Has the Opioid Crisis Affected Student Learning? A National Analysis of Growth Rates. Issue 1 (September 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Drescher, Jessica; Steyer, Lily; Townley-Flores, Carrie; Humphreys, Keith
• Other Names: Darolia Rajeev guest-editor.; Heflin Colleen guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Volume 703:Issue 1(2022)
• Page Start: 234
• Page End: 261
• Publication Date: 2022-09
• Subjects: opioids -- education -- learning rates; student -- growth; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- United States -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; 300
• DOI: 10.1177/00027162231151524
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-7162

Abstract

The potential spillover effects of the United States' opioid epidemic on children's educational outcomes have received surprisingly little attention from researchers. Accordingly, this study leverages national datasets of county-level opioid prescription rates and public school students' third- to eighth-grade academic achievement to provide the first analysis of associations between community opioid prevalence and children's learning rates. We find that students in counties with higher community opioid presence learn more slowly than peers in counties with low community opioid presence, both in aggregate and across different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups of students. Moreover, within states we observe a small significant negative association between community opioid presence and student learning rates. This association is similar in rural and nonrural communities. These findings underscore the urgency of conceptualizing the opioid epidemic as a community-level crisis, with potentially long-lasting implications for children's future educational attainment and life outcomes.