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Physical Activity for the Prevention of Child and Adolescent Drug Abuse

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Physical Activity Across the Lifespan

Part of the book series: Issues in Children's and Families' Lives ((IICL,volume 12))

Abstract

Data on the relationship between physical activity and the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs warrant a closer look before automatically presuming that physical activity has the potential to reduce risk for drug abuse. For example, recent analyses from the Monitoring the Future Study (MTF) between substance use and physical activity (either exercise in general or athletic team participation specifically) among US middle and high school youth from 1992 to 2009 indicates varying patterns of use by type of physical activity (Terry-McElrath, O’Malley, & Johnson, 2011). Exercise in general (reported level of participation in sports, athletics, or exercising) was associated with lower prevalence of middle and high school alcohol use, binge drinking, cigarette use, smokeless tobacco use, marijuana use, and steroid use; in contrast, athletic team participation (extent of participating in school athletic teams) was associated with lower rates of marijuana and cigarette use in middle school and higher rates of alcohol use, binge drinking, and steroid use in high school. Clearly, based on this information from the MTF data, physical activity is not the “silver bullet” of drug abuse prevention. However, there are many possible explanations for these relationships, and those explanations could lead to different approaches to prevention. While the MTF measurement questions around physical activity specify some distinctions in type of physical activity, those questions leave out many of the important dimensions and nuances described in Chap. 1 of this volume, which is focused on definitions of physical activity. Thus, assuming the relationships found in the MTF study relate solely to organized sports participation, without looking at the specifics such as characteristics of the sport itself and the motivation of the individual for participating, may lead to erroneous conclusions about causality and misguided direction for prevention. A more holistic view of physical activity offers the potential of elucidating multiple etiologic pathways and more targeted approaches for drug abuse prevention interventions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, 370 L’Enfant Plaza Promenade, SW, Washington, DC, 20447, USA

    Aleta L. Meyer

  2. Division of Epidemiology, Services and Prevention Research, Prevention Research Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), 6001 Executive Blvd., Room 5163, MSC 9589, Bethesda, MD, 20892-9589, USA

    Augusto Diana

  3. Division of Epidemiology, Services, and Prevention Research, National Institute on Drug Abuse, 6001 Executive Blvd., Bethesda, MD, 20852, USA

    Elizabeth Robertson

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  1. Aleta L. Meyer
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  2. Augusto Diana
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  3. Elizabeth Robertson
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Correspondence to Aleta L. Meyer .

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  1. , Division of Child and Family Development, Administration for Children and Families, L'Enfant Plaza Promenade, SW 370, Washington, 20447, District of Columbia, USA

    Aleta L. Meyer

  2. Child and Family Agency of Southeastern, Hempstead Street 255, New London, 06320, Connecticut, USA

    Thomas P. Gullotta

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Meyer, A.L., Diana, A., Robertson, E. (2012). Physical Activity for the Prevention of Child and Adolescent Drug Abuse. In: Meyer, A., Gullotta, T. (eds) Physical Activity Across the Lifespan. Issues in Children's and Families' Lives, vol 12. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3606-5_10

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