Team Sports Increases Some Unhealthy Behavior in Male Teens

Obviously, sports in and of themselves do not promote unhealthy behavior so it's clearly something else. This article is implying, from the title of "Team Sports Increases ...", that something about participating in a sport causes this behavior. This doesn't seem logical to me. The most obvious answer is peer pressure, but that falls apart since everyone has their social groups that impose certain pressures on one another - what makes sports so special?

It probably has to do a lot with self-selection, particularly for the fighting stat. Males that play sports tend to be more "physical", if you will, more competitive (even aggressive) on average. I'd conjecture they are more likely to respond to a situation with some sort of violence, rather than just walking away (going back to the competitive nature of not walking away from a challenge). This isn't because they play sports. They are playing sports because are are "physical" and tend to be competitive by nature.

Drinking is a bit more difficult to reconcile with my argument, but I still don't buy the peer pressure argument, at least in its most superficial form, in this scenario. Males are more likely to drink alcohol (particularly binge drinking) not only at the high school level, but throughout their entire lives. This is for a whole host of reasons, from genetic and biological (which we don't fully understand) to social, but it doesn't matter - the fact is men have a greater likelihood of drinking on a frequent basis (and engaging in underaged drinking). Again, this would be true of people not playing sports though so the disparity doesn't make sense. I think it comes down to the camaraderie that is formed when you play sports. It's a very strong bond you have with your teammates (partially because you spend a lot of time with them). This strong bond makes you less willing to go against a teammate urging you to drink. Obviously, friendships exists among those people that don't play sports; but it's a bit different. If a high school friend of yours urges you to drink and you refuse, the strength of your friendship may either weaken or it just might end. You could ignore that person and minimize your contact with them. You can't do that to a team member as easily since you have to see that person constantly and you have to work together on a regular basis. Without the ability to get away from them it becomes a problem, you may be more willing to go along with whatever they want you to do. However, this would seem true of any close knit group or friends so nothing about sports makes this the case except to set up the situation of a close-knit group.

I think it's a classic correlation / causation fallacy that the American Public Health Association has made here.

I'd be interested to see a breakdown by sport-played though, particularly for the fighting statistic. While it's entirely anecdotal and I can't generalize technically, I played three sports in high school (2 each year and switched to a different one half way through high school) and the types of people that select themselves for a sport are vastly differently. In my experience, you would see a vast differences between someone who does swimming and someone who plays basketball (particularly on the fighting stat I'd think).