Academic achievement in substance-abusing and conduct-disordered adolescents

This study determined the influence of adolescent alcohol abuse on academic achievement. Substance Abusing (SA), Conduct Disordered (CD), and Normal Student Control (NSC) adolescents, stratified on Family History (FH) of alcoholism and gender, were tested on the Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT). While SAs and CDs did not differ on the PIAT, both had lower subtest and total test standard scores than NSCs. FH + SAs did not differ from FH + CDs on the Spelling subtest, but both groups had significantly lower scores than FH – NSCs. For SAs and NSCs there were no significant correlations between measures of alcohol intake and PIAT subtest scores.