Kids from deprived neighbourhoods who get the chance to attend top schools are less likely to use drugs and skip classes than those who don't, a new study has found.
Researchers in the US looked at 1270 Los Angeles teenagers from low-income minority parts of the city who'd been chosen via lottery to attend high-performing charter schools.
Over four years their behaviour and outcomes were tracked, and the researchers found lottery winners had lower marijuana misuse, were less like to be truant and spent more time studying.
Boys were also less likely to use marijuana altogether or abuse alcohol.
The researchers say it "provides evidence that school environments can improve risky behaviours for low-income minority adolescents".
"The fact that these findings are from a natural experiment, rather than observational data, provides compelling evidence that school environments can influence health for low-income minority students and suggests that investing in healthy schools might yield valuable population health returns," the study, published in journal JAMA Pediatrics, reads.
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The researchers say there's a chance the teenagers' improved behaviour could be down to them being isolated from "deviant peers" at schools with lesser academic records.
"If so, widespread application of this strategy is problematic, to say the least, and would likely magnify health disparities."
Newshub.
