Peer-reviewed article
Factors Affecting School Performance in the Adolescents of USA- Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System
Chahal M, Telsem M, Das B, Patel S, Gadiwala S et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study analyzed data from the US Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (1991-2019) involving over 41,000 adolescent students to identify factors associated with school performance. The researchers found that poor school performance was significantly associated with skipping breakfast, high soda consumption, alcohol and cigarette use, difficulty concentrating, depression, suicidal thoughts, and exposure to violence. Students with good school performance were more likely to eat breakfast daily and less likely to use substances or experience mental health difficulties. The findings suggest that multiple interconnected behavioral and health factors influence academic achievement among US adolescents.
Key points
- Only 26% of students with poor school performance ate breakfast daily, compared to 38% with good performance
- Students with poor performance were 2.6 times more likely to use alcohol (37.5% vs 28.5%)
- 46% of poor performers reported difficulty concentrating compared to 28% of good performers
- 24% of students with poor school performance reported considering suicide compared to 16% with good performance
- Five categories of factors (nutrition/lifestyle, electronic device use, substance use, mood/violence/self-harm) were all significantly correlated with school performance
Limitations
This study is cross-sectional and cannot establish causation—it only shows associations between risk behaviors and school performance. The analysis does not explore whether poor school performance leads to these risk behaviors, whether the behaviors cause poor performance, or whether other underlying factors contribute to both.
Abstract
Introduction Poor academic performance has been linked to factors such as sleep, health, illicit drug use, physical fighting, social media use, cyber bullying, physical activity, homelessness, times spent in video games and television. It is difficult to get a sense of the interplay between and relative importance of different behaviours/factors on academic performance as only limited research has been aimed at quantifying these factors. Objectives To evaluate association of school performance and variables in five categories of the YRBSS: physical fighting, diet/lifestyle, electronic device usage, concurrent substance use, and violence/self-harm. Methods The CDC Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) data from 1991-2019 was used in study. Respondents were grouped by good and poor school performance and variables related to nutrition/lifestyle, electronic device use, concurrent substance use, mood/violence/self-harm were analyzed using chi-square test. Results A total of 41,235 student respondents.Nutrition/Lifestyle, electronic device use, concurrent substance use, mood/violence/self-harm are found to be significantly correlated with school performance. Poor Performance n(%) Good Performance n(%) Total n(%)p-ValueNutrition/LifestyleDaily breakfast2,715(26)11,429(38.22)14,144(35.06)<0.0001Sodas ≥2/day1,998(19.12)2,710(9.03)4,708(11.63)<0.0001Concurrent Substance UseAlcohol use3,544(37.55)8,067(28.49)11,611(30.75)<0.0001Cigarette smoking1,616(15.74)1,845(6.17)3,461(8.61)<0.0001Mood/Violence/Self-HarmDifficulty concentrating4,188(46.34)7,327(28.27)11,516(32.94)<0.0001Felt sad or hopeless4,373(41.06)9,038(29.67)13,410(32.62)<0.0001Considered suicide2,567(24.14)4,810(15.8)7,377(17.96)<0.0001 Conclusions In national data, we found school performance is affected by nutrition, lifestyle, substance use, mood and exposure to surrounding violence, and self-harm. Further studies should be planned to evaluate benefits from the risk stratification to reduce this burden amongst US adolescents. Disclosure No significant relationships.