Effect of Performance Success on Alcohol Consumption of College Athletes

Abstract

The proposed study would determine the effects of a successful or unsuccessful athletic outcome on the alcohol consumption of Division III, male and female, student athletes. Drawing from gender differences in alcohol consumption motives, and the theory suggesting that binge drinking is used as a technique for coping with stressors, the primary hypotheses in the study were that college athletes would participate in higher levels of binge drinking following an unsuccessful athletic performance than they would following a successful athletic performance, and that female athletes would participate in higher levels of binge drinking, following an unsuccessful athletic event, than would male athletes experiencing the same unsuccessful result. Implications of potential results are discussed.