High School Drug Use Predicts Job Quality at Age 29

It may be no surprise that hard-drug use in high school is associated with less favorable labor market experiences later in life, but is it the drug use that is responsible or some more basic preexisting cause? Perhaps high-schoolers who use hard drugs were, as middle-schoolers, more rebellious or troublesome, more given to use of alcohol, cigarettes, or marijuana. A recent DPRC study matched the labor market experiences of 29-year-olds with their high school drug use choices and middle school behavior as reported by those same people in surveys taken when they were in school. The analysis shows that 29-year-old women who used hard drugs in high school were less likely to have white-collar occupations and more likely to have blue-collar ones than women who did not use hard drugs. That is true even after statistically controlling for differences in middle school behavior. Male 29-year-olds who had used hard drugs were not similarly disadvantaged, but did tend to have jobs with fewer benefits than non-hard-drug-users. Further analysis showed that some of the association between drug use and labor market outcomes could be explained by differences in educational attainment and drug use at 29, but most of it could not. The study stops short of proving a causal connection between hard drug use in high school and unfavorable labor market outcomes in adulthood because for this survey sample there were no data on other possible underlying causes such as differences in mental health.

Note: Outcomes are at age 29; use or non-use refers to 12th grade; -- indicates no significant relationship.

Source:

High School Drug Use Predicts Job-related Outcomes at Age 29.

RIngel J, Ellickson P, Collins R.

Full Article (Addictive Behaviors) »

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