A School-Level Examination of Adolescent Substance-Abuse Patterns Among Schools of Varying Quality

• In Event: Poster Session I

Abstract

This study will attempt to discover any link between substance use by students and whether their substance use is affected by the quality of the school they are attending. The study will attempt to observe and analyze information collected about frequency of student substance use, and collect data on types of substances that are used by students. Substances that are being observed are those that are illegal for minors, including illegal drugs such as marijuana and cocaine, and age-limited substances, such as alcohol and tobacco. The contingent results may be applied to understand school-level influences on adolescent substance abuse, which can provide a basis for understanding factors within schools and neighborhoods that contribute to substance abuse amongst communities. It will follow a quantitative analysis approach, observing multivariate correlations. A self-report survey will be administered, investigating propensities towards drug use, amounts of drug use, and types of drug use in the past 6 months among a random gender-stratified sample of 11th grade students in Florida schools, using a multistage cluster. It is predicted that the amount of widespread drug use in schools will not vary greatly despite different qualities of the school ratings, but the types of drugs will.

Author

• Kelsey Drevyn, University of Miami