We’re starting to get an answer, and it’s an answer that may lead us to rethink our approach to both substance abuse prevention and educational goal-setting. Research by Kimberly Henry of Colorado State University and David Huizinga of the University of Colorado at Boulder show that in the vast majority of cases, truancy precedes the initiation of marijuana use. And Henry’s newest research, which she has summarized for us in this month’s Feature Article, shows for the first time that the overall level of school engagement in an academic community has an effect on the probability that any given student in that school will begin to use alcohol. In other words, both studies show, in different ways, that school disengagement creates the conditions under which students can get into trouble with controlled substances. The policy lesson may come as a surprise – promoting overall school engagement in an academic community may turn out to be an effective substance abuse prevention program. And while we’re at it, let’s not forget its effect as a dropout prevention program, either.

Jodi Heilbrunn, Editor

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School environment is one of the most influential contexts in an adolescent’s life. Decades of research indicates that a student’s experiences at school can exert both positive and negative influences on his or her development. These influences extend beyond school-specific behaviors such as academic performance or attendance at school to pro-social and antisocial behaviors such as drug use and crime.

Researchers, juvenile justice personnel and parents all agree that students who are well adjusted to school (i.e., committed to academic achievement and attached to teachers) are less likely to be involved in delinquency and drug use. However, an individual student’s involvement in delinquency and drug use may not only be affected by his or her own degree of school adjustment but also by the degree to which his or her classmates demonstrate positive school adjustment. This latter effect is often referred to as a contextual effect. Wayne Welsh’s work on school climate highlights the importance of context. He asserts that schools, like individuals, have their own personalities, or climates, describing climate as “the feel of the school as perceived by those who work there or attend class there…the general ‘we feeling’ and interactive life of the school.” Unfortunately, while the effect of school adjustment on problem behavior has been well-studied at an individual level, much less research has assessed the contextual effect of school adjustment on delinquency and drug use - that is, the extent to which the overall level of attachment among all students in a school influences an individual student’s behavior.

In a recent study, my colleagues and I assessed whether school climate, as measured by the average level of school adjustment among students in the school (defined by fondness for school, positive behavior at school, school performance, association with friends who are fond of school, and student-teacher bonds), has an effect on adolescent alcohol use. We used a dataset that included over 43,000 8th grade students from 349 schools who participated in a national study of substance use in rural communities between 1996 and 2000.

The study produced several valuable findings. First, a student’s own level of adjustment to school is predictive of his/her own use of alcohol (i.e., students who are better adjusted to school drink less alcohol). Second, schools do differ in the degree to which their students are adjusted to school. That is, in some schools students tend to be better adjusted than in others. Third, a strong contextual effect of school adjustment on alcohol use exists. Specifically, regardless of a student’s own level of school adjustment, attending a school where students tend to be poorly adjusted to school promotes use of alcohol. This finding illuminates the importance of both an adolescent’s own level of school adjustment and the overall school environment.

These findings have important implications for school policy. Concerted efforts to improve school climate may have desirable effects on adolescent alcohol use. Denise Gottfredson’s work indicates that school climate can be improved, and that those improvements can have an important effect on student behaviors including drug use. Michael Rutter and colleagues suggest that schools demonstrate the best behavioral outcomes when students identify with the norms and goals of the schoo]. This identification is most likely to occur when:

Similarly, Daniel Solomon and colleagues have shown that schools with a strong sense of community have teachers who:

• are warm and supportive;
• accentuate pro-social values;
• promote cooperation;
• facilitate cooperative learning opportunities;
• provide opportunities for students to serve in leadership roles, and
• encourage classroom decision making about factors that affect the students’ environment.

This research was supported by grants K01 DA017810-01A1 (awarded to Kimberly L. Henry) and R01 DA98349 (awarded to Ruth W. Edwards) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. We thank the staff of the Tri-Ethnic Center for Prevention Research, Colorado State University, and the staff and students of the school districts under study, for making this research possible.

References

Gottfredson, D. C. (1986). An Empirical-Test of School-Based Environmental and Individual Interventions to Reduce the Risk of Delinquent-Behavior. Criminology, 24(4), 705-731.

Gottfredson, G. D., Gottfredson, D. C., & Payne, A. A. (2005). School Climate Predictors of School Disorder: Results from a National Study of Delinquency Prevention in Schools. 42(4), 412-444.

Rutter, M., Maughan, N., Mortimore, P., Ouston, J., & Smith, A. (1979). Fifteen thousand hours: Secondary schools and their effects on children. Wells: Open Books.

Welsh, W. N. (2000). The effects of school climate on school disorder. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 567, 88-107.

Welsh, W. N., Greene, J. R., & Jenkins, P. H. (1999). School disorder: The influence of individual, institutional, and community factors. Criminology, 37(1), 73-115..

During the week of March 31 to April 4, communities numbering 1,602, which are spread among all 50 states, will hold Town Hall Meetings to address the issue of underage drinking. A comprehensive website includes an interactive map with a schedule of all Town Hall Meetings, with locations and times. The meetings are sponsored by an array of over ten Federal agencies including the Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. The site includes all the resources a community needs to set up a town meeting and pages with a ton of resources for a variety of visitors: parents, community members, youth, educators, law enforcement and treatment providers. The educators’ page includes resources on Reach Out Now: Start Talking Before They Start Drinking, and the youth page includes a bunch of fun alcohol awareness activities including crossword puzzles. (I started one, and re-discovered how really bad I am at crossword puzzles. I think I’ll stick to my knitting, but let your kids give it a try – maybe they’ll beat you!)

There is likely a meeting scheduled near you. Print Kim Henry’s research brief (our Feature Article) and take it to the meeting. Since it hasn’t hit the research journals yet, you’ll be at the cutting edge! Perhaps you’ll have the opportunity to share with your community the fact that promoting school engagement is one way to decrease the probability that students in the school will initiate alcohol use.