School Climate as a Universal Intervention to Prevent Substance Use Initiation in Early Adolescence: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Initiation of substance use often starts during adolescence, with tobacco and alcohol use frequently preceding the use of marijuana and other illicit drugs. Studies suggest that a positive school climate may prevent substance use while promoting healthy student behaviors. The purpose of this study was to determine the longitudinal associations between school climate and substance use initiation in a group of middle school students. Parallel latent growth curve modeling was used to examine changes among study variables longitudinally using a sample of 2,097 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students across 16 regional schools located in three counties in West Virginia. Results suggest that a positive school climate may prevent substance use initiation (β = −0.07 to −0.25, p < .01). However, perceptions of school climate decreased on their own over time (β = −0.28 to −0.66, p < .01). Furthermore, substance use initiation also increased as students grew older (β = 0.96 to 0.99, p < .01) and reduced the effects of school climate longitudinally (β = −0.07 to −0.24, p < .01). Early substance use initiation may be a warning sign of other underlying student issues and requires additional school support to foster student success. Findings suggest that a positive school climate may delay substance use initiation and promote school success. School climate may, therefore, be useful as an intervention to support school-based health promotion.

Associations of Physical Activity, School Safety, and Non-Prescription Steroid Use in Adolescents: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

“…Elkins et al found that schools that frequently set and enforced rules regarding drug use tended to have lower rates of non-prescription steroid use [ 1 ]. Daily et al found that schools that had a positive climate prevented substance-use initiation [ 35 ]. Because steroid use in adolescents tends to be a part of a cluster of risk taking and substance use behaviors, interventions targeting the school level may be an effective and efficient strategy to lower initiation of steroid abuse among high school students.…”

Relationships between School Climate and Values: The Mediating Role of Attitudes towards Authority in Adolescents

“…A positive school climate is a very important trait in the promotion of academic success, favoring not only academic achievement [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ], but also prosocial behavior [ 16 , 17 ], the development of self-identity and self-esteem [ 18 ], delayed drug use [ 19 ], a reduced probability of assaults [ 20 ], and the prevention of behavioral problems [ 21 ]; it is also related to tolerance towards ethnic diversity [ 22 , 23 ]. In contrast, a negative school climate is associated with truancy [ 24 ], bullying [ 25 , 26 ], and school violence [ 27 ].…”

“…Thus, in schools with deteriorated relationships, various problems can arise both at the student level, through bullying [ 33 ], school violence [ 27 ], and substance use [ 19 ], as well as at the teacher level, through the victimization [ 34 ] and bullying of teachers [ 35 ]. When teacher–student social relationships are positive, they can significantly reduce the impact of the victimization produced by bullying among students [ 36 ] and promote socio-emotional development [ 18 ].…”

“…Continuing at the mesosystemic level, a large proportion of the studies on school relationships in adolescence focus on multiple negative factors, for example, drug use, risky behavior, and bullying [ 14 , 19 , 45 ]. This focus on risk factors does not fully consider that adolescence is a stage in which it is possible to develop multiple potentialities.…”

Longitudinal Measurement Invariance of the Authoritative School Climate Survey

“…In recent years, a number of longitudinal studies have assessed student-and school-level changes in SC over time (e.g., Camacho et al, 2018;Coelho et al, 2020;Daily et al, 2020;Luengo Kanacri et al, 2017;Wang & Dishion, 2012). A key assumption of these longitudinal studies is measurement invariance of scale scores across waves of data collection.…”