CASA National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse III: Teens and Their Parents, Teachers and Principals

KEY FINDINGS

This report presents the findings of the third annual CASA National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse. The 1997 research is distinctive in that it included interviews with middle and high school teachers and principals, as well as with teenagers, 12-17, and with parents of teenagers in this age range. Interviewing was conducted during June and July of this year. The survey samples consisted of 305 middle school teachers, 484 high school teachers, 401 principals of middle or high schools, 1115 teenagers, and 998 parents of teenagers. Another unique feature of this research is that 648 of the teens and parents came from the same household, continuing a research design pioneered by CASA in 1996.

The margin of sampling error for the teenager sample is ± 2.9%. The margin of sampling error for the parent sample is ± 3.1%. The surveys of teachers and principals utilized listed samples, and so a calculation of sampling error cannot be made. However, a random survey of teachers consisting of 789 interviews would have a margin of sampling error of ± 3.5%, and a random survey of 401 principals would have a margin of sampling error of ± 4.9%.

• The characteristics of a teen's school rival the characteristics of a teen's family as indicators of teen substance abuse risk.
  
  

• Students who attend schools where drugs are kept, used, or sold are nearly 4 times more likelier to try marijuana than are those who attend drug-free schools.
  
  

• Seventy-six percent (76%) of high school students and 46% of middle school students say their schools are not drug-free.
  
  

• Teens are more likely to encounter drugs on school grounds or in their schools than on their neighborhood streets: more high school students have witnessed drug sales at school (41%) than in their neighborhoods (25%).
  
  

• Twenty-five percent (25%) of teachers say students who appear to be drunk or high show up in their classes monthly or more frequently.
  
  

• In the past year, one-fourth of middle school teachers and one-third of high school teachers have reported a student for using illegal drugs.
  
  

• Forty-one percent (41%) of middle school teachers and 51% of principals and high school teachers think a student can use marijuana every weekend and still do well in school.
  
  

• Eighty-three percent (83%) of schools where students smoke and drink on school grounds are not drug-free. Schools where students smoke and drink are 3 times likelier to be drug-plagued than schools with neither smoking or drinking.
  
  

• High school students estimate that on average 50 percent of their classmates are using drugs at least once a month. In contrast, high school teachers estimate that only 24% of their students are using drugs at least monthly and principals estimate only 10%.
  
  

• While 41% of high school students and 18% of middle schoolers have seen drugs sold on school grounds , only 12% of high school teachers and 14% of middle and high school principals have seen such sales.
  
  

• Teens again tell us drugs are the most important problem they face (cited by 35%, versus 32% in 1995 and 31% in 1996). Parents, teachers, and principals underestimate the extent of teen concern about drugs.
  
  

• Forty-one percent (41%) of teens attended a party in the past six months at which marijuana was available. Twenty-five percent of high school students (25%) and 11% of middle school students attended a party in the past two years at which parents provided alcohol.
  
  

• Exposure of teens to harder drugs "like acid, cocaine, or heroin" is climbing. Most (56%) know a friend or classmate who uses these harder drugs.
  
  

• Teens who smoke are 3 times more at risk of using drugs than those who do not.
  
  

• Twenty-three percent (23%) of teachers are less than totally confident their school administration would back them up if they reported a student suspected of drinking or using drugs. And 56% of principals are less than totally confident that the parents of a student suspected of drinking or using drugs in school would back them if that student were disciplined.
  
  

• A large majority of teachers (61%) and principals (68%) support the drug testing of teachers.
  
  

• Teens, parents, teachers and principals all support firm steps to keep drugs out of schools, including random locker searches, zero-tolerance policies, and the drug testing of student athletes. Half of students (52%) and principals (53%) support drug testing of all students, compared with 42% of parents and 38% of teachers.
  
  

• While a narrow majority of teachers feel they are adequately trained to spot substance abuse (54%), less than half (46%) feel they have been adequately trained to teach students about the dangers of substance abuse and how to deal with it.
  
  

• Sixty-two percent (62%) of middle school students would report a drug seller on school grounds to school officials; only 36% percent of high schoolers would.
  
  

• Most teachers (57%) believe that drugs have diminished the quality of education in our nation's schools.
  
  

• Large majorities of parents (82%), teachers (83%), principals (88%), and teens (66%) think that portraying the adverse effects of alcohol in movies and on TV would result in fewer teen drinkers. A majority believe that if fewer rock and rap stars used illegal drugs, fewer teens would use illegal drugs. Most parents and educators also think less smoking in movies would result in fewer teen smokers.
  
  

• Thirty-eight percent (38%) of teachers consider the typical parent to be "in denial" about drugs. Yet, half of parents know their teen's school is not drug-free, and 34 percent expect their teen will try illegal drugs.
  
  

• Teachers and principals are less likely than the parents of their students to have tried marijuana in their youth. Twenty-six percent (26%) of teachers and 23 percent of principals tell us they have tried marijuana, versus 50 percent of parents.
  
  

• Seven signs of trouble in school that greatly increase the risk of substance abuse are: smoking, drinking, drugs, weapons, expulsion for drugs, student death in drug or alcohol related incidents, students showing up in class drunk or stoned. Teens say only 24 percent of their middle schools and a mere 4 percent of their high schools are free of all of these signs of trouble.
  
  

• As the size of the school increases, as the commitment of the principal to create and maintain a drug-free school decreases, and as the confidence of teachers that their principals will back them up if they report a student for drinking or using drugs decreases, the likelihood of more signs of trouble also goes up.
  
  

• The affluence of the community in which the school is located; whether the school is in an urban, suburban, or rural community; the percentage of minority students in the student body — these characteristics bear little relation to the number of signs of trouble at school.

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TROUBLE IN OUR SCHOOLS

The release of this report coincides with the start of another school year. One of the most disturbing aspects of the prevalence of illegal drugs in the lives of our nation’s teenagers which we found is the realization our teens are now spending 7 or more hours a day in institutions rife with illegal drugs and other substance abuse related problems.

Apart from the family home, schools present our best opportunity to provide children with a safe haven from the onslaught of drugs and a place in which they are physically safe. A first step in combating substance abuse among the young is to insure teenagers spend their school day in a drug-free environment. This goal is a prerequisite for achieving a high quality of education. Currently, most high school students do not find themselves in such environments.

The problems of middle and high schools are not limited to illegal drugs. We asked teens, teachers, and principals about a variety of problems at their schools, and what is striking about the results is the extent to which these different adverse conditions go hand-in-hand.

The most common of the seven "signs of trouble" about which we asked teachers is student smoking in school, reported by 50 percent. But a modest 7 percent of teachers say smoking on school grounds is allowed or being tolerated by school officials — most say it occurs despite the best efforts of administrators Teacher/ Principal Question 24).

Nearly as common as smoking is the presence of weapons in secondary schools. Forty-three percent (43%) of teachers tell us a student was caught with a knife or gun in school during the past year. And twenty-one percent (21%) of teachers separately report that a student was caught with a gun (Teacher/Principal Questions 20A & 20B, these were asked as split sample questions).

Almost as common as weapons are drugs. Thirty-seven percent of teachers say their school is NOT drug free, meaning students keep, sell, or use illegal drugs on school grounds. This figure rises to 46 percent among high school teachers (Teacher/ Principal Question 26). Of course, teachers may not be fully aware of the extent of drugs in their school, as 76% of high school students say their school is not drug free (Teen/Parent Question 48).

The consumption of alcohol has been witnessed by 31 percent of secondary teachers (39% of high school teachers), although most said this too occurs despite the best efforts of administrators (Teacher/Principal Question 25). A like number of teachers (30%) report their school has endured the trauma of a student dying in a drug or alcohol related incident (Teacher/Principal Question

21). Nearly as many teachers (25%) say at least once a month a student shows up in class stoned or drunk (Teacher/Principal Question 32).

Although 30 percent of all teens and 41 percent of high school students have seen drugs being sold in school, just 10 percent of teachers have (12% of high school teachers; Teen/Parent Question 41 & Teacher/Principal Question 31).

Counting the incidence of these seven warning signs reveals that one-third (32%) of middle schools and one-tenth of high schools (12%) are, in the judgment of teachers, free of any of these problems.

These signs of troubles in school tend to occur together. In schools in which teachers observed both smoking and drinking to occur, 68% are not drug-free. But among schools which tolerate neither smoking nor drinking, less than half as many — 29 percent — are not drug-free.

Which of these warning signs show up first? To answer this, we examined those schools in which teachers report just one of these various problems. In such schools, the rate of incidence for the various problems is roughly the same as among all schools: smoking seems to show up first, followed (in a distant second place) by the realization the school is not drug-free (which arguably represents multiple pathologies).

Troubled schools — schools with multiple problems — share some important common characteristics. There’s good news here, in that the number of problems found in a school does not correlate with school characteristics which cannot be altered.

The affluence of the community in which the school is located; whether the school is in an urban, suburban or rural community; the percentage of minority students in the student body — these characteristics have an insignificant relationship with the number of signs of trouble found in the school, as identified by teachers. Average class size is also not significant.

What are important — that is, the characteristics which do correlate with the extent of problems in the school:

The type of school — public, private, religious — also has a significant relationship with the extent of problems in the school, with private/religious schools having the fewest problems. But since the sample of teachers at private/religious schools is so small — just 48 cases — we cannot assert this relationship with much statistical confidence.

Survey research cannot establish causality, just coincidence. We cannot assert, on the basis of surveys, that these three or any characteristics cause a drug-free school. We are left to our reason to determine which characteristics are chickens and which are eggs. For example, two other conditions which correlate with the number of school problems, but are probably effects more than causes, are:

• the teacher’s perception of the harmfulness of illegal drugs; and
  

• the teacher’s perception of the moral and academic development of their student body.

Taking the threat of illegal drugs seriously by teachers, principals, parents and teens is a necessary precondition for being committed to the fight against drugs. The perception that drugs are harmful is more common among teachers in schools with more signs of trouble, which indicates that teachers in troubled schools see more immediately the adverse affects of their drug-rife environment.

When it comes to schools, bigger is clearly not better. The size of the school (in terms of the total number of students) is the characteristic which best correlates with the number of problems in the school.

The second best predictor of the degree of problems in school derives from the commitment of the principal to deal with substance abuse in the schools. Teachers who are "totally confident" school officials would back them up for reporting "a student they suspected had been drinking or using illegal drugs" report half the number of problems at their schools compared with teachers who are "not very" or "not at all" confident in their school administration (Teacher/Principal Question 36). When teachers are encouraged by a supportive administration to be vigilant, problems seem to be slower to take root. Unfortunately, principal resolve is not a sufficient condition for creating a drug-free school, since fully 74 percent of teachers report they have such "total confidence" in their principal (71 percent for high school teachers), yet some of these schools nonetheless are said to have drugs.

An even larger percentage of teachers (79%) consider their principal to be "totally committed" to the goal of creating and maintaining a drug-free school (Teacher/Principal Question 33). The relationship is clear: the attitude and commitment of the principal has a lot to do with whether the school is or is not drug-free and safe.

In light of the decisive importance of principal commitment to creating and maintaining a drug-free school, the extent to which principals recognize the problems in their school is critical.

Yet principals both understate the incidence of monthly drug use among their students, as they underestimate the number of other problems in their schools. One quarter of principals concede their schools are not drug-free, versus 37 percent of teachers — and 61 percent of students. In fact, the only measure of problems in the school on which principals and teachers agree is whether they have witnessed the sale of drugs in school (10% of teachers, 14% of principals). Overall, 39 percent of principals report no signs of trouble in their school.

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When asked to estimate the number of monthly drug users among their students, the average response of principals is 10 percent. Middle school teachers and students tend to agree, but high school teachers and students offer much higher estimates.

Interestingly, parents are closer to teens in their estimation of the presence of drugs at their teens’ school than are either principals or teachers: 49 percent of parents say their teen’s school is NOT drug-free, as do 61 percent of teens (Teen/ Parent Question 48).

Since principals are found disproportionately in rural and smaller communities, their lower reported incidence of problems may appear accurate (whereas the population of teachers is distributed in proportion to the population of students, principals are distributed one to a school building). But teachers in rural communities report the same incidence of school problems as do teachers elsewhere. Thus principals' reticence to admit their problems is evident no matter what the size of the community.

The CASA survey is not the only research to find principals are less likely than teachers to concede things are amiss in their schools. The 1993-1994 Schools and Staffing Survey commissioned by the National Center for Education Statistics (from which CASA derived the target characteristics of its teacher and principal survey samples) found the same phenomenon. Provided in the table on a preceding page are the top seven concerns of teachers (from a list provided in the SASS survey). Number 4 is the use of alcohol by students, and number 6 is the use of drugs. Neither of these is considered to be a serious or moderate problem by more than about a third of principals.

But principals and teachers are relatively sanguine about the possibility of creating a drug-free school. Of teachers who say their school is not drug-free, 38 percent say it could be, given the resources available at their school. Of principals who say their school is not drug-free, 41 percent say it could be.

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WHAT'S TO BE DONE

Of the five policies we tested for fighting drugs in secondary schools, all enjoyed substantial support among one or more of the four groups surveyed. Indiscriminant drug testing of all students is not supported by a majority of teachers and parents, and is only narrowed supported by principals and students. But random locker searches, a zero-tolerance policy with students, the drug testing of student athletes all enjoy broad support. Even the drug testing of teachers is endorsed by a majority of teachers (61%) and principals (68%).

Separately, fifty percent (50%) of parents would test their teen for drugs if they suspected drug use; 42 percent would not (Teen/Parent Question 63P). A large majority of parents say teachers should be legally required to report suspicions of student illegal drug use (Teen/Parent Question 46).

Overwhelmingly, teachers and principals say that students in their school currently receive instruction on the dangers of using illegal drugs (Teacher/Principal Question 57A). This instruction is regarded as "fairly effective" by a plurality of teachers and principals (Teacher/Principal Question 58). More narrowly, 52 percent of teens say their instruction is effective, as do 71 percent of parents (Teen/Parent Question 53).

Teachers and principals give a passing grade to DARE, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program (a plurality of both groups say it is "fairly effective") (Teacher/Principal Question 59). Over half of principals (59%) and 39 percent of teachers report the "Drug Free Schools Act" has had practical benefits in the fight against teen drug use.

A narrow majority of teachers consider themselves to be adequately trained to spot substance abuse (54%), but a minority feel themselves adequately trained to teach the dangers of substance abuse (46%)(Teacher/ Principal Question 61A & 61B). Student participation in anti-drug efforts appears to wane as the teen ages. A majority of students would not report either a drug user or a drug seller by the time they reach age 14 (Teen/Parent Question 58A & B).

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