By Pacheque Barber
A
recent Medical Press article I read titled “Dating in middle school leads to
higher dropout, drug-use rates” suggests that students who date at an early age
have significantly worse study skills and are more likely to drink alcohol, use
drugs and drop out of school. While this isn’t farfetched to me, there are
factors other than just dating that can cause a student to drop out or use alcohol.
Pamela Orpinas who is a professor in the College of Public Health as well as
the Department of Health Promotion and Behavior in Georgia conducted a study
following a group of 624 students from the sixth to the twelfth grade. She conducted
this study because there were very few studies that look at romantic
relationships and how adolescents differ in the development of these
relationships. At the end of each year the group completed a survey which
indicated whether they had dated, and reports of different behaviors that
included frequent use of drugs and/or alcohol. The teachers also had to
complete questionnaires about the students’ academic efforts. The investigators
who were following the students used two indicators of students’ school success
which are high school dropout rates and yearly teacher-rated study skills.
What
they found in the study was that those students who reported to never, or
hardly, date from middle school to high school had consistently the best study
skills according to their teachers. Study skills consist of doing homework,
doing the assigned reading, extra credit, being organized and working hard. The
teacher also reported that students with the highest rate of dating had the
worst study skills. "When
the couple splits, they have to continue to see each other in class and perhaps
witness the ex-partner dating someone else. It is reasonable to think this
scenario could be linked to depression and divert attention from
studying." Orpinas said. This isn’t unrealistic. If you think back to your
middle and high school days and you were dating, think about how that really
distracted you from your work on top of other adolescent issues. Take into
consideration if there are other problems outside of school. I think that
adults tend to forget how challenging it can be as an adolescent going through
identity crisis and trying to find their niche. I remember being in high school
in the only relationship I had during my time in high school; that was a rough
time for me trying to find balance between school, family, boyfriend and
friends. Once we broke up, it was so devastating that I didn’t want to come to
school knowing my ex would be there, yet I forced myself to go every day. When
my ex decided drop out and continue working at his father’s job, it made it a
lot easier for me to come to school and be happy and concentrate on my work. My
ex decided to drop out of school before we started dating, but I was doing my
best to try to keep him motivated and stay in school. It didn’t work that way
and I don’t believe that our relationship and his dropping out were connected.
I do think that Orpinas has a point
with her study and this article made me look back and think about what I was
doing around the time I was dating. The only thing I think that Orpinas failed to
do was take into consideration whether the students have other issues outside
of a relationship that can cause an increase in drug/ alcohol use and dropping
out.
Overall I do think this was an
interesting study and an interesting article to read. Below, the link provided
to read the article. Enjoy!
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-dating-middle-school-higher-dropout.html
