In the dissertation titled, Reducing Risk for Substance Use by Economically Disadvantaged Young Men: Positive Family Environments and Pathways to Educational Attainment (Martin, Conger,Sitnick, Masarik, Forbes, & Shaw (2015), a quantitative study was done to determine if economically disadvantaged males evaluated link early family environment and later educational aspirations, extracurricular activities, and educational attainment to substance use in early adulthood. Using prospective, longitudinal data spanning 10 years (age = 10–20) from a study of 295 economically disadvantaged males, the current investigation evaluated a developmental model that connects these links.
The conceptual model that was evaluated takes a social control approach and proposes that earlier characteristics of the family environment influence later educational aspirations and extracurricular activities during adolescence, which in turn promote educational attainment and resilience to substance use in early adulthood for economically disadvantaged young men.
Data for the present study was drawn from an ongoing longitudinal study of vulnerability and resilience among boys from low-income families (Shaw et al., 2003). The study has been approved by the University of Pittsburgh Institutional Review Board (Protocol No. PRO09020252). The sample was recruited from low-income families who were participants in the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Nutritional Supplement Program in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area.
The results of the study indicate that early positive family environments and educational involvements promote later educational attainment, which in turn appears to deter substance use during young adulthood, and that this developmental process may increase the resilience of economically disadvantaged young men to later substance use. The study makes an important contribution to the literature in identifying educational aspirations, extracurricular activities, and educational attainment as factors that link these early childhood family factors to later adult substance use among economically disadvantaged males.
When I think about fostering supportive learning environments through positive classroom cultures and classroom communities I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes. The philosopher Hannah Arendt said that the essence of being human is participating in moral discourse with others. “The things of the world become human for us only when we can discuss them with our fellows. We humanize what is going on in the world and in ourselves only by speaking of it, and in the course of speaking of it we learn to be human.” It is important that teachers take the opportunity to step back and reflect together with colleagues/research on how they want to create these thoughtful classrooms. These kinds of classrooms don’t just happen overnight. Teachers and their students are always growing and developing in the art of creating a community of learners. Numerous decisions are being made everyday. Mistakes will be made. But the more teachers take time to look at the components of a reflective classroom and consciously work at creating a thoughtful environment, the more effective they will be.
References
Martin, M. J., Conger, R. D., Sitnick, S. L., Masarik, A. S., Forbes, E. E., & Shaw, D. S. (2015).
Reducing Risk for Substance Use by Economically Disadvantaged Young Men: Positive Family Environments and Pathways to Educational Attainment. Child Development, 86(6), 1719-1737. doi:10.1111/cdev.12413
Peterson, G. W., & Bush, K. R. (2013). Conceptualizing cultural influences on socialization: Comparing
parent–ado- 1736 Martin et al. lescent relationships in the United States and Mexico. In G. W. Peterson & K. R. Bush (Eds.), Handbook of marriage and the family (pp. 177–208). New York, NY: Springer Science+Business Media. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-3987-5_9
Shaw, D. S., Gilliom, M., Ingoldsby, E. M., & Nagin, D. (2003). Trajectories leading to school-age
conduct problems. Developmental Psychology, 39, 189–200. doi:10.1037//0012-1649.39.2.189
Strom, S.M. (1981).Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior,”
Moral Education Forum, p. 13.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2012). Results from the
2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Summary of national findings (NSDUH series H-44, HHS Publication No. SMA 12-4713). Rockville, MD: Author. Retrieved from http://www.samhsa.- gov/data/nsduh/2k11results/nsduhresults2011.pdf
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