Social and School Connectedness in Early Secondary School as Predictors of Late Teenage Substance Use, Mental Health, and Academic Outcomes
Received 16 March 2006; accepted 25 October 2006. published online 05 February 2007.
Abstract
Purpose
To examine associations between social relationships and school engagement in early secondary school and mental health, substance use, and educational achievement 2–4 years later.
Methods
School-based longitudinal study of secondary school students, surveyed at school in Year 8 (13–14-years-old) and Year 10 (16-years-old), and 1-year post-secondary school. A total of 2678 Year 8 students (74%) participated in the first wave of data collection. For the school-based surveys, attrition was <10%. Seventy-one percent of the participating Year 8 students completed the post-secondary school survey.
Results
Having both good school and social connectedness in Year 8 was associated with the best outcomes in later years. In contrast, participants with low school connectedness but good social connectedness were at elevated risk of anxiety/depressive symptoms (odds ratio [OR]: 1.3; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.0, 1.76), regular smoking (OR: 2.0; 95% CI: 1.4, 2.9), drinking (OR: 1.7; 95% CI: 1.3, 2.2), and using marijuana (OR: 2.0; 95% CI: 1.6, 2.5) in later years. The likelihood of completing school was reduced for those with either poor social connectedness, low school connectedness, or both.
Conclusions
Overall, young people’s experiences of early secondary school and their relationships with others may continue to affect their moods, their substance use in later years, and their likelihood of completing secondary school. Having both good school connectedness and good social connectedness is associated with the best outcomes. The challenge is how to promote both school and social connectedness to best achieve these health and learning outcomes.
aCentre for Adolescent Health, Royal Children’s Hospital, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia
bKey Centre for Women’s Health in Society, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
cClinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and University of Melbourne Department of Paediatrics, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
dDepartment of Education and Training, Victoria, Australia
eDepartment of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
Address correspondence to: Lyndal Bond, VicHealth Public Health Fellow Centre for Adolescent Health, 2 Gatehouse Street, Parkville Victoria 3052, Australia.
ABSTRACT