The Effects of Substance Abuse Upon Eighth Grade Connecticut Middle School Students - Its Impact Upon Academic Achievement and The Social Behavior of The Students
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Authors
Abelson, Kenneth A.
Issue Date
1999-12
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Connecticut , Education , Substance abuse , Students
Alternative Title
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of substance abuse upon a research sample of eighth grade Connecticut middle school students and its impact upon academic achievement and social behavior. The effects of substance abuse, the independent variable, as it impacted upon the dependent variable, academic achievement, was accomplished by examining the results of the Connecticut Alcohol and Drug Survey (1993) and the Connecticut Mastery Test (1993). Emphasis was also placed on the etiology of substance abuse patterns upon the other dependent variable, social behavior, which was examined through questions from the Connecticut Alcohol and Drug Survey (1993), and ultimately affected academic achievement as shown by the scores on the Connecticut Mastery Test (1993). Teachers were required to ensure student anonymity and confidentially. Specifically, the study sought to answer the following research questions: 1- Did substance abuse affect academic performance, as measured by the Connecticut Mastery Test? 2- What were the racial/ethnic patterns in self-reported substance abuse? 3- What were the community types (urban/surban) trends in relationship to self-reported substance abuse? 4- What were the social behavior tendencies in relationship to self-reported substance abuse? 5- What was the academic achievement, based on gender differences, in relation to self-reported substance abuse? One-way Anova and the Tukey\'s HSD Multiple Comparisons Test were used to analyze the research data. The findings indicated that there were no significant differences at the p< .05 level among the means of the dependent variables, community types (urban/suburban), for Connecticut eighth grade students. Significance at the p< .05 level was established between levels of the independent factor (substance abuse), and between levels of the dependent factors (academic achievement, racial/ethnicity, gender, and social behavior). Among the findings were: 1- the "Gateway Drug", Alcohol, had a significant effect on academic achievement; and 2- the subgroups: drank on school days or nights and passenger with impaired driver, were more significant than the other subgroups.. Some conclusions were that: 1- large numbers of adolescents were, in fact, responsive to information about the risks and consequences of substance use, and they moderated their behavior accordingly, and 2- drinking may have occurred with parents, older family members, older teenagers, or other older acquaintances because of the significance of the passenger with impaired driver subgroup.
Description
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Citation
K.A. Abelson, "The Effects of Substance Abuse Upon Eighth Grade Connecticut Middle School Students - Its Impact Upon Academic Achievement and The Social Behavior of The Students", Ph.D. dissertation, School of Education, Univ. of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT, 1999.