Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2009 Jan;34(1):9-16.
doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2008.07.022. Epub 2008 Aug 3.

The association of ecstasy use and academic achievement among adolescents in two U.S. national surveys

Silvia S Martins  1 , Pierre K Alexandre
Affiliations
Comparative Study

The association of ecstasy use and academic achievement among adolescents in two U.S. national surveys

Silvia S Martins et al. Addict Behav. 2009 Jan.

Abstract

The association of ecstasy (3, 4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, MDMA) use with low academic achievement was examined in two nationally representative surveys of adolescents. We tested whether associations with low academic achievement were of similar magnitude or of stronger magnitude for ecstasy versus marijuana use (without ecstasy use), alcohol/tobacco use (without other drug use) and non-drug use in adolescence. Data from the adolescents in the 2002-2005 National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH, n=65,294) and from the 2001-2003 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS, n=27,592) were analyzed via weighted logistic regression models. Ecstasy, marijuana, and alcohol/tobacco use were associated with moderate and low academic achievement among adolescents in both surveys. Moreover, ecstasy was more strongly associated with low academic achievement and reporting that school gave no grades than alcohol/tobacco in both samples and than marijuana (NSDUH sample only). Prevention programs should inform adolescents that ecstasy use might impair their academic achievement.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Baggott M. Preventing problems in ecstasy users: reduce use to reduce harm. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. 2002;34(2):145–162. - PubMed
    1. Brener ND, Collins JL, Kann L, Warren CW, Williams BI. Reliability of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey Questionnaire. American Journal of Epidemiology. 1995;141:575–580. - PubMed
    1. Bray J, Zarkin G, Ringwalt C, Qi J. The Relationship Between Marijuana Initiation and Dropping Out of High School. Health Economics. 2000;9:9–18. - PubMed
    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National School-based Youth Risk Behavior Survey. 2001. [Accessed: Feb 05 2008]. Public-use Data Documentation. Available online at: http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/yrbs/data/index.htm.
    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National School-based Youth Risk Behavio Survey. 2003. [Accessed: Feb 05 2008]. Public-use Data Documentation. Available online at: http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/yrbs/data/index.htm.

Publication types

Substances