Study links childhood IQ to likelihood of future drug use

Forums: Iq, Parenting, Drug Use, I Q
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I thought this was interesting....

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111114221018.htm

Quote:

ScienceDaily (Nov. 14, 2011) — A high childhood IQ may be linked to subsequent illegal drug use, particularly among women, suggests research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The authors base their findings on data from just under 8,000 people in the 1970 British Cohort Study, a large ongoing population based study, which looks at lifetime drug use, socioeconomic factors, and educational attainment.

The IQ scores of the participants were measured at the ages of 5 and 10 years, using a validated scale, and information was gathered on self reported levels of psychological distress and drug use at the age of 16, and again at the age of 30 (drug use only) .

.........

When intelligence was factored in, the analysis showed that men with high IQ scores at the age of 5 were around 50% more likely to have used amphetamines, ecstasy, and several illicit drugs than those with low scores, 25 years later.

The link was even stronger among women, who were more than twice as likely to have used cannabis and cocaine as those with low IQ scores.

.........

Although it is not yet clear exactly why there should be a link between high IQ and illicit drug use, the authors point to previous research, showing that highly intelligent people are open to experiences and keen on novelty and stimulation.

Other research has also shown that brainy children are often easily bored and suffer at the hands of their peers for being different, "either of which could conceivably increase vulnerability to using drugs as an avoidant coping strategy," explain the authors.

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Type: Question • Score: 11 • Views: 14,867 • Replies: 149

@boomerang,

I thought that was interesting too. In my sample of two, this was most pertinent:

boomerang wrote:

Other research has also shown that brainy children are often easily bored and suffer at the hands of their peers for being different, "either of which could conceivably increase vulnerability to using drugs as an avoidant coping strategy," explain the authors.

Both E.G. and I had very high IQs as kids. I had gifted programs and a variety of educational elements to keep me from being bored (allowed to go at my own pace, etc.), and I received more positive feedback than negative about being smart from my peers.

E.G. went to much more old-fashioned private and public schools (we joke that he was raised in the 50's), was bored out of his mind, and was teased mercilessly for being so smart.

One of us has experimented with drugs extensively, and one of us hasn't done a thing, ever.

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@sozobe,

My IQ was also very high when I was a kid. I didn't like doing anything that was illegal, except maybe for jaywalking.

And I wasn't interested in anything that altered my reality. It's mine. I'll live with it.

1 Reply

Interesting!

I have never had my IQ tested so I have no idea where I'd fall in line.

I've been doing some reading lately on the tests (which is how I came across this article). The history of the test is really interesting and the fact that they now seem to be using it to predict behavior seems kind of odd to me. I'm not quite sure what to make of this.

I had a conversation the other day with my friend who is a psychiatrist who works with kids. She has a daughter who has some of the same problems Mo has (caused by the same reasons). I was asking her about neuro-psych evaluations (and evaluators) since I knew she'd had her daughter undergo the testing. She told me that the majority of the evaluation focuses on predicting future problems and behaviors and how helpful this information was for her and her family.

I admit I'm still a little baffled by it.

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@Roberta,

Roberta, I hear that jaywalking is the gateway crime to felonies like bank robbery and running organized sports-betting rings.

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@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

I have never had my IQ tested so I have no idea where I'd fall in line.

I think it's part of standardized testing -- at least I was never specially tested for it, but it was identified as high during regular school testing. As part of the whole gifted program thing they told my parents the number but I never saw it. (Same for sozlet, not a result she has seen or knows about.)

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@sozobe,

My experience is similar to what you've posted, sozobe.

I've posted in the past about what happened when the gifted program I was in ended, and they tried to shoehorn us back into the regular school system. Disastrous for about 50% of the group. Drug use, extremely young teen pregnancies, all round messes. Close to 40 years later, a couple of my classmates from the gifted program are still struggling with the reintegration process.

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@ehBeth,

our GTC program in junior high was a joke. I can't remember much about it except goofing off. and two of the kids leaving because one of them got preggers...

I think IQ numbers cause more trouble than they solve, personally.

I got real tired of being told I wasn't living up to mine...

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I don't know the answer but I'm wondering if rockhead is right.

IQ testing wasn't really intended to identify "talent" but to identify people with learning problems so that they could get extra help.

From what I've read there seems to be some leveling off as kids catch up to one another developmentally. Maybe it isn't the actual IQ that links to drug use but some kind of disappointment when other kids do catch up, some loss of "specialness" or not feeling like they fit in under the category they've been assigned.

I'd be really interested in seeing a study on the effects of boredom and IQ, or boredom and drug use. I can't help but wonder if what we're seeing in this study is more about correlation than causation.

And it bothers me to in that I've always thought a bit of boredom was good for kids.

1 Reply

@boomerang,

People with "talent" need help too. It just might not be the same type of support as is provided to people with different learning problems.

You clearly have no appreciation how very wrong this is

Quote:

some kind of disappointment when other kids do catch up, some loss of "specialness"

It can be very hard to have the smart label attached to you. Very very painful at times. It was a 'specialness' no one wanted.

Intellectual boredom was dangerous for me as a kid. It can still be problematic. I manage it better now, but I have to maintain an awareness of it.

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@ehBeth,

I'm not saying that people with talent don't need help. I'm saying that maybe using the IQ test as a way to identify them is wrong.

I think it can be very hard to have any label attached and that maybe we need to rethink attaching labels.

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I'm sort of pro bits of boredom too as it can make you connect to your own creativity, or my own as the case may be.

We didn't have anything like special ed or advanced placement or gifted classes - though in high school there were channels you could follow, like college prep or secretarial (girls school). And I got to go to a local college once a week after school to meet a nun to teach me italian (the only other student to sign up dropped it). As would be predictive, I didn't turn out to learn italian well, but had fun with it.

The only IQ test I ever took I flubbed as a friend wanted to go get a soda at local drug store so I skipped the last couple of pages. How smart was that, eh? My class placement dipped right down shortly after that.

We've had IQ threads on a2k before. I think that I think they are more troublemaking than they are worth, missing differing kinds of intelligence, and plagued with palpable cultural biases. I suppose I can see various kinds of testing if a child is having problems, but maybe those wouldn't be devised to be just like whatever are passing for IQ tests now. And as for being scolded for not living up to your IQ, that's very troubling and not a motivator that I could guess.

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@boomerang,

People learn and live in different ways. The ways they're taught/supported need to accommodate those differences.

There are going to be labels because there are differences. We could say that everyone lives on planet Earth and that we're all humans. However, we see regular squabbles on threads when someone uses the words America or American in ways that other posters don't agree with (let alone the squabbles about where England is, or anything to do with the European Community).

Differences are noted and can matter. Sometimes that can be good, as in identifying ways in which people can be helped. Sometimes not so good, as in how/why we identify people as "others" that we have arguments/wars with.

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@boomerang,

T has worked with juvenile populations, including drug offenders.

The refrain she got over and over again from the kids was, "why didn't someone tell me how dangerous drugs are? I tried ecstasy [or meth, or cocaine, or whatever] one time, and now I'm effectively brain damaged."

These drugs can burn out the neurotransmitter receptors, which basically fries your brain.

Doesn't happen to everyone, but it happens to a lot of them. And there's no way to know if it's going to happen ahead of time.

It's like playing Russian Roulette with the rest of your life.

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@DrewDad,

That' why it is important to educate kids and start early and never stop educating them about drugs. The other day, my daughter told me of someone who did short films on youtube to show the ugly side of taking drugs. It must be so disturbing that everyone at her school was talking about it. I have to find out the youtube link from her....

Drugs are a problem in just about every high school, more so in affluent communities than in others, as the kids have lots of money to spare and can buy drugs easily. I am always shocked to hear from my daughter who is
taking drugs in her school. I know their parents and I know these kids come from good homes, loving homes, but the parents probably never suspect anything.

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@DrewDad,

I really don't understand how kids don't get this message -- or, I guess, really why the message they are getting is so ineffective.

I think kids just feel invincible. I know I did.

I suppose it's self medication.

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@CalamityJane,

I'd like to see the link to that, CJane.

My psychiatrist friend works in the teen jails. We were talking about our neighborhood middle school during our conversation the other day. We live in a pretty wealthy area and she was saying that the problems in that school were unbelievable but that because the parents were wealthy they could afford to get their kids out of trouble and that allowed the school to sweep the problems under the rug.

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

But the squabbles and labeling we see are among adults.

Labeling a kid as "gifted" or "retarded" sets up a certain expectation of what they might be able to accomplish.

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@ossobuco,

It is IQ tests that they use to determine who gets special education. That's what they were designed for:

Quote:

During the early 1900s, the French government asked psychologist Alfred Binet to help decide which students were mostly likely to experience difficulty in schools. The government had passed laws requiring that all French children attend school, so it was important to find a way to identify children who would need specialized assistance.

They weren't designed to determine giftedness, but they're being used for too.

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@boomerang,

Lots of parents don't know themselves.

And anti-drug campaigns have just been dumb. "Just say no to drugs." "This is your brain on drugs."

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Study links childhood IQ to likelihood of future drug use

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