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The Untapped Power of Schools to Improve the Health of Teens Improving the Odds:
The Untapped Power of Schoolsto Improve the Health of Teens
Improving the Odds:
The Untapped Power of Schoolsto Improve the Health of Teens
Improving the Odds:
When students feel they are a part of school, say
they are treated fairly by teachers, and feel close to people at
school, they are healthier and more likely to succeed.
What promotes this connectedness to school? Well-managed
classrooms, small school size and integrated
friendship groups.
Introduction.........................................4
The Answers So Far...............................8
Conclusion...........................................16
Epilogue...............................................17
All photographs in this publication by John Nolter, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Preparation of this report was assisted by a grantfrom the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Princeton, New Jersey
Introduction
Schools have enormous influence on teenagers. Schools are
where formal learning takes place. Schools are also the center of most
teenagers’ social lives – where they find most of their
friends and develop friendships.
Along with the family, schoolsare where most adolescentsare socialized into adulthood.Kids enter middle school
and high school representing a widedevelopmental range. They are tall orshort, young or old for their grade.
Many come with enormousencouragement from home. Otherscome with great family burdens. Stillothers come hungry, abused, ordepressed. No matter what theirbackground, middle and high schoolstudents all need to accomplish the samedevelopmental tasks. They all need to
Three of these charts usemeasurements referred to asStandard Deviation Units(SD Units). This is aresearcher’s way of ensuringthat data from differentsources are comparedaccurately.
The value of “0” representsthe average level amongstudents. Negative numbersindicate below-average,positive numbers indicategreater than average.
0
0.5
1
1.5
Lev
el o
f Sub
stan
ce U
se(S
D U
nits
)
0Not at All
Connected
1 2 3 4
Very Little
Somewhat Quite A Bit
Very Connected
Level of School Connectedness
-0.5
Frequency ofAlcohol
Frequency ofCigarettes
Frequency ofMarijuana
Distress
0
0.5
1
1.5
Lev
el o
f Em
oti
ona
l
D
istr
ess
(SD
Uni
ts)
Very Little
Somewhat Quite A Bit
Very Connected
Level of School Connectedness
-0.5
Emotional Ditress
Suicide
0Not at All
Connected
1 2 3 4
Students Who Feel Connected to Schoolare Less Likely to Use Substances
Students Who Feel Connected to SchoolExperience Less Emotional Distress
4
successfully navigate adolescence and thetransition to adulthood. By default ordesign, many behaviors and attitudesthat are learned and cultivated in schoolshave consequences that survive intoadulthood.
When middle and high schoolstudents feel cared for by people at theirschool and when they feel like they arepart of school, they are less likely toengage in unhealthy behaviors. Whenthey feel connected to school they alsoreport higher levels of emotional well-being.
In an earlier study, researchers at theUniversity of Minnesota learned thatschool connectedness is a powerfulprotective factor. Their research showedthat students who feel connected toschool:
■ are less likely to use alcohol and illegal drugs;
■ are less likely to engage in violentor deviant behavior;
■ are less likely to becomepregnant;
■ are less likely to experienceemotional distress.
Other researchers have found thatstudents respond better to efforts toimprove academic performance whenthey feel connected to school.
Since school connectedness isassociated with a lower prevalence of somany unhealthy behaviors, two teams of researchers examined the questions,“What contributes to a teen’s feeling ofconnectedness to school? Why do some adolescents feel attached to schoolwhile others do not? What individualand school characteristics predict the
0
0.25
0.5
0.75
1
1.25
1.5
Lev
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f Vio
lent
or
Dev
iant
B
ehav
ior
(SD
Uni
ts)
Level of School Connectedness
-0.5
Deviant Behavior
Violence
-0.25
Very Little
Somewhat Quite A Bit
Very Connected
0Not at All
Connected
1 2 3 4
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
Perc
ent
Eve
rP
regn
ant
Level of School Connectedness
Very Little
Somewhat Quite A Bit
Very Connected
0Not at All
Connected
1 2 43
Students Who Feel Connected to SchoolEngage in Less Violent or Deviant Behavior
Students Who Feel Connected to SchoolAre Less Likely to Become Pregnant
5
sense of belonging that protects ourstudents from risky health behaviors?How does the overall pattern offriendship networks influence a feelingof connectedness? What role does anindividual’s popularity play?”
These are the questions this reportanswers.
The information reported in thismonograph is based on data from theNational Longitudinal Study ofAdolescent Health (Add Health).During the 1994–1995 school year, over 90,000 adolescents in grades 7through 12 were surveyed in school in80 different communities around thecountry. A survey was also administeredto school administrators in thesecommunities.
Together, these surveys providedetailed information about studentfriendships, extra-curricular activitiesduring or after school, student attitudes,discipline policies, teacher qualifications,the demographic make-up of schools,and structural characteristics includingschool size, class size, and whether theschool is public or private, urban,suburban, or rural. Also included inAdd Health are individual attributesincluding race/ethnicity, family structure,grade point average, measures of class-room behaviors, and school attendance.(See sidebar, The National LongitudinalStudy of Adolescent Health, for moredetails on the survey.)
The findings reported here comefrom two related studies that looked atwhat fosters school connectedness. Theresearchers considered nine school factors:
■ Classroom management
■ School demographiccomposition
■ School size
■ Class size
■ School type — public, private or parochial
Big Questions, Big Study
6
The Add Health Study, from which this data comes, is acomprehensive school-based study of the health-related
behaviors of adolescents in the United States. BetweenSeptember, 1994 and April, 1995 more than 90,000 students ingrades 7 through 12 attending 132 schools around the UnitedStates answered brief questionnaires about their lives, includingtheir health, friendships, self-esteem, and expectations for thefuture. Parents had to give their permission through proceduresapproved by each school.
Administrators from participating schools also completed aquestionnaire dealing with school policies and procedures,teacher characteristics, health service provision or referral, andstudent body characteristics. School information was updated in a telephone interview in the spring of 1996.
All students who completed the in-school questionnaire, plusthose who did not complete a questionnaire but were listed on a school roster, were eligible to be sampled for an in-homeinterview. Over 20,000 in-home interviews of students wereconducted between April and December of 1995 (Wave I).
This in-home sample is composed of both a nationallyrepresentative core sample (approximately 12,000) and a dozenspecial samples that can be used to examine questions in groupsthat would otherwise be too few in number for analysis (forexample, twins, Cuban Hispanics, and disabled young people).All data were recorded on laptop computers, and sensitivequestions were asked privately using a pre-recorded audiocassette.
A follow-up (Wave II) of over 15,000 adolescents, interviewedagain at home, was conducted between April and August of 1996.A parent of each adolescent who was interviewed, usually themother, was asked to complete an interview as part of Wave I.Eighteen thousand parent interviews were completed(approximately 85% of all adolescent participants).
The Add Health Study was directed by J. Richard Udry and ateam of adolescent health researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
THE NATIONAL LONGITUDINAL STUDYOF ADOLESCENT HEALTH
■ Discipline policies
■ Rates of participation inextracurricular activities
■ Teacher qualifications
■ Friendship groups among students in the school
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The Answers So Far
Most students in most schools across the country feel pretty connected to
school. They feel an attachment to their friends and teachers.
This is good news. The averagelevel of connectedness acrossall schools was 3.6, out of apossible range of 1 to 5.
Still, 31 percent of students do not feelconnected to school. Those who are not connected — who are disengaged— are more likely to smoke cigarettes,have early sexual intercourse, or becomeinvolved in weapon-related violence.
Developing policies and programsthat promote school connectedness is agood educational strategy and a goodpublic health strategy. The challenge isto understand what promotes schoolconnectedness.
Good classroom management leadsto higher school connectedness and allof the benefits that flow from it. It ismore important than teacher experience,class size, or teachers having a Master’sdegree. This is the central finding ofthese studies.
In a school with well-managedclassrooms, students get along witheach other and the teacher, are engagedin learning, and complete homeworkassignments.
The state of classroom managementin a school was measured from responsesto four questions “How much troubledo you have:
... getting along with other students?
... getting along with teachers?
... completing your homework?
... paying attention in class?”
On average, students reportedhaving trouble in one or more of theseareas on a weekly basis. Clearly,classroom management is an issue inmost middle schools and high schools.
Intervention research has demonstrat-ed that classroom management can bedramatically improved by givingteachers concrete strategies for engagingand disciplining students and by theadministration supporting use of thesestrategies throughout the school.
Classroom Management
8
A PROFILE OF AMERICAN MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOLS
The Add Health Study includes samples of just about every type of middle
school and high school across the country.Taken together, the schools in Add Healthare representative of all schools in theUnited States, including public, private andparochial schools.
Add health data show that:
■ Most schools (83%) are public schools.
■ The average school size is around 650students; however, there is a big range insize, from 25 students to over 5,000.
■ The average class size is just under 23students, with a range from 10 to 39students in a class.
■ More than two-fifths (42%) of teachershave their Master’s degree.
■ The average school has about one ineleven teachers who are in their firstyear of teaching at the school.
■ Most students (83%) participate in atleast one extracurricular school activity– either during the school day or afterschool – but the range is huge, from100% participation to 41%.
■ Nearly 38% of schools give out-of-school suspension the first time astudent is caught smoking.
■ Four percent of schools give out-of-school suspension the first time astudent is caught cheating.
School connectedness was measured based on responses tofive questions:
“How strongly do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements:
■ I feel close to people at this school.
■ I am happy to be at this school.
■ I feel like I am part of this school.
■ The teachers at this school treat students fairly?
■ I feel safe in my school.”
Students resonded on a 5-point scale from “strongly agree.”
Measuring School Connectedness*
*The first three questions were used for the Moody and Bearman analysis of friendshipgroups. This scale is called “school attachment.” All five questions were used for theMcNeely, Nonnemaker and Blum analysis. This scale is called “school connectedness.”
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Well-managed classrooms are mostlikely to exist when:
■ The school sets clear expectationsfor individual responsibility and conflict resolution amongstudents;
■ Teachers consistentlyacknowledge all students;
■ Students participate in themanagement of the classroom— they do regular jobs, have input on classroom rules andhelp set grading criteria.
Students feel more connected toschool when friendship groups areracially integrated. However, theresearchers found that when a school isracially integrated, friendship groupswithin a school tend to be raciallysegregated.
Apparently, students prefer to formfriendships with young people of theirown race. When there are enoughstudents of each racial group to formfriendships with peers of one’s own race,racial groups tend to isolate themselvesfrom one another along racial boundaries.When this occurs, overall connectednessdeclines (see sidebar Mapping FriendshipGroups).
This finding was not true for allschools. There were a few schools withlarge numbers of both African Americanand White students and integrated friend-ship groups. But these were the exception.
Clearly, there is a need to go beyondour current integration practices, whichfocus on numeric integration of theschool as a whole and neglect integrationwithin a school. For example, to theextent that minority students aredisproportionately assigned to lower-track classes, school policies can un-intentionally exacerbate the segregationof friendship groups.
School Composition
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Students in smaller schools feel moreconnected to school, on average, thanstudents in larger schools. This findingcontributes to the mounting evidencethat very large schools are not good forengaging kids in school.
The effect of school size onconnectedness is not the same as theeffect of school size on academicachievement. The optimal school size forincreasing school connectedness is under600 students. In small schools, teachersand school leaders can personallyconnect with most students, animpossible feat in a large school.
On the other hand, studies onlearning report that the optimal highschool size for high academic achievementis between 600 and 1,200 students.Schools of this size have the capacity tooffer a wide variety of courses andcurricula. Nonetheless, the findingssupport the growing evidence that verylarge schools, those over 1,200, are notgood environments for adolescents eithereducationally or socially.
Teacher Qualifications
Discipline Policies
Structural School Characteristics
Extracurricular Activities/Classroom Management
Percent of students who are Latino.
Percent of students from two-parent families.
Percent of teachers in their first year of teaching at the school.
Percent of teachers with a Master’s degree.
Students receive out-of-school suspension or expulsion the firsttime they are caught cheating (yes/no). A scale was createdbased on administrator responses to ten questions. “In yourschool, what happens to a student who is caught:
The responses ranges from “1” (no policy) to “7” (expulsion). Harsh discipline policies were defined as 6.5 or higher.
Possessing alcohol? Verbally abusing a teacher?Drinking alcohol? Fighting?Possessing an illegal drug? Injuring another student?Using an illegal drug? Carrying a weapon?Destroying school property? Injury to a teacher?”
School size measured in 100s; class size; public school(yes/no); urban, rural or suburban.
Measuring School Environment
Demographic Composition
School Size
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Percent of students who do not participate in extracurricularactivities, based on a list of activities including sports, academicclubs, music, newspaper, and yearbook.
Classroom management is the school average of students’responses to four questions. “Since you started school this year, how often have you had trouble:
Getting along with teachers? Paying attention in school? Getting your homework done? Getting along with other students?”
Responses ranged from “never” (0) to “everyday” (4).
While smaller class size has beenshown to improve academic success,class size is not related to the likelihoodof students feeling connected to school.Similarly, the type of school—public,private, or parochial—is not associatedwith school connectedness. Whether aschool is urban, rural or suburban alsodoes not predict the level ofconnectedness in the school.
When schools have harsh or punitivediscipline policies, students feel lessconnected to school. The discipline
policy for any particular infraction doesnot influence connectedness; rather,harsh discipline climate in general iswhat seems to be associated with lowerschool connectedness.
It is unclear which is the cause andwhich is the effect. Are more restrictiveschool policies the response to a highprevalence of disconnected students andtheir behavioral problems, or dopunitive discipline policies serve toalienate students from school?
The analysis presented here cannotanswer that question.
When more students participate inextracurricular activities during or afterschool, the overall level of schoolconnectedness is higher. But, again, it is unclear whether the association iscausal. Do extracurricular activitiespromote school connectedness or is itsimply more likely that kids who arealready connected to school willparticipate in more school activities?
Class Size and School Type
Extracurricular Activities
Discipline Policies
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Although it is logical to assume thatteachers’ education level and years ofexperience would improve the likelihoodof students feeling connected to school,Add Health data show that neither is animportant factor. Neither the percent ofteachers with a Master’s degree nor thepercent of teachers in their first year ofteaching at the school is associated withschool connectedness.
Social relations with other students in school are crucial to school connected-ness. Specifically, the teens most connect-ed to school are the students who:
■ have the most friends;
■ have friends from lots ofdifferent social groups.
Conversely, the teens least connectedto school are the students who:
■ identify more friends fromoutside the school than from inside;
■ are socially isolated—those with few, if any friends in the school.
Adolescents on the margins of theadolescent social structure face greaterhealth risks, independent of their socialbackground or performance in school.Nationally, four percent of studentsreported that they had no friends. Therewere socially isolated students in everyschool studied.
Teacher Qualifications
Friendship Groups
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different social groups.
outside the school than from inside;
with few, if any friends inthe school.
Students were asked to identify, by name, their five closest malefriends and their five closest female friends. These weretabulated and analyzed by the criteria listed below.
The ratio of the number of nominations observed to thenumber of possible nominations in the school.
Are cliques separated or overlapping? If two people are friends,their friendship distance is one. A friend of a friend is two stepsaway, and a friend’s friend’s friend is three. The average distancebetween all reachable pairs in the school was measured.
Highly centralized school social structures are those in which cliques are separate (not overlapping).
Lesser centralized school social structures have a loosely tied web of interconnecting relationships.
Gender — The extent to which the friendships include boys and girls.
Race/Ethnicity — The extent to which the friendship groups in the school include Blacks and Whites.
Students were allowed to nominate friends both inside and out-side the school. This variable measures the extent to which thefriendship choices of students are oriented outside the school.
Students who are among the top 10% most often nominatedstudents in the school.
Students who neither nominated any friends, nor receivednominations from others in the school.
School Centralization
Measuring Friendship Groups
Individual Friends Nominated from Outside of School
School Network Density
School Network Segregation
Indiviudal Measure of Popularity and Isolation
Regardless of any one student’s social position in school, she or he willbe affected by the overall pattern offriendship groups in the school. Schoolconnectedness is higher for all studentswhen:
■ Social cliques in the school areoverlapping and students havesocial ties to multiple cliques.
■ There are multiple, reciprocatedfriendships (e.g., two studentseach identify the other asfriend).
■ The most popular students in a school are academicallymotivated and get good grades.
■ Friendship groups are integratedby race and gender.
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WhiteBlackMixed/O
Panel Ael B.
The integration of friendship groups across lines of race, gender and social status enhances students feeling ofconnectedness to school.
The figures above show how social scientists map social networks. Each circle on the maps above represents a student,and each line depicts a friendship selection made. Clusters of connected circles are friendship groups; circles on theperimeter with no connecting lines reveal socially isolated students.
Panel A is a map of a large school with relatively equal numbers of White students and Black students.There are twolarge friendship groups made up predominantly of Black students.There are also two predominantly White friendshipgroups. Other minority students are well represented throughout the school’s social network. In this racially integratedschool, Black and White students have formed segregated friendship groups.
To a lesser extent friendship groups tend to segregate themselves by socioeconomic status and gender as well.The result is a lower level of connectedness among most students.
Panel B depicts a school that is predominantly White. Students of color are equally represented in each of the fivefriendship groups. When friendship groups are integrated in this way, school connectedness tends to be higher.
In both schools there are students with no friends. Not surprisingly, these students feel the least connected to school.Many schools have implemented strategies to identify these young people and help link them into the school’s socialfabric.
Panel A Panel B●● White● Black● Mixed/Other
MAPPING FRIENDSHIP GROUPS
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Conclusion
Feeling connected to school is a significant advantage for adolescents as
they transition to adulthood.
School connectedness protectsadolescents against many healthrisks, including smoking,alcohol, drug use, and early
sexual initiation. School connectednessis also good for academic achievement:whatever curriculum is in place will bemore effective when students feelconnected to school.
The findings presented in thismonograph demonstrate that a fewschool attributes — classroommanagement, school size, and
integration of friendship groups acrosslines of race, gender, and social status —help explain why kids in some schoolsfeel more connected to school than kidsin other schools. Not only are thesefactors amenable to change, but there isevidence that schools have successfullychanged them.
Improving academic achievementand test scores is the top priority formost schools. Squeezing yet one morething — school connectedness — ontothe plate might feel like too big of aburden. However, many schooladministrators and teachers are alreadyproviding the kind of leadership neededto improve school connectedness. Theevidence provided here indicates thatthese efforts are worth the investmentand may have broader value thanpreviously expected.
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Epilogue
This series presents newresearch findings from theNational Longitudinal Studyof Adolescent Health that
have immediate applicability. Thepurpose of these monographs is tocommunicate these new findings to thepeople who can use this information toimprove the health and well-being ofadolescents.
1. Brainstorm with students, faculty, staff and parentssimple changes that could make school a more pleasantplace to be.
2. Create policies that are based on student, family and neighborhood srengths and assets.
3. Turn mistakes into learning opportunities rather thanfailures meriting punishment.
4. Acknowledge and honor accomplishments and all typesof competencies (such as helpfulness, good citizenship,most improved performance, volunteerism, participationin decision making, and cessation of negative behavior).
5. Set high standards and challenge students to meet them.
6. Reinforce explicit expectations for positive behavior and academic success.
7. Encourage highly interactive teaching strategies.
8. Create a welcoming environment for all who come to the school.
9. Invite family and community members to take active and regular roles in the daily operation of the school.
10. Create a common vision of success and keep it visible.
Ten Strategies That Foster Connection to School*
For School Administators
This is the third in a series of monographs funded
by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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* Based on material published in “Protective Schools: Linking Drug Abuse Preventionwith Student Success,” by Kris Bosworth, PhD. Smith Initiatives for Prevention andEducation, College of Education, The University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210069,Tucson, AZ 85721-0069
Ten Strategies That Foster Connection to School*
1. Be a model of respectful, cooperative, positive behavior in your everyday interactions.
2. Participate in school events.
3. Show interest. Be involved in your child’s academicactivities.
4. Maintain regular contact with your child’s teacher.
5. Monitor you child’s homework completion and workwith him or her on homework assignments that involve family participation.
6. Be present when things go wrong.
7. Meet your child’s friend, and their parents.
8. Ask school leaders what you can do to support them.
9. Volunteer at school.
10. Nominate effective school leaders for local awards.
For Parents
The findings presented in thismonograph contribute to a growingbody of research on how to fosterpositive school climate. The sidebars TenStrategies That Foster Connection withSchool came from the Smith Initiativesfor Prevention and Education at theUniversity of Arizona. These strategiestypify the recommendations of manyprofessional organizations of educators.
All monographs in this series can be downloaded from the website of the Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Health located at<www.allaboutkids.umn.edu>. The first monograph, Reducing the Risk:Connections That Make a Difference in the Lives of Youth, presents the firstresearch findings from Add Health. Itshows, among other things, that school connectedness is associated with emotional well-being and lowerparticipation in health risk behaviors.
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Ten Strategies That Foster Connection to School*
For Teachers
1. Help students get to know each other’s (and your) strengths.
2. Involve students in planning, problem solving, identifyingissues and assessing curriculum in the classroom.
3. Promote cooperation over competition. Post everyone’sbest work. Offer opportunities for the class to worktogether to help everyone achieve their level of excellence.
4. Build a strong relationship with each student.
5. Convey attentiveness to students and excitement aboutlearning through nonverbal gestures.
6. Involve all students in chores and responsibilities in theclassroom.
7. Integrate concepts of discipline and respect for classmatesthroughout instruction.
8. Give students more say in what they will learn.
9. Involve student in developing the criteria by which theirwork will be assessed and provide guidelines so they clearlyunderstand what’s expected of them.
10. Use first person plural (we, us, let’s) when presentingclassroom activities.
The second monograph, Protecting Teens: Beyond Race, Ethnicity and FamilyStructure, presents research which shows that race, family income and living in a single-parent family cannot predict whether an individual teen is likely to participate inrisky health behaviors.
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* Based on material published in “ProtectiveSchools: Linking Drug Abuse Prevention withStudent Success,” by Kris Bosworth, PhD. SmithInitiatives for Prevention and Education, College ofEducation, The University of Arizona, P.O. Box210069, Tucson, AZ 85721-0069
This monograph was prepared by Robert William Blum, MD, PhD, Clea McNeely, DrPHand Peggy Mann Rinehart of the Center for Adolescent Health and Development,University of Minnesota. It is based on an analysis of Add Health data and reported in theJournal of School Health, April 2002: McNeely, C.A., Nonnemaker, J.M., Blum, R.W.(2002) Promoting Student Attachment to School: Evidence from the NationalLongitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Journal of School Health. Vol 72(4).
All analyses of friendship networks were provided by James Moody, Department ofSociology, Ohio State University, and Peter S. Bearman, Department of Sociology, Columbia University, in their unpublished paper, “Shaping School Climate: SchoolContext, Adolescent Social Networks, and Attachment to School.”
Copies (up to 3) of this monograph can be obtained by contacting:Center for Adolescent Health and DevelopmentDivision of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Health University of Minnesota Gateway200 Oak St. SE, Suite 260Minneapolis, MN 55455-2002E-mail: [email protected]
Citation Information:
Blum, R.W., McNeely, C.A., Rinehart, P.M., (2002).
Improving the odds: The untapped power of schools to improve the health of teens,
Center for Adolescent Health and Development, University of Minnesota,
200 Oak St. SE, Suite 260, Minneapolis, MN.
Preparation of this report was assisted by a grant fromThe Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Princeton, New Jersey
Partial support for the research was provided by The American Association of SchoolAdministrators through a grant from the Division of Adolescent and School Health,Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and by grant 448-CCU513331 from theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention to the National Teen Pregnancy PreventionResearch Center.
Print Production Assistance: Liz Latts, David McNeely, Katherine Puntillo, Glynis SheaPrinted by University of Minnesota Printing Services.
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