Marijuana Use Trajectories and Alcohol Behaviors and Consequences

Marijuana Use Trajectories and Alcohol Behaviors and Consequences
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course name & number
Professor
Due date
Suerken, C. K., Reboussin, B. A., Egan, K. L., Sutfin, E. L., Wagoner, K. G., Spangler, J., & Wolfson, M. (2016). Marijuana use trajectories and academic outcomes among college students. Drug and alcohol dependence, 162, 137-145.
Purpose statement: The article entry examines the link between marijuana use trajectories and academic performance, including enrolling for senior year, plans to graduate on time, and GPA (Suerken, Reboussin, Egan, Sutfin, Wagoner, Spangler & Wolfson, 2016, pp. 138).
Summary statement: By analyzing responses from 3146 college students from eleven colleges in North Carolina and Virginia at six different times in their college life, Cynthia, Beth, Kathleen, Erin, Kimberly, John, and Mark evaluated the pattern of marijuana use in college through assessing the different groups’ use of marijuana, patterns of use through random –linear effects and logistics regression (Suerken et al., 2014, pp. 138).
Audience statement: The article attempts to answer students and educators on how the frequency use of marijuana can affect their enrollment to senior year, plans of graduating, and one’s GDP. It also offers sufficient evidence to institutions, parents, and interest parties as to why they should employ interventions early in their college careers.
Unique feature statement: The article demonstrated that frequent users, decreasing users, and increasing users of marijuana reported a significant lowering of their GPA. I found it interesting that students who rarely utilized marijuana also recorded a drop in their GPA (Suerken et al., 2014, pp. 143).
Strength, weakness/bias statement: The article’s significant strength is that it collected a lot of data from over three thousand students, grouped them into five trajectory groups, and produced sufficient data on how the frequency of marijuana use affected students’ performance. Nevertheless, the study is flawed as it was only carried out in eleven public colleges across two states, thus generalizing the information to all college students may be problematic. The study was also biased as its results were primarily self-reported, therefore subject to misrepresentation or error (Suerken et al., 2014, pp. 143).
Reflection statements: The article emphas...