Adolescent School Experiencesand Dropout,Adolescent Pregnancy,and Young Adult Deviant Behavior

Abstract

Predictive effects of school experiences were studied over a 7-year interval in a random community sample of 452 adolescents, 12 through 18 years of age. Outcomes examined included dropping out of school, adolescent pregnancy, engaging in criminal activities, criminal conviction, antisocial personality disorder, and alcohol abuse. Logistic regression showed academic achievement, academic aspirations, and leaming-focused school settings to be related to a decline in deviant outcomes independent of the effects of disadvantaged socioeconomic background, low intelligence, childhood conduct problems, and having deviant friends during adolescence. Associations between school conflict and later deviancy were mediated by deviant peer relationships in adolescence and other school characteristics. Prior research reporting continuity of childhood conduct problems and the influence of adolescent affiliations with deviant peers on negative outcomes was supported. Implicationsfor using the school context in riskfactor research and the practical applications of such research for intervention are discussed.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

American Psychiatric Association . (1987). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Ames, C. (1992). Classrooms: Goals, structures, and student motivation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84, 261-271.

Ammons, R. S. , & Ammons, C. H. (1962). The quick test: Provisional manual. Psychological Reports, 11, 111-161.

Blyth, D. A. , Simmons, R. G. , & Carlton-Ford, S. (1983). The adjustments of early adolescents to school transitions. Journal of Early Adolescence, 3, 105-120.

Brook, J. S. , Lukoff, I. F. , & Whiteman, M. (1977). Correlates of adolescent marijuana use as related to age, sex, and ethnicity. Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, 50, 383-390.

Brook, J. S. , Nomura, C. , & Cohen, P. (1989). A network of influences on adolescent drug involvement: Neighborhood, school, peer, and family. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 118, 419-438.

Brook, J. S. , Whiteman, M. , & Cohen, P. (1995). Stage of drug use, aggression, and theft/ vandalism: Common and uncommon risks. In H. B. Kaplan (Ed.), Drugs, crime, and other deviant adaptations (pp. 83-98). New York: Plenum.

Brook, J. S. , Whiteman, M. , & Gordon, A. S. (1983). Stages of drug use in adolescence: Personality, peer, and family correlates. Developmental Psychology, 19, 269-277.

Brook, J. S. , Whiteman, M. , & Gordon, A. S. , & Cohen, P. (1986). Dynamics of child and adolescent personality traits and adolescent drug use. Developmental Psychology, 22, 403-414.

10.

Cairns, R. B. , Cairns, B. D. , & Neckerman, H. J. (1989). Early school dropout: Configurations and determinants. Child Development, 60, 1437-1452.

11.

Cauce, A. , Felner, R. D. , & Primavera, J. (1982). Social support in high-risk adolescents: Structural components and adaptive impact. American Journal of Community Psychology, 10,417-428.

12.

Cohen, J. , & Cohen, P. (1983). Applied multiple regression. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

13.

Cohen, P. , & Cohen, J. (1996). Life values and adolescent mental health. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

14.

Cohen, P. , Cohen, J. , Kasen, S. , Velez, C. N. , Hartmark, C. , Johnson, J. , Rojas, M. , Brook, J. , & Struening, E. L. (1993). An epidemiological study of disorders in late childhood and adolescence: I. Age and gender-specific prevalence. Journal of Psychology and Psychiatry, 34, 851-867.

15.

Cohen, P. , O'Connor, P. , Velez, C. N. , Lewis, S. A. , & Malachowski, B. (1987). A comparison of the agreement between DISC and K-SADS-P interviews of an epidemiological sample of children. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 26, 662-667.

16.

Cook, M. A. , & Alexander, K. L. (1980). Design and substance in educational research: Adolescent attainments, a case in point. Sociology for Education, 53, 187-202.

17.

Coombs, R. H. , Wellisch, D. K. , & Fawzy, F. I. (1985). Drinking patterns and problems among female children and adolescents: A comparison of abstainers, past users, and current users. American Joumal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 11, 315-348.

18.

Costello, A. J. , Edelbrock, C. S. , Dulcan, M. K. , Kalas, R. , & Klaric, S. H. (1984). Testing of the NIMH diagnostic interview schedule for children (DISC) in a clinical population: Final report to the Center for Epidemiological Studies, National Institute for Mental Health. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh.

19.

Costello, E. J. , Edelbrock, C. S. , & Costello, A. J. (1985). Validity of the NIMH diagnostic interview schedule for children: A comparison between psychiatric and pediatric referrals. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 13, 579-595.

20.

Dishion, T. J. , & Loeber, R. (1985). Adolescent marijuana and alcohol use: The role of parents and friends revisited. American Journal of Alcohol Abuse, 11, 11-25.

21.

Dishion, T. J. , Patterson, G. R. , Stoolmiller, M. , & Skinner, M. L. (1991). Family, school, and behavioral antecedents to early adolescent involvement with antisocial peers. Developmental Psychology, 27, 172-180.

22.

Donovan, J. E. , & Jessor, R. (1985). Structure of problem behavior in adolescence and young adulthood. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 53, 890-904.

23.

Dreeben, R. (1968). On what is learned in school. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

24.

Dubois, D. L. , Felner, R. D. , Brand, S. , Adam, A. , & Evans, E. G. (1992). A prospective study of life stress, social support and adaptation in early adolescence. Child Development, 63, 542-557.

25.

Elliott, D. S. , Huizinga, D. , & Ageton, S. S. (1985). Explaining delinquency and drug use. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

26.

Farrington, D. P. (1990). Implications of criminal careerresearch forthe prevention of offending. Journal of Adolescence, 13, 93-113.

27.

Farrington, D. P. (1991). Antisocial personality from childhood to adulthood. Psychologist: Bulletin of the British Psychological Society, 4, 389-394.

28.

Farrington, D. P. , Loeber, R. , & Van Kammen, W. B. (1990). Long-term criminal outcomes of hyperactivity-impulsivity-attention deficit and conduct problems in childhood. In L. N. Robins & M. Rutter (Eds.), Straight and devious pathways from childhood to adulthood (pp. 62-81). New York: Cambridge University Press.

29.

Fiqueira-McDonough, J. (1986). School context, gender, and delinquency. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 15,79-98.

30.

Fergusson, D. M. , & Horwood, L. J. (1996). The role of adolescent peer affiliations in the continuity between childhood behavioral adjustment and juvenile offending. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 24, 205-221.

31.

Furstenberg, F. F. , Brooks-Gunn, J. , & Chase-Lansdale, L. (1989). Teenaged pregnancy and childbearing. American Psychologist, 44, 313-320.

32.

Garmezy, N. , Masten, A. S. , & Tellegen, A. (1984). The study of stress and competence in children: A building block of developmental psychopathology. Child Development, 55, 97-111.

33.

Gold, M. (1966). Undetected delinquent behavior. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 3, 27-46.

34.

Goodenow, C. (1993). Classroom belonging among early adolescent students: Relationships to motivation and achievement. Journal of Early Adolescence, 13, 21-43.

35.

Hagborg, W. J. (1994). An exploration of school membership among middle and high-school students. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 12, 312-323.

36.

Hawkins, J. D. , Catalano, R. F. , & Miller, J. Y (1992). Risk and protective factors for alcohol and other drug problems in adolescence and early adulthood: Implications for substance abuse prevention. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 64-105.

37.

Hirschi, T. (1969). Causes of delinquency. Berkeley: University of California Press.

38.

Hollingshead, A. B. , & Redlich, F. C. (1958). Social class and mental illness: A community study. New York: John Wiley.

39.

Hyler, S. , Reider, R. , Williams, J. , Spitzer, R. , Hendler, J. , & Lyons, M. (1988). The personality diagnostic questionnaire: Development and preliminary results. Journal of Personality Disorders, 2, 229-237.

40.

Jessor, R. (1983). The stability of change: Psychosocial development from adolescence to young adulthood. In D. Magnusson & V. Allen (Eds.), Human development: An interactional perspective (pp. 321-341). New York: Academic Press.

41.

Jessor, R. , Donovan, J. E. , & Costa, F. M. (1991). Beyond adolescence: Problem behavior and young adult development. New York: Cambridge University Press.

42.

Kandel, D. B. (1980). Drug and drinking behavior among youth. Annual Review of Sociology, 6, 235-285.

43.

Kasen, S. , Johnson, J. , Cohen, P. (1990). The impact of school emotional climate on student psychopathology. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 18, 165-177.

44.

Kellam, S. G. , Rebok, G. W. , lalongo, N. , & Mayer, L. S. (1994). The course and malleability of aggressive behavior from early first grade into middle school: Results of a developmental epidemiologically-based preventive trial. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 35, 255-281.

45.

Kogan, L. S. , Smith, J. , & Jenkins, S. (1977). Ecological validity of indicator data as predictors of survey findings. Journal of Social Services Research, 1, 117-132.

46.

LeBlanc, B. , Ouimet, M. , & Tremblay, R. E. (1988). An integrative control theory of delinquent behavior: A validation of 1976-1985. Psychiatry, 51, 164-176.

47.

Loeber, R. , & Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (1987). Prediction. In H. C. Quay (Ed.), Handbook of juvenile delinquency (pp. 325-382). New York: John Wiley.

48.

Maughan, B. (1988). School experiences as risk/protective factors. In M. Rutter (Ed.), Studies of psychosocial risk (pp. 200-220). New York: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge.

49.

Moos, R. H. (1979). Evaluating educational environments. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

50.

Offord, D. R. , & Bennett, K. J. (1994). Conduct disorder: Long-term outcomes and intervention effectiveness. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 33, 1069-1078.

51.

Rae-Grant, N. , Thomas, B. H. , Offord, D. R. , & Boyle, M. H. (1989). Risk, protective factors, and the prevalence of behavioral and emotional disorders in children and adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 28, 262-268.

52.

Robins, L. N. (1986). Changes in conduct disorder over time. In D. G. Farran & J. D. McKinney (Eds.), Risk in intellectual and social development (pp. 227-259). New York: Academic Press.

53.

Rowlison, R. , & Felner, R. D. (1988). Major life events, hassles and adaptation in adolescence: Confounding in the conceptualization and measurement of life stress and adjustment revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 432-444.

54.

Rutter, M. (1970). Sex differences in children's responses to family stress. In E. J. Anthony & C. Koupernik (Eds.), The child in his family (pp. 165-196). New York: John Wiley.

55.

Rutter, M. (1983). School effects and pupil progress: Research findings and policy implications. Child Development, 54, 1-29.

56.

Rutter, M. (1985). Resilience in the face of adversity: Protective factors and resistance to psychiatric disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 598-611.

57.

Rutter, M. (1987). Psychosocial resilience and protective mechanisms. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 57, 316-331.

58.

Rutter, M. , Maughan, B. , Mortimore, P. , Ouston, J. , & Smith, A. (1979). Fifteen thousand hours: Secondary schools and their effects on children. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

59.

Simmons, R. G. , Blyth, D. A. , Van Cleave, E. F. , & Bush, D. M. (1979). Entry into early adolescence: The impact of school structure, puberty, and early dating on self-esteem. American Sociological Review, 44, 948-967.

60.

Simmons, R. G. , Burgeson, R. , Carlton-Ford, S. , & Blyth, D. A. (1987). The impact of cumulative change in early adolescence. Child Development, 58, 1220-1234.

61.

Stiffman, A. R. , Jung, K. G. , & Feldman, R. A. (1986). A multivariate risk model for child behavior problems. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 56, 204-211.

62.

Tremblay, R. E. , Masse, B. , Perron, D. , LeBlanc, M. , Schwartzman, A. E. , & Ledingham, J. E. (1992). Early disruptive behavior, poor school achievement, delinquent behavior, and delinquent personality: Longitudinal analyses. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 60, 64-72.

63.

Youniss, J. (1980). Parents and peers in social development. Chicago: Chicago of University Press.

64.

Zaslow, M. J. , & Hayes, C. D. (1986). Sex differences in children's response to psychosocial stress: Toward a cross-context analysis. In M. E. Lamb , A. Brown , & B. Rogoff (Eds.), Advances in developmental psychology (Vol. 4, pp. 285-327). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.