School 'Connectedness' Makes for Healthier Students, Study Suggests

By Darcia Harris Bowman

Students are less likely to engage in drug use, violence, and early sexual activity when they attend schools with caring teachers and tolerant discipline policies, according to a new study.

In an analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a federally funded survey of 72,000 adolescents in grades 7-12, a group of researchers found that a sense of "connectedness" to school is critical to a teenager's well-being.

Well-managed classrooms and ample opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities were also found to foster that bond, according to a summary of the analysis published in the April issue of the Journal of School Health .