Influences of club connectedness among young adults in Western Australian community-based sports clubs

Abstract

Background: Along with physical benefits, community-based sport provides opportunities to enhance connectedness, an important protective factor of social and emotional health. However, young Australians participating in sport have been found to drink alcohol at higher levels than their non-sporting peers, and many clubs serve unhealthy food and beverages. This study explored the association between the dependent variable, level of alcohol consumption (AUDIT-C) and connectedness to club and other health behaviours among young people aged 18-30 years who play club sport in Western Australia.Methods: An online cross sectional survey measured levels of alcohol consumption (AUDIT-C), alcohol-related harm, connectedness (including volunteering and team cohesion), mental wellbeing, healthy food options and club sponsorship among young adults aged 18-30 years involved in sports clubs in Western Australia (n = 242). Relationships and association between the dependent variable (AUDIT-C) and independent variables were assessed.Results: Positive correlations were found between high-risk drinking and club connectedness; team cohesion and club connectedness; mental wellbeing and team cohesion and team cohesion and drinking with team mates and experienced alcohol-related harms. Volunteering was negatively correlated with drinking with team mates and team cohesion. AUDIT-C score was moderately significantly positively correlated with club connectedness (r s = .18, p <.05) and team cohesion (r s = .22, p <.01) Male sportspeople were more likely to drink alcohol at high-risk levels than females (p <.001), and respondents belonging to a club that received alcohol-related sponsorship were more likely to drink at high-risk levels (p = .019). Females were significantly more likely to want healthy food and beverage options provided at their clubs (p = 0.011). Conclusions:Findings from this study may inform policy and practice to enhancing healthy behaviours among young adults participating in community sports clubs in Australia and other countries.3]. In Australia, there are over 50,000 sport and active recreation clubs, with those involved taking on the roles of player, coach, committee member, spectator or volunteer [4]. Sports involvement includes a range of individual and community-based benefits including connectedness [5].Although benefits of sports club connectedness are discussed in some reports [6], there are few studies that have measured associations between connectedness, alcohol consumption and other influences in the sports club setting. Connectedness provides a sense of belonging and it is believed having social ties to the community has links to positive outcomes such as positive mental health and health behaviour, less risk taking behaviour such as alcohol and other drug use, and better academic achievement for those in school [7][8][9]. Many club members play sport as well as volunteer with have reported higher levels of well-being, social connectedness, self-esteem and self-efficacy than nonvolunteers [10].However, i...