Citation:

Meda, Shashwath A., et al. “Longitudinal influence of alcohol and marijuana use on academic performance in college students.” PLoS ONE, vol. 12, no. 3, 2017, p. e0172213. Academic OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=cuny_queens&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA484557786&it=r&asid=487311a1acc528da5a94bc2812007fac. Accessed 31 Aug. 2017.

Research Question:

The research question this article presents is: how can academic institutions such as colleges and universities help students achieve higher scholastic GPA’s despite the prevalent usage of alcohol and marijuana among college students?

Experimental Design:

The researchers leading the study studied the academic performance of originally first-year students over the course of two years, in which the data separated into three clusters: 1) no to low use of both substances, 2) medium to high alcohol usage and low to no marijuana usage, and 3) medium to high use of both substances. The students’ GPA’s were collected through surveys every two months over four semesters excluding summer months with their SAT scores from their first semester. From Cluster 1 to Cluster 3, students’ GPA lowered. However, the study failed to include variables such as pre-college indulgence in the aforementioned drugs, high school GPA, and the difficulty of the participants’ courses that could have affected their college GPA. In additional, due to the decreased amount of survey data in later semesters that increased in prevalence from cluster 1 to cluster 3, the results and findings could have been affected.