ArticleJournal of studies on alcohol and drugs2015
Did the 18 Drinking Age Promote High School Dropout? Implications for Current Policy.
Article in Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Examining the Intended and Unintended Impacts of Raising a Minimum Legal Drinking Age on Primary and Secondary Societal Harm and Violence from a Contextual Policy Perspective: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- The impact of adolescent exposure to medical marijuana laws on high school completion, college enrollment and college degree completion.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2016Article
- The Impact of the Minimum Legal Drinking Age on Alcohol-Related Chronic Disease Mortality.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2016Article
- An examination of the impact of maladaptive coping on the association between stressor type and alcohol use in college.Journal of American college health : J of ACHArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveDisagreement exists over whether permissive minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) laws affected underage adolescents (e.g., those age 17 years with the MLDA of 18). We used MLDA changes during the 1970s and 1980s as a natural experiment to investigate how underage exposure to permissive MLDA affected high school dropout.
methodMLDA exposure was added to two data sets: (a) the 5% public use microdata samples of the 1990 and 2000 censuses (n = 3,671,075), and (b) a combined data set based on the 1991-1992 National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiological Survey (NLAES) and the 2001-2002 National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC; n = 16,331). We used logistic regression to model different thresholds of MLDA on high school dropout. We also estimated models conditioned on demographic variables and familial risk of developing alcohol problems.
resultsOnly the MLDA of 18 predicted high school dropout. Exposure was associated with 4% and 13% higher odds of high school dropout for the census and NLAES/NESARC samples, respectively. We noted greater impact on women (5%-18%), Blacks (5%-19%), and Hispanics (6%). Self-report of parental alcohol problems was associated with 40% higher odds, which equals a 4.14-point increase in dropout rate for that population.
conclusionsThe MLDA of 18 likely had a large impact on high school dropout rates, suggesting that the presence of legal-aged peers in a high school setting increased access to alcohol for younger students. Our results also suggest that policy can promote less dangerous drinking behavior even when familial risk of alcohol use disorders is high.
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Registered trials
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