The Education Drug Use Connection

Does success in school protect teenagers from drug use? Does drug use impair scholastic success? This book tackles a key issue in adolescent development and health - the education-drug use connection. The authors examine the links and likely causal connections between educational experiences, delinquent behavior, and adolescent use of tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine. The book uses data from the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future project. It focuses on a large and nationally representative sample of 8th grade students in the United States who were initially surveyed in 1991-1993 and then followed over the vitally important developmental period between ages 14 and 22. The volume uses a variety of statistical analysis techniques, and the findings can be understood by individuals with limited, as well as with extensive, backgrounds in research design. The findings convincingly demonstrate that if young people can be successful in school, it can improve a broad range of outcomes in their lives, not the least of which is their ability to resist pressures to use drugs. The book provides: a summary of the findings and conclusions; a review of relevant literature; a detailed discussion of the survey and analysis methods; the academic attainment of those in the longitudinal panel; the delinquent behaviors of panel members as they relate to measures of educational success; and the patterns of initiation, continuation, and cessation for each substance: cigarettes, marijuana, cocaine, and alcohol. This book is intended for anyone who deals with education and/or substance use, including educational, developmental, and social psychologists; sociologists; epidemiologists; educators; and policy makers. The analysis of panel survey data, using a variety of techniques, will also appeal to survey methodologists and students.

This report considers to what extent linking adolescent educational successes and failures with drug use remain applicable to White, African-American, and Hispanic adolescents when analyzed as separate groups. The Education¿Drug Use Connection focused primarily on a nationwide sample of adolescents, first surveyed when they were nearing the end of 8th grade in the years 1991, 1992, and 1993, and followed biennially for eight years thereafter. It provides a wealth of detail, both in analyses and reporting. This report describes key regression findings briefly in the text, along with a good deal of further detail in the tables, and then presents the authors¿ conclusions.

"This publication does not offer a pre-packaged programme of education for drug abuse prevention that can be picked up and implemented. It is rather an attempt to provide a conceptual basis upon which teachers, policy makers and school administrators can make decisions about school based drug prevention programmes in order to achieve greater success in education terms" -- p. 6.

This instructive manual presents a pragmatic and clinically proven approach to the prevention and treatment of undergraduate alcohol abuse. The BASICS model is a nonconfrontational, harm reduction approach that helps students reduce their alcohol consumption and decrease the behavioral and health risks associated with heavy drinking. Including numerous reproducible handouts and assessment forms, the book takes readers step-by-step through conducting BASICS assessment and feedback sessions. Special topics covered include the use of DSM-IV criteria to evaluate alcohol abuse, ways to counter student defensiveness about drinking, and obtaining additional treatment for students with severe alcohol dependency. Note about Photocopy Rights: The Publisher grants individual book purchasers nonassignable permission to reproduce selected figures, information sheets, and assessment instruments in this book for professional use. For details and limitations, see copyright page.

The Education-Drug Use Connection focused primarily on a nationwide sample of adolescents, first surveyed when they were nearing the end of 8th grade in the years 1991, 1992, and 1993, and followed biennially for eight years thereafter. (Full details on samples and methods are provided in Bachman et al., 2008, and are not repeated here.) The analyses in that book were based on the total samples of males and females, analyzed separately because of important gender differences in educational experiences, delinquency, and substance use. Most of the analyses included a race/ethnicity dimension (distinguishing between Whites, African Americans, Hispanics, and a remaining category that combined all others); it was a background dimension and statistically controlled any additive effects of race/ethnicity on the relationships between educational factors and various dimensions of substance use. Important subgroup differences were evident in the analyses, and were often noted--albeit briefly. Statistically controlling additive effects does not, however, fully guard against spuriously attributing racial/ethnic differences to other effects. As a further check against that risk, we repeated key analyses with only the White respondents included, and satisfied ourselves that racial/ethnic differences did not produce erroneous results in our findings for the total samples of males and females. We did not, however, attempt to explore interactions involving race/ethnicity. That remaining task, examining whether the same patterns of relationships found for the total samples are evident in each of the subgroups, is the main focus of the present paper. (Contains 1 footnote, 8 figures, and 12 tables.) [For "Monitoring the Future Occasional Paper Paper 65," see ED508288.].

Drugs and Drug Policy: The Control of Consciousness Alteration provides a cross-national perspective on the regulation of drug use by examining and critiquing drug policies in the United States and abroad in terms of their scope, goals, and effectiveness. In this engaging text, authors Clayton J. Mosher and Scott Akins discuss the physiological, psychological, and behavioral effects of legal and illicit drugs; the patterns and correlates of use; and theories of the "causes" of drug use. Key Features: * Offers more coverage of drug policy issues than competitive books: This book addresses the number of significant developments over the last few decades that suggest the dynamics of drug use and policies to deal with drug use are at a critical juncture. The book also considers the issue of "American exceptionalism" with respect to drug policies through a detailed analysis of emerging drug polices in other Western nations. * Makes explicit comparisons between legal and illegal drugs: Due to their prevalence of use, this book devotes considerable attention to the use and regulation of legal drugs in society. The book illustrates that commonly prescribed medications are similar to drugs that are among the most feared and harshly punished in society and that drug-related problems do not necessarily result from particular drugs, but from how drugs are used. * Includes many pedagogical tools: With chapter opening photos and more photos throughout, this text presents material in a student- friendly fashion. Highlight boxes provide interesting examples for readers; encourage further emphasis on issues; and serve as important topics for in class writing exercises. In addition, Internet exercises and review questions reinforce key points made in the chapter and prompt classroom discussion.

All across the United States, individuals, families, communities, and health care systems are struggling to cope with substance use, misuse, and substance use disorders. Substance misuse and substance use disorders have devastating effects, disrupt the future plans of too many young people, and all too often, end lives prematurely and tragically. Substance misuse is a major public health challenge and a priority for our nation to address. The effects of substance use are cumulative and costly for our society, placing burdens on workplaces, the health care system, families, states, and communities. The Report discusses opportunities to bring substance use disorder treatment and mainstream health care systems into alignment so that they can address a person's overall health, rather than a substance misuse or a physical health condition alone or in isolation. It also provides suggestions and recommendations for action that everyone-individuals, families, community leaders, law enforcement, health care professionals, policymakers, and researchers-can take to prevent substance misuse and reduce its consequences.

Adolescent substance abuse is the nation's #1 public health problem. It originates out of a developmental era where experimentation with the world is increasingly taking place, and where major changes in physical self and social relationships are taking place. These changes cannot be understood by any one discipline nor can they be described by focusing only on the behavioral and social problems of this age period, the characteristics of normal development, or the pharmacology and addictive potential of specific drugs. They require knowledge of the brain's systems of reward and control, genetics, psychopharmacology, personality, child development, psychopathology, family dynamics, peer group relationships, culture, social policy, and more. Drawing on the expertise of the leading researchers in this field, this Handbook provides the most comprehensive summarization of current knowledge about adolescent substance abuse. The Handbook is organized into eight sections covering the literature on the developmental context of this life period, the epidemiology of adolescent use and abuse, similarities and differences in use, addictive potential, and consequences of use for different drugs; etiology and course as characterized at different levels of mechanistic analysis ranging from the genetic and neural to the behavioural and social. Two sections cover the clinical ramifications of abuse, and prevention and intervention strategies to most effectively deal with these problems. The Handbook's last section addresses the role of social policy in framing the problem, in addressing it, and explores its potential role in alleviating it.