The authors surveyed a midwestern, suburban high school of approximately 2,000 students to examine substance abuse among high school-aged athletes. Half (50.1%) of the male athletes reported the regular use of alcohol compared to 41.3% of the male non-athletes, a statistically significant difference. In addition, more male non-athletes (10.8%) reported abstinence from consumption than did male athletes (7.5%).

Among females, however, the results demonstrated no significant difference in the frequency of alcohol consumption between athletes and non-athletes; 7.4% of the female athletes verses 7.5% of the non-athletes abstained from alcohol, and 42.1% of the female athletes verses 41.8% of the non-athletes used alcohol regularly.

The authors also compared male and female athletes on alcohol consumption, and examined differences in experiencing intoxication.