The Education-Drug Use Connection - Softcover

Bachman, Jerald G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0805861718 ISBN 13: 9780805861716

Publisher: Routledge, 2007

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author:

Jerald G. Bachman, Patrick M. O’Malley, John E. Schulenberg,and Lloyd D. Johnstonare research professors at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research and are the lead investigators on the Monitoring the Future project. Schulenberg is also a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan.Peter Freedman-Doanis a research associate at the Institute.Emily E. Messersmithis a candidate in the combined doctoral program in education and psychology at the University of Michigan, and a research assistant at the Institute. Bachman, Johnston, and O’Malley, all social psychologists, have collaborated for a period of nearly four decades, directing the MTF project for more than three decades. Their publications include hundreds of journal articles, chapters, and reports. Their books include five volumes in the Youth in Transition series (based on an earlier longitudinal study—also widely cited), two books based on MTF panel analyses (published by Erlbaum in 1997 and 2002), and a long-standing series of reports of national survey results on drug use (published by the National Institute on Drug Abuse). Bachman, Johnston, and O’Malley are listed in the Institute for Scientific Information’s Highly Cited Authors, meaning that they are in the top one half of one percent of cited authors, based on journal citations during 1980-1999. Schulenberg, a developmental psychologist, has been a collaborator on the MTF project since 1991 and is the author of numerous articles, chapters, and reports, as well as the senior editor ofHealth Risks and Developmental Transitions During Adolescence(Cambridge, 1997).

Review:

“This is an innovative and extremely valuable book . . .  The investigators address important areas of adolescent and adult development and provide extensive, compelling, and impressive data to support their hypotheses...The book...will be of great value to researchers in the behavioral sciences, as well as for educators, health care professionals, and policy makers.” - Judith S. Brook, Ed.D., New York University School of Medicine

“It is very clearly written and provides useful information from several excellent data sets...The authors have considerable expertise in methodology, and I very much appreciated the careful methodological instruction throughout.” - Judy A. Andrews, Ph.D., Oregon Research Institute

“The book is a pleasure to read, well-executed, and informative. The findings are convincing and interesting.” - Nancy Galambos, Ph.D., University of Alberta

"This book is a major step forward in the understanding of the predictors of educational success, substance use, and delinquency. The availability of nationally representative panel data for an eight-year period allows the authors to conduct predictive analyses heretofore impossible. Summaries are well written and accessible to lay audiences… This book is an important contribution to the field of adolescent development and should be of value to researchers, practitioners, and parents alike." - Liz Sale, PsycCritiques

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0805861718
• ISBN 13: 9780805861716
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 454