Relationship between school connectedness and youth risk behaviors in New York City schools

Education is strongly related to health; people who drop out of high school have worse health outcomes than high school graduates making high school graduation rates a public health concern.  Many factors are associated with high school drop-out including race, socioeconomic status, early academic struggles, certain school characteristics, substance use, and pregnancy in adolescence. 

Interventions addressing specific risk behaviors can be effective; however, improved protective factors may be an alternative method to decreasing risky behaviors. This study investigated the relationship of New York City students’ school connectedness with participation in risky behaviors as an effort to discover methods to increase the high school graduation rate of NYC.

Data from the 2011 NYC Youth Risk Behavior Survey was used to explore the relationship between school connectedness, measured as feeling connected to at least one adult at school, and risky behaviors of using cigarettes, marijuana, other hard drugs, alcohol, and not using condoms.  Three binary regression models were run. The unadjusted model shows using cigarettes, marijuana, and hard drugs are significantly negatively related to feeling connected to an adult at school. These relationships remain significant after demographic covariates are included.  When poverty levels are added to the model, the relationship between school connectedness and smoking marijuana and using hard drugs remain significant.

The results of this study reveal that relationships with adults at school could act as a protective factor against teens using marijuana and hard drugs, supporting the need for teachers to connect with students in ways that earn their trust.