Adolescent pathways to adulthood drinking: sport activity involvement is not necessarily risky or protective.

Aims: Use pattern-centered methods to examine how adolescents' alcohol use and sports activities are related both to childhood sport and problem behavior and to heavy drinking in early adulthood.

Design: The data used in this study come from four waves of the Michigan Study of Adolescent Life Transitions (MSALT) that began in 1983, when participants were approximately age 12, and continued into early adulthood, when participants were approximately age 28.

Participants: Sixty per cent of the approximately 1000 MSALT youth living in south-eastern Michigan were females and 97% were European American.