New research in the journal Addiction Research & Theory shows that children who are happier about their past, present and future are less likely to misuse cannabis or alcohol.
Reflecting on this paper that looked at US school students, we will show the links between happiness and drug misuse.
For help accessing addiction treatment services near to you, talk to our team today on 0800 140 4690
The core hypothesis behind the research was that students who were happier about their past, present and future would be more motivated at school and less inclined to misuse substances.
‘Happiness’ is a measure of the psychological concept of time attitude, which includes:
These are known as positive time attitudes.
At the other end of the scale, however, children may feel
These are described in the paper as negative time attitudes.
No one leads a perfect life, so few will score a 7/7 all the time for positive time attitudes, and few will score a 1/7 about their past, present or future.
Time attitudes have been shown in other research to impact behaviour in school.
Pupils will exhibit:
These concepts are measured as behavioural engagement, where good engagement would be the positive outcome of the four points we describe above.
On the other hand, the student who has poor behavioural engagement would experience negative outcomes, such as poor attendance and not filing their homework when required.
Intrinsic motivation stems from time attitude and behavioural engagement.
An intrinsically motivated student will have good relationships with their teachers, will be self-motivated and go the extra mile – the sort of student who will be earmarked to be a class monitor or prefect.
At the other end of the scale, a student who is struggling emotionally and has behavioural issues may not be so intrinsically motivated to perform well at school – perhaps one of the ‘usual suspects’ in detention or pupil referral unit.
The paper we are looking at cited previous research at UK schools and universities that showed a link between substance use and happiness.
Looking at 12-16 year old adolescent students at a UK school, the children with high scores for time attitude were less likely to drink at the time of the research.
A longitudinal study watched the same children as they grew up, and found that not only were they less likely to consume alcohol at all, but if they did they rarely consumed more every week than government guidelines.
Compared with those with poor happiness scores, the happier students were less likely to develop alcohol misuse problems too.
At the other end of the scale, those British students who had unhappy childhoods would drink more as children, drink more than government guidelines and be more likely to develop alcohol misuse issues.
Looking at British university students, another piece of research showed that those who were strongly focused on their futures may not drink at all, as with those who were rated as being happy.
Those rated as living in the moment and those who scored less for happiness would end up drinking more, some developing alcohol misuse problems.
Where these pieces of research didn’t look was at the use of cannabis by the same groups of students and pupils.
Cannabis being legal in California (albeit to people over 21 years old), the research paper we are looking at in this article broke new ground.
The paper we cite at the beginning of this article looked at 1,961 students at a high school in California, 52.8% of whom self-identified as female.
It attempted to measure the following parameters:
These were compared to the student’s Grade Point Average (GPA), which shows how well the student is doing at school overall.
It also asked about the students’ alcohol and cannabis use.
To measure the three psychological concepts, each student was asked to do a questionnaire where they scored from 1 (poor) to 7 (very good) their feelings about their happiness, behavioural engagement and motivation.
These scores were compared to their GPA, alcohol use and cannabis use.
The research found:
Don’t let substance use become key to your happiness – get the help you need from a drug and alcohol rehab by calling us on 0800 140 4690
There is a lot of political debate that doesn’t always consider hard science when discussing what impacts cannabis and alcohol use can have, including those with moral or religious views.
This research is evidence to show that those who have happier homes and hope for the future are less likely to experiment with drugs or alcohol.
This paper reinforces other research from the UK that shows that happier students at different stages of education are less likely to misuse alcohol and cannabis.
This would suggest that effective mental health support for those who are having a difficult time at school and at home would lead them to not self-medicate for emotional pain.
The research also showed a link between the students who experimented with drugs and alcohol and a lower level of motivation at school, impacting their overall performance.
This would therefore demonstrate a clear process where by intervening in a student’s mental health at the start could prevent them from self-medicating with substances like cannabis or alcohol.
In doing so this would also suggest that such mental health intervention would allow the student to re-engage with school and class life and thereby achieve the full potential.
There is some evidence that children who live in less wealthy areas are more likely to have access to cannabis and alcohol.
What this paper shows is that those children who have happier home and school lives are less motivated to experiment at an early age, no matter how readily accessible these substances are.
Early age mental health intervention is a big part of a school’s role in a student’s life.
The evidence presented in this paper shows that early intervention could ultimately prevent a cycle of decline where an unhappy student misuses drugs, underperforms at school and then is less happy, self-medicating again.
That this US research in part repeats the findings of other studies conducted in the UK, suggesting that this is not just an issue peculiar to one nation or another, but across schools all over the world.
Whether it’s mental health or addiction you or your loved one may be struggling with, find the right help by calling us on 0800 140 4690
Boris is our editor-in-chief at Rehab 4 Addiction. Boris is an addiction expert with more than 20 years in the field. His expertise covers a broad of topics relating to addiction, rehab and recovery. Boris is an addiction therapist and assists in the alcohol detox and rehab process. Boris has been featured on a variety of websites, including the BBC, Verywell Mind and Healthline. You can connect with Boris online at LinkedIn or X.com.
