The Relationship between Multiple Substance Use, Perceived Academic Achievements, and Selected Socio-Demographic Factors in a Polish Adolescent Sample

Abstract

Predictors of high-risk patterns of substance use are often analysed in relation to demographic and school-related factors. The interaction between these factors and the additional impact of family wealth are still new areas of research. The aim of this study was to find determinants of the most common patterns of psychoactive substance use in mid-adolescence, compared to non-users. A sample of 1202 Polish students (46.1% boys, mean age of 15.6 years) was surveyed in 2013/2014. Four patterns of psychoactive substance use were defined using cluster analysis: non-users—71.9%, mainly tobacco and alcohol users—13.7%, high alcohol and cannabis users—7.2%, poly-users—7.2%. The final model contained the main effects of gender and age, and one three-way (perceived academic achievement × gender × family affluence) interaction. Girls with poor perception of school performance (as compared to girls with better achievements) were at significantly higher risk of being poly-users, in both less and more affluent families (adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 5.55 and OR = 3.60, respectively). The impact of family affluence was revealed only in interaction with other factors. Patterns of substance use in mid-adolescence are strongly related to perceived academic achievements, and these interact with selected socio-demographic factors.

Prospective Analysis of the Influence of Sport and Educational Factors on the Prevalence and Initiation of Smoking in Older Adolescents from Croatia

“…In brief, all evaluated educational variables were negatively associated with smoking at both baseline and follow-up. Therefore, our results are in accordance with the results of previous reports in which poor scholastic achievement was often identified in children who smoked [ 4 , 15 , 19 , 20 ]. Meanwhile, we did not identify the presence of an association between the studied educational factors and smoking initiation over the course of the study.…”

“…One group of factors that has been consistently reported to be strongly associated with smoking behavior is academic achievement (i.e., educational achievement). In brief, nearly all studies that have examined these associations in the global context have confirmed the presence of a higher incidence of smoking in adolescents who performed poorly in school [ 4 , 15 , 19 , 20 ]. In discussing such relationships, several explanations have been offered.…”

Socioeconomic Status, Parental Education, School Connectedness and Individual Socio-Cultural Resources in Vulnerability for Drug Use among Students

“…We also included a proxy for individual socio-cultural resources by using the fact of reading books for pleasure as a signal of engagement in cultural leisure activities. It has been shown that socioeconomic status heavily influences access to relevant networks (e.g., internet, newspapers and libraries) for socio-cultural resources [23], which in turn seems to become an additional risk factor for substance use [9,12]. Students are asked how often they read books for enjoyment (schoolbooks are excluded).…”

Concurrent and Simultaneous Use of Cannabis and Tobacco and Its Relationship with Academic Achievement amongst University Students

“…Similar results have been found when polydrug users of tobacco, cannabis and alcohol were studied. For example, Mazur et al [ 38 ] found that girls with a poor perception of school performance, compared to girls with better achievements, were at higher risk of being polydrug users of tobacco, cannabis, and alcohol (considering drug use across the last 30 days). In contrast to previous literature, a recent placebo-controlled trial has found that tobacco improves working memory across all load levels including maintenance, manipulation, and attention, independently of cannabis.…”