MA Research Paper

Degree

Master of Arts

Program

Sociology

Supervisor

Andrea Willson

Abstract

This paper examines the long-term effects of adolescent marijuana use. Using the U.S. National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997 cohort, the study seeks to find whether marijuana use in adolescence creates difficulties in educational attainment in later life. It uses a life course lens, precisely that of cumulative inequality theory, to frame their questions and place their study within the context of their population's generation. To encapsulate period-specific cohort events, the backdrop of the war on drugs that took place in the U.S. in the late 1990s, is used to better understand macro-level conditions at play. Using a logistical regression, this research finds that adolescent marijuana use significantly lowers the odds that its user will receive a bachelor's degree or higher. Furthermore, this negative effect occurs regardless of race. Family outcomes, however, work to reduce the effect of marijuana use. Overall, marijuana use predicts worse educational outcomes in adulthood for this cohort who came of age during the War on Drugs and negative perceptions of marijuana. This study urges future researchers need to analyze just how much the sentiments of the war on drugs affected its generation’s marijuana users and the role of marijuana policy across different generations.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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