Adding to the list of harmful effects of drugs and alcohol, researchers have found that those who have begun early use of drug and alcohol have lower levels of educational attainment.
The results is based on the Study of male twins who served in the military during the Vietnam war, the researchers found that those who started drinking or taking drugs in their as young teens or who became dependent on alcohol, nicotine or marijuana, were less probable to finish college than those who didn’t have such habits until later in their life.
The research was conducted by investigators at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Health Care System,
"We can't say that substance dependence or early substance use causes lower educational achievement, but we do see a strong association," Julia D. Grant, lead author of the study from Washington university of Medicine, has been quoted as saying.
"Even after we statistically controlled for the genes and the environmental factors that twins share, we found a relationship between substance use and educational achievement," she added.
Previously studies to find a correlation between substance use and education have brought mixed results. But the study done on 6,242 twins establishes a relation between fewer years of schooling and the onset of drinking before age 14.
"Studying identical and fraternal twin pairs is useful for examining things like substance use and education because we can assess the extent to which a given behavior is influenced by genetic factors and by factors related to family and environment.
"Since identical twins share all of their genes and fraternal share about half, we can set up statistical comparisons to tease many of those factors apart," she has been quoted as saying.
During their study, Grant's team found that when men in the study stated to drink or use drugs early in their teen years or if they became dependent on drugs or alcoholic, the possibility of their completing 16 years of education becomes scarce.
Adding to the fact, she said that the men in the study were surveyed when most were in their late 30s of early 40s, it is the point of their life when the chances of furthering a point in their lives where it was less likely they would further their education.
The lead researcher said that Veterans were a principally good group to follow because it is least possible for anyone to serve in the military without finishing high school or earning a GED. In addition, because of the G.I. Bill, veterans are less likely to have financial constraints that would prevent them from attending college.
The findings of the research have been published online in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
--with inputs from ANI
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