Behavioral Concerns and Mental HealthThe Role of Social-Emotional and Social Network Factors in the Relationship Between Academic Achievement and Risky Behaviors
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Study Design and Sample
We analyzed data from the Reducing Health Inequities through Social and Educational Change (RISE) study, a natural experimental study of students who had applied to 1 or more high-performing public charter high schools in low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles.24 We first identified 7 potential charter schools for the study that were in the top tertile of all California public high schools on the basis of the California 2009 Growth Academic Performance Index (API).25, 26 Of these schools, 3
Results
Table 1 shows the demographic, parental, and educational characteristics of our sample of 929 adolescents who participated in the RISE study. The sample was comprised of 84% Latino and 12.6% African American students with 38.6% being native English speakers. Just over half of students (50.7%) had at least 1 parent who had graduated from high school, whereas 91.7% of students 1 one or more parents working full time. A small number of students had performed at the level of proficient or above on
Discussion
Consistent with previous studies, our results indicate that lower rates of risky behaviors are very strongly linked to higher academic achievement.17, 38, 39, 40 Our study extends previous literature by investigating GPA as well as standardized test scores and by examining a wide range of risky behaviors related to substance use, sex, and violence. The association between risky behaviors with academic achievement was fairly consistent across behaviors and consistent when GPA or CST scores were
Acknowledgments
Financial disclosure: This study was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (PI: Wong; grant number RC2MD004770).
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The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.