Health Behavior In School Children
PAD 770
Nicholas Pennola
A.
Topic Overview
Children
are the bedrock of our society, how we educate and nurture them will determine
not only our future but the future of the world. If we can study the actions of children and
the affects of outside influences on them, then we can better manage their
education and ensure that everyone has a bright future.
B.
Review of Research Literature
Every year the World Health Organization
sponsors a cross-national study of health related attitudes and behaviors of
school aged children. The studies look
at a wide range of impacts ranging from drug and alcohol use to eating habits,
family make up and violence in school.
Utilizing all of these factors it is possible to analyze some of the
root problems within our society and find if there are any specific
correlations between certain instances of health and behavior problems.
In depth articles on the subject can be
found at the Teen Drug Abuse
website. The websites goal is to “educate
people about why teens begin using, what they are using, and how those drugs
are affecting teens physically, socially, and mentally.” The numerous
articles on the site describe all aspects of substance abuse from smoking
cigarettes to illicit drugs such as cocaine and everything in between.
C.
Research Question
Is there a relationship between teen drug
use and scholastic activity and injury?
It is a common notion that drugs are bad
and that they affect the youth of this country in a negative way. In this study I will endeavor to discover if
there is any definitive relationship will substance
use and its affects on school aged children.
D.
Sources of Data
Health Behavior in School-Aged Children, 1997-1998: [
World Health Organization
E. Summary of Statistical Procedure
I ran two correlations to determine the
relationship between drug and alcohol use and how it affected student behavior
and their health. The first correlation
examined the relationship between the different substances that students use,
their school habits as well as their opinions of about being in school. The
second analyzed the relationship between the drug and alcohol use with the
types of injuries suffered, attempting to discover if substance use has any
relationship to children being hurt.
F.
Findings
Correlation #1
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SDA
3.1: Correl Health Behavior in School-Aged
Children (HBSC), 1997-1998 |
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CSM, UC Berkeley
Correlation #2
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SDA
3.1: Correl Health Behavior in School-Aged
Children (HBSC), 1997-1998 |
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CSM, UC Berkeley
G.
Explanation of the Findings
There wasn't much
of a correlation between the uses of any of the substances with the feelings
about school, there is a very small positive correlation between truancy and
smoking and drinking and a small negative correlation between truancy and marijuana
use. Even though it is small these statistics show that there is some small
link between these attributes.
It would seem
logical that those involved with substance use would be more likely to get
injured, whether that be from accidents involving the
substance itself, like an overdose or alcohol poisoning, or from some kind of accident
involving impaired judgment or reflexes from the effects of the substance. However, the matrix shows that there is
indeed no relevant correlation between any of the substances and injuries
reported on the survey.
The substances
themselves are another story. While drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes
were relatively correlated, the most interesting piece of information was
the mid range negative correlation between those two and their illicit
counterparts. Alcohol and smoking
cigarettes are generally considered to be gateway drugs, the use of these
leading to the use of the harder substances but this study shows that the
reverse is actually true, those that smoked cigarettes or drank alcohol
regularly were less likely to use other substances.
H.
Discussion of the Findings in the Context of the Research Literature
Most of the information
concerning substance use concerning school aged children, like popular thought
is that the use of substances adversely affects the children. This information was not supported by the
information collected in the World Health Organization survey. However, to further clarify more specific
information regarding this subject it is recommended that another study be
completed that tracks children who use substances and further study how they
are impeded throughout their education.