No abstract

Engagement in school is crucial for academic success and school completion. Surprisingly little research has focused on the relationship between student engagement and delinquency. This study examines whether engagement predicts subsequent school and general misconduct among 4,890 inner-city Chicago elementary school students (mean age: 11 years and 4 months; 43.3% boys; 66.5% black; 28.8% Latino). To improve upon prior research in this area, we distinguish three types of engagement (emotional, behavioral, and cognitive), examine whether the relationship between engagement and misconduct is bidirectional (misconduct also impairs engagement), and control for possible common causes of low engagement and misconduct, including peer and family relationships and relatively stable indicators of risk-proneness. Emotional and behavioral engagement predict decreases in school and general delinquency. However, cognitive engagement is associated with increases in these outcomes. School and general delinquency predict decreased engagement only in the cognitive domain. Suggestions for future research and implications for policy are discussed.

Compared to youth who stay in high school and graduate, those who drop out are more likely to be involved in drug use. However, the exact reason these two behaviors are connected is uncertain. Whereas some studies suggest that drug use puts youth at risk for dropout, others find that both behaviors are part of a larger pattern of adolescent problem behavior caused by early academic setbacks.Using a sample (N=11,395) of students from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS), this study examines the relationship between illegal drug use in tenth grade and later dropout. Propensity score matching is used to pair drug users with non-users who are similar on a wide array of characteristics measured in eighth grade that are predictive of both drug use and dropout. Results indicate that drug use is associated with dropping out even after adjusting for these factors. Implications for dropout prevention are discussed.

Youth who switch schools are more likely to demonstrate a wide array of negative behavioral and educational outcomes, including dropping out of high school. However, whether switching schools actually puts youth at risk for dropout is uncertain, since youth who switch schools are similar to dropouts in their levels of prior school achievement and engagement, which suggests that switching schools may be part of the same long-term developmental process of disengagement that leads to dropping out. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, this study uses propensity score matching to pair youth who switched high schools with similar youth who stayed in the same school. We find that while over half the association between switching schools and dropout is explained by observed characteristics prior to 9th grade, switching schools is still associated with dropout. Moreover, the relationship between switching schools and dropout varies depending on a youth's propensity for switching schools.