Youthful Substance Use and Educational Outcomes

美国青少年的酒精和其他药物使用率仍然很高，使青少年药物使用成为一个紧迫的公共卫生问题。这一建议解决了青少年物质使用的一个重要和知之甚少的方面，即物质使用与青少年教育成果之间的关系。这项指导研究科学家发展奖提案的目的是为Pinka Chatterji博士提供机会，对物质使用和儿童教育发展进行为期五年的综合研究。在Michael Grossman博士的赞助下，Chatterji博士建议使用几个国家数据集和计量经济学方法来估计：(1)阅读和数学成绩测试成绩、行为问题和小学和中学的不良成绩与后来开始使用酒精和其他药物、频率和强度之间的关系；(2)青少年酒精和其他药物使用对完成教育的质量和数量的影响。研究中使用的经济方法侧重于检测和解决物质使用和教育成果措施中的内生性问题。该研究还将青少年时期的物质使用和教育成果与决策者可以控制的州一级政策联系起来，例如对啤酒征收州消费税、大麻合法化、教师工资和学生/教师比例。本研究使用的数据集为：(1)1979年全国青年纵向调查；(2)全国青少年纵向调查儿童；(3)全国青少年纵向调查，1997；(4) 1988-1996年全国教育纵向研究。作为一名药物使用研究人员，查特吉博士的长期职业目标是将她作为卫生经济学家的培训与心理学和教育研究的坚实基础结合起来。为了实现这一目标，她将与格罗斯曼博士密切合作，并与来自哥伦比亚大学和她的家庭部门，阿尔伯特爱因斯坦医学院/蒙蒂菲奥里医学中心流行病学和社会医学系的多学科小组的共同导师密切合作。她还将把该奖项的前两年用于发展心理学、教育政策、原始数据收集、一般物质使用问题和研究伦理方面的课程作业、监督阅读和研讨会。这一背景将使Chatterji博士具备在未来作为独立调查员设计新颖的、与政策相关的物质使用研究项目所需的技能。

Rates of alcohol and other drug use among American youth remain high, making adolescent substance use a pressing public health issue. This proposal addresses one important and poorly understood aspect of adolescent substance use the relationship between substance use and educational outcomes during youth. The objective of this Mentored Research Scientist Development Award proposal is to give Pinka Chatterji, Ph.D. the opportunity to conduct an integrated, five-year study of substance use and children's educational development. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Michael Grossman, Dr. Chatterji proposes to use several national data sets and econometric methods to estimate: (1) the relationship between reading and math achievement test scores, behavior problems, and poor grades in elementary and middle school, and the later initiation, frequency, and intensity of alcohol and other drug use; and (2) the impact of adolescent alcohol and other drug use on the quality and quantity of education completed. The economic approach used in the study focuses on testing for and addressing problems of endogeneity in the substance use and educational outcome measures. The study also links substance use and educational outcomes during youth to state-level policies that decision makers can control, such as state excise taxes on beer, marijuana decriminalization, teachers' salaries, and student/teacher ratios. The data sets used in the study are: (1) The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979; (2) Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth; (3) The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997; and (4) The National Education Longitudinal Study, 1988-1996. Dr. Chatterji's long-term career goal as a substance use researcher is to combine her training as a health economist with a solid base in psychology and education research. To achieve this goal, she will work closely with Dr. Grossman and with a multidisciplinary group of co- mentors from Columbia University and her home department, the Department of Epidemiology and Social Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center. She also will devote the first two years of the award to coursework, supervised reading and seminars in developmental psychology, educational policy, primary data collection, general substance use issues, and research ethics. This background will give Dr. Chatterji the skills she needs to design novel, policy-relevant substance use research projects in the future as an independent investigator.