant director of the Core Institute.
"In addition to consuming more alcohol, Greek athletes are more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors. Approximately half of Greek athletes surveyed said they'd driven while under the influence of alcohol or other drugs, compared to 28 percent of students not involved in Greek life and intercollegiate sports," said Leichliter.
Among the other findings of the survey are:
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