Low-Income Students in High-Performing High Schools May Not Engage in Risky Behavior

Adolescents belonging to low-income minority, attending high-performing high schools are less likely to get involved in risky behavior, according to a new study.

The study led by the University of California, Los Angeles, examined how the quality of education influences the rate of risky health behaviors in high school students and found that attending high-performing public charter high schools in Los Angeles boosted their health. Apart from this, they noticed that these students also scored significantly well on California state standardized math and English tests.

Studies conducted earlier highlighted an association between health and K-12 education.

Dr. Mitchell Wong, the study's lead investigator, said, "These students' higher cognitive skills may lead them to better health literacy and decision-making. They may be exposed to less negative peer pressure, and the school environment may promote the resilience that steers them away from these risky behaviors. In addition, in a better academic environment students spent more time studying, leaving them less time to engage in risky behaviors."

The study included students who were highly vulnerable to engage in behavior that was divided into two categories by the researchers. The two types of behavior included 'risky' and 'very risky' behaviors.

Any use of tobacco, alcohol and marijuana in the past 30 days was classified as 'risky behavior' and 'very risky' behavior included binge drinking, use of alcohol in school, use of drugs other than marijuana, current pregnancy, multiple sex partners, sex without condoms and sex under the influence of drugs .

To begin with, the researchers compared two groups of school students who belonged to the low-income neighborhoods in LA. Nearly 521 students were allowed to attend high-performing public charter schools through the district lottery and 409 students were offered admissions.  The students of both groups were surveyed about their health behavior and their standardized test scores, the results were later compared.

The researchers noticed that those who were admitted to high-performing schools did much better on standardized tests. Also, less of the charter school attendees engaged in risky behavior. However, the researchers found no significant difference in students of both the groups engaging in other risky behaviors like alcohol consumption and marijuana use.

Also, those who changed schools or dropped out were more likely to involve in very risky behavior.

The authors concluded that, "successful public charter high schools in low-income neighborhoods can have beneficial health effects, and could help to close the growing academic achievement gap between wealthy and poor students. In other words, high school graduates may appear healthier than high school dropouts, not because of their schooling or school environment, but because high school dropouts are much more likely to be poor."

The finding appeared in the journal Pediatrics.