Categories

• Abused Drugs
• Academics
• Addiction Recovery
• Addiction Research
• Addiction Research & News
• Alcohol Abuse
• Alcohol Addiction
• Alcoholism
• Alcoholism Treatment
• Binge Drinking
• Children of Alcoholics
• Crime
• Depression
• Drug Addiction
• Drunk Driving
• Eating Disorder
• Marketing Alcohol
• Mental Health
• News
• Other Drugs
• Other Types of Addiction
• Parties
• Prescription Drugs
• Prevention
• Research
• Resources
• Smoking
• Social Networking
• Stimulants
• Stress
• Teens
• Underage Drinking
• Women & Alcohol
• Young Adults

College Binge Drinking Tags

About Us

• About Us

Alcohol Use in Teenage Years Predicts Education Levels in Males

Underage alcohol use can cause problems at multiple levels for teenagers. From immediate risks like physical injury and alcohol poisoning to more developed problems like alcohol dependency to misplaced priorities, teens can find that choices made regarding alcohol can make a significant impact on their lives.

Teenagers may be surprised to learn that their choices about alcohol may also be affecting their education beyond just the everyday options like choosing a party over a study session. Recent research is indicating that alcohol use may predict education levels, particularly among males.

Staff, Patrick, Loken and Maggs recently completed a study examining the long-term effect of heavy alcohol use at age 16 on educational qualifications in adulthood. The researchers used data from the National Child Development Study, which was a longitudinal study, ongoing since the birth of the British youth in 1958. The study included 9.107 participants.

The study used a propensity score matching strategy to examine whether the alcohol choices made at 16 years of age predicted educational levels in adulthood. The study looked at females and males separately because there were significant gender differences between females and males in both heavy drinking and adult socioeconomic attainment.

The results of the study found that heavy drinking in adolescence did predict educational outcomes. The drinking adolescence was measured in 1974, and had a direct negative impact on the receipt of postsecondary educational credentials in males by the age of 42.

Females were not affected in the same way. Specifically, males from working-class backgrounds were most significantly affected negatively by heavy drinking at the age of 16. The results were found independent of child and adolescent risk factors associated with both heavy drinking and educational attainment.

The study’s results show that drawing on a life span developmental contextual approach, there are associations between heavy drinking as a teenager and educational attainment. Heavy teenage alcohol use and lower socioeconomic backgrounds combined to reduce the levels of academic attainment in males. In contrast, females were not affected significantly by heavy drinking in their educational attainment.

While parents are already tasked with helping their teens to see how their current actions may impact their future, the results of this study add a new facet to the challenge. Teens may often think of immediate consequences to their choices about alcohol. Especially for males, the impact of a reduced achievement level in education may have ongoing effects on their lives.