Physical activity and alcohol use in adolescence: which mediators explain the indirect causal relation?

Regular practice of Physical Activity (PA) certainly provides physical, mental and social benefits in young people. However evidences on association between PA or sport and unhealthy behaviours in adolescents (tobacco, alcohol and drugs use, doping, eating disorders, violence) aren’t conclusive. Our aim is to describe the relation between different level of PA involvement and alcohol use/misuse in adolescents, analysing the mediation effects due to individual and environmental intermediate variables. A cross-sectional study has been performed in 2006 involving 3,488 Italian students of Abruzzo Region (48.5 % males) 14.5 years aged on average. Physical adolescents’ profile has been referred to Organized PA (OPA) and each subject classified as “No-active”, “Low-active” or “High-active”. The outcome’s measures collected on alcohol are: actually daily drinking, actually at least weekly drinking and almost one time to get drunk in the last month. Moreover, the level of alcohol consumption expressed in a numeric scale (0-2 score). The indirect causal relation between OPA and alcohol consumption levels was studied by mean of mediation analysis. Crossing data on PA habits and alcohol consumption it appears a possible opposite influence depending by level of involvement, with some differences between genders. In males, only daily drink is significantly related to OPA-involvement, in protective way. In females High-level of OPA appears significantly expositive to higher alcohol consumption and misuse, while Low-level seems protective especially vs drunkenness. On the whole, intention to drink within one year, social norms on peers’ drunkenness occurrence, refusal skills, academic achievement orientation are worst in OPA High–active adolescents and they are significant mediators of alcoholic use more in males than in females. On the contrary self esteem is better and it’s a suppressor for both genders. The value of this work stays in individuating intermediates variables that could mediate preventive interventions in school and sport settings.