Since the beginning of the 1990's, athletic departments have become more aware of the specific needs of the student-athlete related to their overall health status. This is in contrast to the past when the specific needs on which the athletic administrators centered their attention were usually in the areas of athletic, academic, and social demands. There is evidence that student-athletes are at risk for developmental and psychological distress. Participation in college sports can cause emotional, physical, and mental stress. Factors that have been documented to contribute to the student-athlete's psychological problems include, the fear of success, identity conflict, social isolation, academic problems, poor athletic performance, career problems, anorexia or bulimia, depression and anxiety, and athletic injury. The purpose of this study was to assess the health risk behaviors among student athletes and identify specific needs for health-related programming for these student-athletes. It has been found that because of all the pressures student-athletes experience they may attempt to cope by using a number of maladaptive lifestyle patterns. These patterns could include alcohol use, tobacco use, marijuana use and other types of drug use, abnormally high sexual activity, and violence. Certain personality components which may be related to a healthy life style were also measured in this study. These included hardiness, social support and depression. Student-athletes (N=245) participated in this study by filling out the data packet which included: consent form, demographic sheet, National College Health Risk Behavior Survey, Hardiness Scale, Beck Depression Inventory Scale, and Quality of Social Support Scale. Results from this study were: 1) differences were found in the health risks of male versus female athletes, and individual sport participants versus team participants; 2) health risk differences were also found between groups that were identified (group 1 =male/team, group 2=female/team, group 3=male/individual, and group 4=female/individual); 3) moderate correlations were found between certain variables and the health behavior of the student-athletes; (e.g. Alcohol use and: marijuana, safety, sexual behavior, and tobacco. Sexual behavior and: tobacco. Marijuana and: safety, and tobacco.) and, 4) Hardiness scores, Beck Depression Inventory scores, and the Quality of Social Support scores were predictors of certain health behaviors of the student-athletes (e.g. Alcohol Use and: tobacco, marijuana, safety, and sexual behavior, Tobacco Use and: sexual behavior, marijuana, and alcohol use, Marijuana use and: alcohol use, drug use, safety, and sexual behavior).

The results of this study support that student-athletes are at risk for certain health behaviors. They also suggest that there are certain health risks for specific groups which need to be taken into consideration when looking at the well-being of the student-athletes of these teams or gender. Future research should focus on the specific needs of the male athletes versus the female athletes, as well as on any other group differences that were supported by this study. Development of programs for student-athletes should be established to help guide them in developing positive coping skills and a healthy lifestyle.