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Principal Investigator: Seth Jacob PRINS
Organization: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
Fiscal Year: 2024
Award: $716,003
Funding agency: National Institute on Drug Abuse
PROJECT SUMMARY: Over 10 million students in the US attend schools with police but no counselor, nurse,
psychologist, or social worker. Yet, more than a third of the low proportion of adolescents who receive the
substance use treatment they need (6%) access it only at school; they are disproportionately Black and low-
income. Schools are thus crucial public health intervention targets for substance use and mental health
treatment, prevention, and health equity therein. But instead, many adolescents experience school as a school-
to-prison pipeline; a set of policies and practices that criminalize adolescents and ensnare them in the legal
system rather than provide support for underlying educational and developmental needs. School-based arrests
increased 300-500% and exclusionary school discipline (suspensions and expulsions) doubled over the past 40
years. Black students are more than three times as likely to be suspended or expelled as white students, all else
equal, and students removed from school are more than twice as likely to be arrested in the same month than
those not removed. Our preliminary evidence suggests that the school-to-prison pipeline is a previously
unidentified population driver of adolescent substance use and mental illness. Moreover, the pipeline coincides
with rises in aggressive community policing in schools’ surrounding communities. However, there is no research
on the public health implications of these intersecting trends. In the proposed R01, we will collaborate with the
New York City Office of School Health (OSH) to quantify relationships between aggressive community policing,
school discipline, and student substance use/mental illness in NYC. We will create a unique geocoded 2000-
2022 dataset linking all police stops/arrests; school- and student-level exclusionary discipline; restricted school-
level Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data (e.g., tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, other drug use); and OSH’s
database of student health services records (e.g., nurse, counselor visits, referrals to mental health/substance
use treatment). We will (Aim 1) characterize direct and mediated relationships between community policing and
school discipline on school-level and (Aim 2) student-level substance use and mental health outcomes; and test
(Aim 3) whether the intensity of policing around schools modifies the relationship between school discipline and
student substance use/mental health. In all aims, we will test whether structural and institutional racism in policing
and school discipline modify hypothesized relationships. This high-impact project responds to NIDA’s interest in
improving SUD treatment for vulnerable populations in schools and the juvenile justice system, as well as
leveraging data science to improve SUD prevention. Our diverse, interdisciplinary team, led by an early-stage
investigator PI, has expertise in substance use, psychiatric, and social epidemiology; school health; the sociology
of racialized disparities in population health, education, and policing; spatial epidemiology/health geography; and
data science. Findings will be utilized by policymakers and project stakeholders (including city, state, and federal
policymakers) working to end the school-to-prison pipeline and prevent adolescent substance use/mental illness.
Terms: <12-20 years old><12th grade><21+ years old><ATOD use><Adolescence><Adolescent><Adolescent Risk Behavior><Adolescent Youth><Adult><Adult Human><African American student><Alcohol Chemical Class><Alcohols><Area><Black><Black race><Cannabis><Cities><Collaborations><Color><Communities><Counselor><Data><Data Bases><Data Linkages><Data Science><Data Set><Databases><Development><Discipline><Disparities><Disparity><Drug usage><Education><Educational aspects><Epidemiologic Methods><Epidemiological Methods><Epidemiological Techniques><Epidemiology><Geography><Health><High Prevalence><Incidence><Individual><Inpatients><Institutional Racism><Investigators><Knowledge><Legal system><Link><Low income><Mediating><Mental Health><Mental Hospitals><Mental Hygiene><Mental Institutions><Mental disorders><Mental health disorders><Methodology><Methods><Methods Epidemiology><NIDA><National Institute of Drug Abuse><National Institute on Drug Abuse><Neighborhoods><New York City><Nurses><Out-patients><Outcome><Outpatients><Pathway interactions><Police><Police Forces><Policies><Policy Maker><Population><Prevalence><Prevention><Prisons><Professional counselor><Psychiatric Disease><Psychiatric Disorder><Psychiatric Hospitals><Psychiatric epidemiology><Psychological Health><Psychologist><Psychopathology><Public Health><Punishment><Race><Races><Record Linkage Study><Records><Research><Research Personnel><Researchers><Schools><Security><Social Workers><Sociology><Structural Racism><Student Health Services><Students><Substance Use Disorder><Survey Instrument><Surveys><Suspension substance><Suspensions><System><Systematic Racism><Systemic Racism><Techniques><Testing><Tobacco><Visit><Vulnerable Populations><Youth Risk Behavior><abnormal psychology><adolescence (12-20)><adolescent health><adolescent risk taking><adolescent substance use><adulthood><alcohol tobacco and other drug use><alcohol, tobacco, or other drug use><black student><critical developmental period><data base><developmental><disease prevention><disorder prevention><disparities in race><disparity due to race><disparity in health><drug use><epidemiologic><epidemiological><experience><federal policy><group of color><health disparity><health equity><health in school><health record><high school><high school senior><improved><individual of color><inequality due to race><inequity due to race><interest><juvenile><juvenile human><juvenile justice system><juvenile legal system><mental health facility><mental illness><nurse><pathway><people of color><person of color><population health><population of color><prevent><preventing><psychiatric illness><psychiatric symptom><psychological disorder><public health intervention><race based disparity><race based inequality><race based inequity><race disparity><race related disparity><race related inequality><race related inequity><racial><racial background><racial disparity><racial inequality><racial inequity><racial origin><racially unequal><racism><response><risk behavior in youth><school health><simulation><social><social epidemiology><spatial epidemiology><substance use><substance use among adolescents><substance use among youth><substance use and disorder><substance use treatment><substance using><theories><trend><twelfth grade><vulnerable group><vulnerable individual><vulnerable people><youth substance use>