Research Compares Rural and Urban Student Drug Use

Research to determine if there are differences between urban and rural Pennsylvania youth in substance use, such as alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs, and violent behavior found little overall differences between urban and rural students. The only meaningful differences were in alcohol and illicit drug use among rural and urban 12th graders, where urban students showed higher use rates than rural students. Also, for tobacco use, rural students showed higher lifetime use of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products than urban students. The research, conducted by Dr. Jennifer Murphy of Pennsylvania State University-Berks, used data from the 2011, 2013, and 2015 Pennsylvania Youth Surveys (PAYS), which are administered by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. The research analyzed substance use rates and instances of violent threats and behavior among 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th grade students over time in urban and rural Pennsylvania.The research also analyzed various risk and protective factors associated with rural substance use and violence, and the impact of school-based intervention/prevention programs on rates of substance use and violence for rural youth.In terms of alcohol and illicit drug use, the results indicated little overall differences between urban and rural Pennsylvania students. The only meaningful difference was among rural and urban 12th graders in rates of lifetime and past 30 day marijuana use, where urban students showed higher use rates than rural students. For example, about 42 percent of urban 12th grade students reported lifetime marijuana use, compared to about 35 percent of rural students. In addition, 24 percent of urban students in the 12th grade reported using marijuana in the past 30 days compared to about 16 percent of rural students in the 12th grade.Rural students showed higher lifetime use of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products than their urban counterparts. The urban/rural difference for lifetime cigarette use emerged at the 8th grade level, as rural youth had 5 percent higher use than urban students, indicating that rural youth appear to start experimenting with cigarettes at a younger age. Urban students reported higher disapproval rates of smoking among their peers, which indicates that rural youth may view the use of tobacco products as more acceptable than urban youth. Since a large proportion of rural students are using tobacco products, the research indicates the need for programming at early grades to discourage smoking and the use of other tobacco products.