Out-of-School-Time and Adolescent Substance Use

PURPOSE

High levels of adolescent substance use are linked to lower academic achievement, reduced schooling, and delinquency. We assess four types of out-of-school-time (OST) contexts—unsupervised time with peers, sports, organized activities, and paid employment–in relation to tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use at the end of high school. Other research has examined these OST contexts in isolation, limiting efforts to disentangle potentially confounded relations.

METHODS

Longitudinal data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N=766) examined associations between different OST contexts during high school and substance use at the end of high school.

RESULTS

Unsupervised time with peers increased the odds of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use whereas sports increased the odds of alcohol use and decreased the odds of marijuana use. Paid employment increased the odds of tobacco and alcohol use. Unsupervised time with peers predicted increased amounts of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use, while sports predicted decreased amounts of tobacco and marijuana use and increased amounts of alcohol use at the end of high school.

CONCLUSIONS

Although unsupervised time with peers, sports, and paid employment were differentially linked to the odds of substance use, only unsupervised time with peers and sports were significantly associated with the amount of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use at the end of high school. These findings underscore the value of considering OST contexts in relation to strategies to promote adolescent health. Reducing unsupervised time with peers and increasing sports participation may have positive impacts on reducing substance use.

...Consistent with predictions of Routine Activity Theory⁶ and with prior empirical research⁴, more unsupervised time with peers was found to increase both the odds and amount of substance use reported by adolescents at the end of high school. These effects were found for all three forms of substance use examined in the current study -- tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana. That these relations were found, even when time in other OST contexts were controlled, suggests that lack of adult supervision, the presence of peers, and minimal structure are important processes influencing substance use in adolescence.

Other forms of out-of-school time also appeared to be linked to substance use in adolescence, suggesting that these relations were not simply artifacts of a confounding with unsupervised time. Participation in sports appeared to be a protective factor for some forms of substance use: it was associated with reduced odds of marijuana use, as well as lower amounts of tobacco and marijuana use at the end of high school. At the same time, consistent with some prior research^10,32, participation in sports was also linked to more alcohol use. Consistent with the prior literature, the results suggest adult supervision and potential peer effects in sports activities are important mechanisms that influence adolescent substance use.

Paid employment in high school, in contrast, was associated with increased odds of tobacco and alcohol use. Others have hypothesized that the workplace may expose adolescents to older coworkers who may influence substance use, but the developmental consequences of paid employment depend on the individual¹¹. The results show adolescent employment was linked to the odds of cigarette and alcohol use but not to the amount of marijuana use, controlling for other OST contexts. The findings suggest that older coworkers may have introduced adolescents to these substances, but other contextual or individual factors are predictive of continued substance use.

A surprising finding, or lack of findings, in the current study pertained to organized activities. Prior research has found specific organized activities in high school to serve a protective role with respect to substance use^10,20. No significant relations were detected in the current study, although these relations “approached” significance, perhaps due to aggregation across activities...

  

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/Dyr5il

By:  Kenneth T.H. Lee1 and Deborah Lowe Vandell, Ph.D.1

¹School of Education (http://education.uci.edu/), University of California, Irvine, 3200 Education, Irvine, CA 92697-5500

Corresponding Author: Kenneth T.H. Lee, School of Education, University of California, Irvine, 3200 Education, Irvine, CA 92697-5500, (714) 402-2915 ; Email: ude.icu@2eeltk

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