Students' Occupational Aspirations: Can Family Relationships Account for Differences Between Immigrant and Socioeconomic Groups?

Immigrant background and disadvantaged socioeconomic background are two key predictors of poorer school achievement in Europe. However, the former is associated with higher while the latter is associated with lower aspirations. This study asks whether family relationships account for this difference.

Predicting Alcohol Misuse Among Australian 19-Year-Olds from Adolescent Drinking Trajectories.

Background: Alcohol use in adolescence predicts future alcohol misuse. However, the extent to which different patterns of adolescent use present risk remains unclear.

Objectives: This study investigated how adolescent trajectories of alcohol consumption during the school years predict alcohol misuse at age 19 years.

Longitudinal effects of school drug policies on student marijuana use in Washington State and Victoria, Australia.

Objectives: We examined the longitudinal effect of schools' drug policies on student marijuana use.

Methods: We used data from the International Youth Development Study, which surveyed state-representative samples of students from Victoria, Australia, and Washington State. In wave 1 (2002), students in grades 7 and 9 (n = 3264) and a school administrator from each participating school (n = 188) reported on school drug policies.

Student and school factors associated with school suspension: A multilevel analysis of students in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States.

One of the common issues schools face is how best to handle challenging student behaviors such as violent behavior, antisocial behavior, bullying, school rule violations, and interrupting other students' learning. School suspension may be used to remove students engaging in challenging behaviors from the school for a period of time. However, the act of suspending students from school may worsen rather than improve their behavior.

The impact of school alcohol policy on student drinking.

Although it is common for secondary schools to implement alcohol policies to reduce alcohol misuse, there has been little evaluation of the efficacy of these policies. The purpose of this study was to test the impact of the degree and type of alcohol policy enforcement in state representative samples of secondary students in Washington State, USA, and Victoria, Australia (n = 1848). Multivariate logistic regressions were used to examine the prospective association between student reports of school alcohol policy in Grade 8 and self-reported alcohol use in Grade 9, controlling for age, gender, state, family socio-economic status and Grade 8 alcohol use.

Pathways From School Suspension to Adolescent Nonviolent Antisocial Behavior in Students in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States.

School suspension is associated with school drop-out, crime, delinquency, and alcohol and other drug use for the suspended student. Important research questions are how academic and related factors are relevant to the school suspension process and the generality of the process in different sites. State representative samples of Grade 7 students ( = 1,945) in Washington State, United States and Victoria, Australia were followed from 2002 to 2004.