Youth, sports and alcohol consumption. Studying and comparing alcohol rituals in the Littoral Opal Coast

The aim of our paper is to introduce some results concerning a comprehensive and multidisciplinary analysis of the relationship between alcohol consumption, physical activity and health within a population of students of the Littoral Coast (France). This work is part of a wider research called “Universante”, started in 2008. This research includes an observatory to monitor students’ health and aims to promote healthy behaviors in the territory. Our analysis has been carried out on a sample of approximately 3.000 students, both at regional (Nord-Pas de Calais: Universite du Littoral Cote d’Opale and Artois University, University of Lille 2), inter-regional (University of Rouen) and international level (University of Chicoutimi, Canada and University of Balamand, Lebanon). This study is defining a “global health” profile, through the analysis of some usual determinants (biomedical, social, psychological, etc.). In this frame, we identifyed different styles of alcohol consumption in terms of frequency and quantities. Then, we crossed these data with those about the subjects’ physical activities and found whether there was a relation. At the time, our main hypothesis is that physical activity plays a protective role against alcohol consumption. Our secondary hypothesis is that it is possible to identify social indicators that may work as modulators of this phenomenon. In our paper we will focus on the “risky” aspects of alcohol consumption. Namely, we are identifying some “risky groups” that can be associated with specific alcohol consumption styles, and we are analysing the ritual aspect of their behaviour from a sociological perspective. © 2013 European Journal of Research on Education by IASSR.