5.9 The educational environment: achievements, aspirations and 'school connectedness'
Show / hide chapter menu
Smoking in adolescence has been consistently associated with lesser academic achievement.1, 4, 44, 109 Students who do well at school, are in support of school-based values and report higher levels of school involvement, are less likely to smoke.1 Having higher academic aspirations is also a protective factor against smoking.44 Conversely, students who smoke are more likely to feel more negatively towards school, to miss school more often, to perform less well academically, to engage in early school misbehaviour, and to drop out of school at an earlier age than non-smokers.109 National survey data on secondary schoolchildren in England has shown that children who played truant or were excluded (suspended or expelled) from school were more than twice as likely to be smokers.56 Other English research has shown that students attending schools which reported lower levels of truancy and scored better-than-expected examination results on the basis of their sociodemographic profile, had a lower smoking prevalence among the students. The authors of this study propose that higher degrees of school connectedness may have the potential to break the link between smoking and disadvantage.110
Bryant et al summarise three research theories that could explain the correlation between smoking, student aspiration and school involvement. The first is that smoking occurs as a direct result of school-based problems, and is used as a personal coping or compensatory strategy. The second proposes that poor school experiences arise as a direct result of drug use, which they comment is perhaps more likely to be the case with substances of abuse other than tobacco. The third theory argues that some adolescents have a tendency towards deviancy or problem behaviour, and that both smoking and poor school experience are the result of common underlying social and psychological processes.109 Based on their own research, Bryant et al propose that students who engage in school misbehaviour from an early age are more likely to have reduced school bonding and academic achievement, and a higher likelihood of smoking. Continued alienation from the school environment is likely to lead to further behavioural issues, and academic failure.109 As well as being associated with a greater likelihood of smoking, this negative school trajectory is also associated with social, psychological and employment problems in adulthood.111, 112
Australian research into smoking among 14-year-olds has shown that whether assessed by self-report or external standardised measures, smokers have lower levels of achievement than non-smokers. The association appears stronger for boys than for girls.51 Research from New South Wales has also shown that having a negative attitude to school, measured by student perception of school environment and teacher support, is associated with higher levels of smoking.113 Victorian secondary schoolchildren aged between 12 and 15 who do not intend to complete Year 12 of their education are about seven times more likely to be committed smokers than students who do expect to complete their schooling.72
Some Australian survey data suggests that attending a co-educational school may also be a risk factor for initiation of smoking behaviour, compared to attending a single-sex school.114 Research from Western Australia shows that secondary school students aged 14-15 attending Catholic or other independent schools appear to be significantly more likely to be non-smokers than students in metropolitan government schools (91% compared with 86%).115
Copyright © 2010 The Cancer Council. All rights reserved.