Joel Grossbard

• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Background: Drinking game participation has been associated with increased frequency and quantity of alcohol use, as well as alcohol-related problems, in college students. To date, the assessment of drinking games typically entails the use of self-developed measures of frequency of participation and amount of alcohol consumed while playing. Objec...

The current web-based survey investigated the association between team or individual sport participation (or both) and self-reported alcohol and tobacco use among high school athletes (N=1, 275) transitioning to college. Peak Blood Alcohol Concentration, weekly drinking, and alcohol-related problems were significantly lower among athletes in indivi...

Objectives: Personalized normative feedback (PNF) interventions are generally effective at correcting normative misperceptions and reducing risky alcohol consumption among college students. However, research has yet to establish what level of reference group specificity is most efficacious in delivering PNF. This study compared the efficacy of a w...

Research suggests men have become increasingly concerned about their bodies with respect to both thinness and muscularity, and these concerns are associated with behavioral and psychological consequences that differ from women. The current study evaluated depressed mood as a moderator of associations between drives for thinness and muscularity and...

Relations among body size, stress coping strategies, and mental health were examined in female high-school gymnasts (n=44) and basketball players (n=105), aged 14–18 years (M = 15.8, SD = 1.1), through hierarchical regression analyses. Athletes completed the Revised Ways of Coping Checklist prior to the season and the Mental Health Inventory at the...

Background: High school students involved in athletics may face additional stressors and engage in more problematic behaviors such as drinking, dieting, and gambling than non-athletes, especially as they near the end of their high school experience. Studies have in general found mixed results as to whether sports serve a protective factor or are a...

The study examined parent profiles among high school athletes transitioning to college and their association with high-risk drinking in a multi-site, randomized trial. Students (n = 587) were randomized to a control or combined parent-based and brief motivational intervention condition and completed measures at baseline and at 5- and 10-month follo...

Research suggests that high school students who participate in sports may be at elevated risk for alcohol use compared to their non-athlete peers; however, reasons for this association are unclear. Alcohol expectancy theory posits that individuals who expect favorable outcomes to occur because of alcohol use are more likely to drink than those who...

Perceived norms are related to health-related attitudes and behaviors, including body image. The current study examined body dissatisfaction and perceived norms for thinness and muscularity among male and female college students. Participants included 842 undergraduate students (64.5% female) who completed an online survey assessing body image and...

This study explored secondary effects of a multisite randomized alcohol prevention trial on tobacco, marijuana, and other illicit drug use among a sample of incoming college students who participated in high school athletics. Students (n = 1,275) completed a series of Web-administered measures at baseline during the summer before starting college a...

This research examined the role of attraction to one's team in predicting alcohol and marijuana use among intercollegiate athletes. Attraction to team and alcohol-related information were collected via an online survey and marijuana use-related information was gathered in a live setting. We investigated the influence of attraction to one's team abo...

The current study is a multisite randomized alcohol prevention trial to evaluate the efficacy of both a parenting handbook intervention and the Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS) intervention, alone and in combination, in reducing alcohol use and consequences among a high-risk population of matriculating college...

This research assessed the frequency of marijuana use and perceptions of gender-specific marijuana use among intercollegiate athletes from two National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 universities. Normative data were gathered in a live setting. Male athletes reported significantly greater marijuana use than female athletes and th...

Relatively little research has evaluated motives for using marijuana based on users' self-reported reasons. This article details the construction and psychometric validation of a new marijuana motives questionnaire. Participants included 346 marijuana-using college students who completed online assessments regarding their motives for, frequency of,...

This research examined the role of attraction to one’s team in predicting alcohol and marijuana use among intercollegiate athletes. Attraction to team and alcohol-related information were collected via an online survey and marijuana use-related information was gathered in a live setting.We investigated the influence of attraction to one’s team abov...

College student-athletes are at risk for heavy alcohol consumption and related consequences. The present study evaluated the influence of college student and college athlete descriptive norms and levels of athletic identity on drinking and related consequences among incoming college students attending two universities (N=1119). Prior to the beginni...

The age-appropriate Sport Anxiety Scale-2 (SAS-2; Smith, Smoll, Cumming, & Grossbard, 2006) was used to assess levels of cognitive and somatic anxiety among male and female youth sport participants. Confirmatory factor analyses with a sample of 9-14 year old athletes (N=1038) supported the viability of a three-factor model of anxiety involving soma...

Objective: The objective was to develop and validate an achievement goal scale for young athletes that was aligned with the 2 (mastery/ego)×2 (approach/avoidance) achievement goal framework. Method: A total of 1675 male and female athletes ranging in age from 9 to 14 years participated in the AGSYS scale development and validation phases. Items hav...

Body dissatisfaction in females, and to a lesser extent males, is associated with low self-esteem, depression, and eating disorders. This research examined gender as a moderator of the association between contingent self-esteem and body image concerns, including weight and muscularity. Participants included 359 (59.1% female) heavy drinking first-y...

Studies indicate greater sexual risk-taking behaviors and alcohol use in student-athletes compared with nonathletes, particularly in college samples. Although research has documented an association between drinking and risky sex, studies have not examined the role of sex motives in predicting risky sex in athletes. The purpose of the current study...

The purpose of this study was to examine the main and interactive effects of motivational climate and won-lost percentage upon young athletes’ evaluations of their coaches, enjoyment of their team experience, and perceived parental liking for the coach. A total of 268 male and female youth basketball players, aged 10 to 15 years, completed the Moti...

ObjectivesTo examine the impact of a social desirability response set on relations between goal orientation and performance anxiety in youth sports.DesignCorrelational field design.MethodData assessing goal orientation, performance anxiety, and social desirability were obtained from male (n=106) and female (n=75) adolescent athletes (M age=12.1 yea...

Studies indicate greater heavy episodic drinking and related consequences for college student-athletes compared with nonathletes. Surprisingly, little research has examined college athletes' participation in drinking games, a context associated with excessive alcohol consumption and negative alcohol-related consequences in college students. We exam...

This article describes the development and validation of the Sport Anxiety Scale-2 (SAS-2), a multidimensional measure of cognitive and somatic trait anxiety in sport performance settings. Scale development was stimulated by findings that the 3-factor structure of the original Sport Anxiety Scale (SAS; Smith, Smoll, & Schutz, 1990) could not be rep...