For additional news and resources, visit the PSESD Prevention Center page.  Improve Student Achievement with the PSESD Prevention Center
Puget Sound ESD’s Prevention Center provides Student Assistance programs to reduce the risk of alcohol, tobacco and drug use, strengthen positive decision making-skills and support student achievement in school. For more information, visit Citation: Mensch, B.S., & Kandel, D.B. (1988). Dropping out of high school and drug involvement. Sociology of Education, 61(4), 95-113.
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Adolescents who use drugs, especially marijuana and other illicit drugs, are characterized by many of the same attributes as are school dropouts, particularly less commitment and attachment to conventional values and institutions, such as the family and school, and lower psychological well-being. Adolescents who use drugs tend to have poorer relationships with their parents, stronger ties to their peers, poorer grades, more negative attitudes about school, and low self-esteem; in addition they are more often absent from school, less religious, more depressed, more rebellious, and higher in risk-taking behavior and participate more frequently in delinquent activities (Mensch & Kandel, 1988).