Drinking, smoking, and educational achievement: cross-lagged associations from adolescence to adulthood.
BACKGROUND
Adolescent substance use is associated with lower educational achievement but the directionality of the association remains uncertain. We analyzed data on drinking, smoking and educational achievement to study the associations between substance use and education from early adolescence to young adulthood.


METHODS
Longitudinal data from four time points (ages 12, 14, 17, and 19-27 years) from a population-based cohort study of Finnish twin individuals were used to estimate bivariate cross-lagged path models for substance use and educational achievement, adjusting for sex, parental covariates, and adolescent externalizing behavior. A total of 4761 individuals (49.4% females) were included in the analyses. Educational achievement was assessed with teacher-reported grade point average at ages 12 and 14, and with self-reported student status and completed education at age 17 and in young adulthood. From self-reported questionnaire items, frequency of any drinking, frequency of drinking to intoxication, any smoking and daily smoking were analyzed.


RESULTS
Alcohol use and smoking behaviors at ages 12 and 14 predicted lower educational achievement at later time points even after previous achievement and confounding factors were taken into account. Lower school achievement in adolescence predicted a higher likelihood of engaging in smoking behaviors but did not predict later alcohol use. Higher educational attainment at age 17 predicted more frequent drinking in young adulthood.


CONCLUSIONS
Adolescent drinking behaviors are associated with lower future educational achievement independently of prior achievement, whereas smoking both predicts and is predicted by lower achievement. Early substance use indexes elevated risk for poor educational outcomes.
['Latvala|Antti|A|', 'Rose|Richard J|RJ|', 'Pulkkinen|Lea|L|', 'Dick|Danielle M|DM|', 'Korhonen|Tellervo|T|', 'Kaprio|Jaakko|J|']
D000293:Adolescent D000294:Adolescent Behavior D000328:Adult D000428:Alcohol Drinking D002648:Child D015331:Cohort Studies D004522:Educational Status D005260:Female D005387:Finland D006801:Humans D008137:Longitudinal Studies D008297:Male D017145:Models, Educational D011159:Population Surveillance D012907:Smoking D055815:Young Adult
Smoking Educational achievement Adolescent Longitudinal Alcohol use Cross-lagged model