Effects of Recovery High School Attendance on Students' Mental Health Symptoms

Recovery high schools are one form of continuing care support for adolescents with substance use or other co-occurring disorders. Using a controlled quasi-experimental design, we compared mental health symptom outcomes at 6 months for adolescents who attended recovery high schools vs. non-recovery high schools (e.g., traditional or alternative schools). The propensity score balanced sample included 194 adolescents (134 in recovery schools, 60 in non-recovery schools) enrolled in schools in MN, WI, or TX (average age = 16; 86% White; 51% female). Baseline data indicated that this is a dually diagnosed population-94% of students met criteria for at least one mental health diagnosis and 90% had received mental health treatment distinct from treatment for substance use disorders. Results from multilevel logistic regression models indicated that at the 6-month follow-up, adolescents attending both recovery and non-recovery high schools reported substantial improvements in mental health symptoms. However, there were no significant differences in mental health outcomes between the two groups. We conclude that although recovery high schools offer promise for reducing substance use and improving academic success, and while adolescents' mental health symptoms improved between baseline and follow-up, recovery high schools may have minimal differential effects on adolescents' mental health symptoms.