UCLA researchers conducted an 8-year study of roughly 1,300 low-income Los Angeles teens and found that students who attended high performing charter high schools were less likely to abuse substances. The study published in the JAMA Network Open also found males who attended the high performing schools experienced better physical health and lower obesity rates. It also found that female students had substantially worse outcomes for these two metrics.
The study included participants who attended 147 different L.A. area high schools and represented different academic environments. A reliance on self-reported outcomes and a limited sample size were some limitations of the study.
A previous research study called the Reducing Inequities Through Social and Education Change (RISE) Study the researchers examined 11th grade outcomes. This study found that low-income minority students enrolled in high-performing public charter schools were significantly less likely to engage in risky health behaviors than students who were on charter school waitlists or attended other schools.
The new study, called RISE Up, tracks participants into their post-graduate years and includes a focus on physical health and obesity. The intervention group consisted of 694 students admitted into one of five high-performing public charter high schools (the intervention group). The control group had 576 waitlisted students. The students were tracked from March 2013 through June 2021. The students in the intervention group had a 50% lower rate of alcohol use disorder compared to the control group.
Women who attended high-performing charter schools had higher poor physical health and obesity rates (65% and 31% respectively) compared with those in the control group. The researchers acknowledged that expectations for men and women differ. Researchers explain that “higher-performing schools raise expectations for success, potentially creating greater tension around decisions about education, career, and family. These expectations may differ for women and men in our study. Women and men may also cope differently with these expectations, possibly leading women to experience more stress and worse physical health.” Future studies will need to consider the role of gender expectations in evaluating the impact of high performing public schools on substance abuse prevention and use.
Sources: Eureka News Alert, JAMA Network Open
