The purpose of this study is to explore how gender and physical activity (PA)are related to alcohol use (AU) among adolescents. A better understanding offactors that influence AU among adolescents will facilitate the developmentof preventive interventions in this population.The sample was pulled from the 2011 Youth Risk Behavior SurveillanceSystem (YRBSS), which used a systematic equal probability sampling of9-12 graders. It was hypothesized that males would have higher rates of AUthan would females. PA was also hypothesized to show stronger associationswith AU among males than among females.Consistent with our hypothesis, males were found to consume morealcohol versus females. Though a select-few research studies have found anassociation between higher levels of PA and high levels of alcohol use, thelarge association we found was unexpected. Additionally, we predictedappropriately that PA would have a greater influence on AU among males.While prior research has determined the importance of PA in advancinghealth-related outcomes, relatively few studies have examined therelationship between PA and specific problem health behaviors amongadolescents. Therefore, identifying the factors that influence the relationshipbetween PA and AU is important
