Policies and Practices Regarding Alcohol and Illicit Drugs among American Secondary Schools and Their Association with Student Alcohol and Marijuana Use. YES Occasional Papers. Paper 5

Institute for Social Research. University of Michigan, P.O. Box 1248, 426 Thompson Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Tel: 734-764-8354; Fax: 734-647- 4575; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://www.isr.umich.edu

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Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
National Institute on Drug Abuse (DHHS/PHS)

Student Behavior; Marijuana; Incidence; Drug Abuse; Alcohol Abuse; Drinking; Secondary School Students; Correlation; School Policy; Punishment; Student Surveys; School Security; Prevention; Intervention; Public Schools; Private Schools; Predictor Variables; Student Personnel Services; Student Personnel Workers; Compliance (Psychology); Gender Differences; Age Differences; Racial Differences; Parents; Educational Attainment; Socioeconomic Status; Suspension; Expulsion; Law Enforcement; Place of Residence

This paper examines school policies relating to alcohol and illicit drug use, and their associations with the prevalence of alcohol and marijuana use among students. Both "punitive" and "supportive" policies are examined. Other studies examining punitive disciplinary measures--such as close monitoring of student behavior, having various security measures, and expulsion or suspension from school--as a means of ensuring student compliance to school policies have suggested that these measures do little to reduce drug and alcohol use among students. Supportive measures, however, such as the availability of services and the presence of caregivers, may reduce the prevalence of substance use among students. Analyses use data from nationally representative samples of 8th-grade students (29,822 in 246 schools), 10th-grade students (22,964 in 212 schools), and 12th-grade students (23,594 in 226 schools) who participated in annual surveys conducted by the Monitoring the Future project from 1998 to 2001. Analyses also use data from surveys of principals of the same schools collected under the Youth, Education, and Society study, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. For each of the three grades, descriptive statistics on the level of monitoring, number of security measures, severity of punitive actions taken for violation of school policies, and number of care providers and services are presented for schools with different demographic characteristics. Using multilevel logistic regression, we found that monitoring, number of security measures, and severity of consequences for violation of school policies showed little systematic association with actual substance use in general or substance use at school. Additionally, contrary to our hypothesis, schools that adopted a variety of supportive measures, such as providing more services and care providers, did not, in general, have lower average substance use than schools providing fewer such services. The implications of the for school policies and practices are discussed. (Contains 5 tables and 3 footnotes.)

As Provided

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2012

ED529135