Boarding and public schools: Navajo educational attainment, conduct disorder, and alcohol dependency

Many critics of United States government operated boarding schools for American Indians have asserted that the boarding school experience has lasting deleterious effects on personality development. Specifically, it has been suggested that a boarding school education is likely to lead to problems with alcohol in adulthood. To examine that assertion, data from interviews with over 1000 Navajos are analyzed concerning schooling, conduct disorder and the history of alcohol use. Consistent with data on the U.S. population generally, Navajo high school dropouts reported greater problems with alcohol than did graduates. Contrary to expectations, Navajos with a history of alcohol dependency were no more likely to have attended boarding schools than those who did not report patterns of alcohol dependency.