Summer School, School Disengagement, and Substance Use During Adolescence

Youth who fall behind academically are at increased risk for school disengagement, school dropout, and substance use. Summer school is an opportunity for youth to complete needed coursework yet has not been utilized as a venue for substance use prevention. To date, little is known about the rates of summer school attendance among adolescents or the relationship between summer school attendance, school disengagement, and substance use. The purpose of this study is to assess the characteristics of summer school attendance over the past 20 years and to examine the associations between summer school attendance, indicators of school disengagement, and recent substance use among eighth-grade students.

Data from the Monitoring the Future cross-sectional study of eighth-grade students (1997-2016; n=111,033) was used to examine the association between summer school attendance and recent substance use (e.g., past 2-week/30-day marijuana use). Bivariate associations controlling for sociodemographics and school disengagement (e.g., truancy) were assessed. Analyses were completed in 2018.

School disengagement and substance use were associated with summer school attendance; however, when controlling for indicators of school disengagement, summer school attendance was not associated with substance use. Interaction effect models found that summer school attendance weakened the association between indicators of school disengagement and substance use.

These findings suggest that students with a high propensity to use substances do attend summer school. Summer school may be a venue to deliver information on the risk of alcohol or other drugs to a population of at-risk students.