School Commitment and Alcohol Use: The Moderating Role of Race and Ethnicity

Creator

Tamela McNulty Eitle
David James Eitle

Files

Publisher

Arizona State University, University of South Florida

Publication Date

December 2007

Abstract

Research indicates that lower levels of school commitment may be one potential outcome of policy initiatives such as high-stakes testing and exit exams. Such outcomes may lead these policy initiatives to have unintended consequences for students, particularly racial or ethnic minority students. This study examines whether race of ethnicity moderate the relationship between school commitment and alcohol use or binge drinking among a sample of Florida public middle and high-school students who were surveyed as part of the 2002 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey. Low school commitment was found to be associated with a greater likelihood of alcohol use in the past 30 days and a greater likelihood of binge drinking during the past two weeks for Black, Hispanic, and white students. Both the higher average levels of school commitment among Black and Hispanic than among white students and the greater association between low school commitment and the two alcohol use outcomes for Black and Hispanic students compared to white students account for some of the differences in alcohol use and binge drinking among the different groups.

Keywords

Alcohol use, Adolescence

Extent

20

Geographic Location

Florida

Volume

15

Issue

22

Language

English; Spanish

Media Type

Journals (Periodicals)

Format

Digital Only

Note

Citation: Eitle, T. M., & Eitle, D. J. (2007). School commitment and alcohol use: The moderating role of race and ethnicity. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 15(22). Retrieved [date] from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v15n22/.

Identifier

E11-00529

Creative Commons

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Recommended Citation

McNulty Eitle, Tamela and Eitle, David James, "School Commitment and Alcohol Use: The Moderating Role of Race and Ethnicity" (2007). Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA). 243.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/usf_EPAA/243