The Cycle of Violence and Disconnection Among Rural Middle School Students

Abstract

A hypothesized relationship between early violent behavior and subsequent connectedness in middle school was examined. Using self-report survey data and a hybrid structural model, the impact of violent behavior on connectedness to teachers and to school among 136 predominantly Caucasian, rural middle school students was examined. After accounting for parenting practices, which explained most of the variance in violence and connectedness, the data revealed a direct effect of violent behavior on connectedness. The data suggest that middle school students who have engaged in violent behavior are likely to experience disconnection from their teachers, and that this disconnection may provide a target for educators' efforts to prevent violence in schools.     

The Effect of Peer Victimization on Learning

Abstract

Incidents of school violence have prompted calls for school communities to create environments that encourage student by-standers to act responsibly and proactively when they confront a range of violent incidents, from bullying and fights to weapon carrying and other serious threats to school safety. It is not always clear, however, what bystanders would—or should—do when faced with violent or potentially violent situations. This article describes findings from focus groups conducted with 54 middle school students and 97 staff in an urban, predominantly African American school district with relatively high levels of community violence. Discussions addressed bystander norms, attitudes, and behaviors, and identified barriers that prevent youth as well as adult bystanders from taking positive action. Findings inform violence prevention strategies for building consensus and supporting positive bystander responses.     

That I'll Be Killed

Abstract

Pre-service teachers who had completed their practicum or student teaching and in-service teachers in their first 3 years of teaching (n = 218) completed open-ended surveys about their beliefs and fears of school violence and rated their fears for such acts as use of weapons and the likelihood of those acts about their fears about schools and school violence. There were significant differences between pre-service and in-service teachers in their rankings of fearful events and the perceived likelihood of these events using t-tests to compare the groups. The informants reported being most afraid of guns or other weapons or other forms of dangerous violence (hostage taking, an outside stranger coming in and threatening their students, and so on). These fears were significantly correlated with their beliefs in the likelihood that these events would happen. Open-ended questions revealed that pre-service teachers tended to be more afraid for their personal safety and personal failure in a crisis situation and in-service classroom teachers tended to be more afraid for their students' safety. The implications for teacher education and preparing teachers to address school violence are discussed.     

An Examination of School Violence and Safety in South Florida Elementary Schools

Abstract

This study examined conditions of safety and violence in South Florida elementary schools. Although conditions were generally considered safe in these schools, approximately one-half of the elementary school students in the study did express some concerns about their safety, especially in school bathrooms and the area outside of their school building. Students who do not have positive relationships with other students at school and do not feel safe in their community generally feel less safe at school. In addition, students who are experiencing academic difficulty in school and do not expect to attain an education beyond high school feel less safe at school. In this study, those students who felt less safe also tended to be male and from lower SES back grounds.     

Sexual Harassment and Bullying Behaviors in Sixth-Graders

ABSTRACT

Sexual harassment is widely viewed as a form of bullying, but has received little attention in studies of middle school students. A survey of 109 6th grade students found that 29% of students reported at least one sexual harassment experience in the past 30 days, with 11% reporting harassment once per week or more. Although boys and girls reported similar rates of harassment, there were important gender differences-boys were more likely than girls to try to ignore sexual harassment, but girls were more likely to tell someone about their experience and to tell the perpetrator to stop. There was high concordance between sexual harassment and bullying for both boys and girls. These findings indicate the need to recognize the role of sexual harassment in bullying in middle school.     

School Violence Interventions in the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative

Abstract

The Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative was designed to encourage collaboration among school districts and local community service providers in the provision of behavioral health prevention and early intervention efforts. These efforts would address the physical safety of students as well as provide mental health, violence prevention, and social skills services. One local SS/HS Initiative brought together community and school collaborators in an ambitious agenda that included 14 distinct programs that addressed the needs of over 110,000 students in a large school district. The purpose of the current paper is to report the results of the evaluation of two of the programs designed to reduce violent and disruptive behavior in schools. The programs include a school-based anger management program and a community-based, alternative-to-suspension program. Working in cooperation with program staff and the school district, quasi-experimental designs were used to measure change over time for students. The two studies demonstrate the application of multiple methodologies in evaluating the effectiveness of prevention and early intervention efforts with the aim of providing data to support program improvement and sustainability.     

Child and Parent Perspectives on Routes to and from School in High Crime Neighborhoods

Abstract

This study examined children's understanding of the danger and potential harm they face while traveling to and from school in two urban neighborhoods with high crime and violence rates. A qualitative methodology was used to explore how students negotiate danger or potential harm within the context of their routes to and from school.Structured interviews with three hundred seventy-seven second, fourth, sixth, and eighth graders (and 106 of their parents) were analyzed utilizing an inductive coding process (emergent themes). When students were asked to discuss the safety of their school routes, emergent themes included student's fear/awareness of death, fear of violence/victimization, and fear of gangs. Students also mentioned getting driven to school and better monitoring as ways that their school routes could be made safer. Parents discussed similar fears and concerns as their children. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Context Matters: Reactive and Proactive Bystander Action to Prevent Sexual and Dating Violence in High Schools

ABSTRACT

Given high rates of relationship violence among adolescents, there is a need to understand variables that influence adolescents’ helping behaviors to reduce risk for dating and sexual violence (reactive) and promote prevention before violence happens or risk factors are evident (proactive). The current paper examined individual and school variables related to greater actionism in a large sample of high school students. Baseline, cross-sectional data used in the current analyses were gathered before intervention as part of a prevention program evaluation across 25 high schools in New England from students in grades 9–12 (N= 3,404). Students who self-reported a greater number of proactive actions taken were students who identified as sexual minorities, had a history of victimization, and were in schools with supportive peer norms. The current findings suggest a model for prevention that might include training individuals and attending to school level variables.     

Daring,Substance Use and Involvement in Violence Among School Children

Abstract

This study explores whether the association between substance use and involvement in youth violence is a unique association resulting from the properties of the drugs, or whether it is part of a larger behavioral cluster. The sample was composed of 1,571 10th grade students from the Israeli secular and religious state school systems, including both Jewish and Arab schools. The results indicate that the strongest predictor for unplanned violent activities such as physical fights is alcohol use, suggesting that this chemical substance may lower the threshold of unplanned violence. However, daring was found to be the strongest predictor for planned violent activities such as bullying and weapon carrying, suggesting that the behavioral pattern is the most influential. Thus future research and intervention programs would perhaps benefit from differentiating between planned and unplanned violence.     

An Experimental Evaluation of an Internet-Delivered Conflict Resolution Skills Curriculum in a Secondary School Setting

Abstract

Given the Internet's capacity to reach a wide audience and recent increases in violence-related episodes among our nation's youth, Internet-delivered, interactive conflict resolution programs may prove to be a powerful tool to prevent the growing phenomena of adolescent violence. In this study, we tested the efficacy of an Internet-delivered conflict resolution program. Specifically, the program emphasizes the development of conflict management skills, which may decrease future use of violent tactics to manage conflict. One hundred ninety-eight 9th grade students from a large urban area high school (64 = control; 134 = experimental) participated in the study. Results indicated that students exposed to the conflict management program reported an increase in knowledge of conflict management skills and negative attitudes toward violence.     

Swedish 10-Year-Old Children's Perceptions and Experiences of Bullying

Abstract

The main aim of the present study was to describe children's perceptions and experiences of bullying: the way they define it, their thoughts about why children are bullied and their experiences of the way adults respond to bullying. The study group comprised 960 children in the fourth grade. The most frequent answers concerning why some children get bullied were that these children have a different appearance (43%) or that they are deviating in other ways than by appearance (31%). Two groups of bullied children seem to be of special concern; the children who do not tell adults about their situation (9% of the bullied children) and the children who do not perceive that they have received help from adults at school (24% of bullied children). The children's perceptions and experiences are discussed in relation to interventions in Swedish schools.     

K-12 Teachers' Perceptions of School Policy and Fear of School Violence

Abstract

Since the 1990s, schools have focused their attention on policies designed to improve school safety. Most researches on school violence policies have concentrated on the needs of students and administrators. This study investigated the impact of school violence policies on K-l 2 teachers' fear. Using self-report data from 447 K-12 teachers from a large southeastern school district and multilevel path analysis, this study showed that K-12 teachers' perceptions of school policies impacted their fear of school violence. Further, ecological factors had a direct relationship with teacher fear. Policy implications from these findings are discussed.     

A Cross-National Examination of School Violence and Nonattendance Due to School Violence in Taiwan,Hong Kong,and Mainland China: A Rasch Model Approach

ABSTRACT

This study examined the similarities and differences between three distinct Chinese societies (Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China) regarding the contribution of gender and grade level to school violence, the ranking orders of perpetration and victimization behavior, and the correlates of school nonattendance due to violence. A cross-national random sample of 2,582 junior high school students was obtained. The results of Rasch analyzes revealed that verbal violence is most frequent. Male students are most likely to be aggressive and victimized. Grade-level differences in school violence were shown to be weak or insignificant. School nonattendance is generally associated with being kicked, punched, socially excluded, blackmailed, threatened, or sexually kissed without consent. The results were similar across societies. The findings imply that the contextual differences between Chinese societies may not account for different effects of gender and grade level on school violence, behavioral patterns of school violence, and correlates of school nonattendance.     

Peer Predictability

Abstract

This action research and general system theory based qualitative inquiry examined adolescents' dependence on predicting the behavior of their peers as a strategy for enhancing their sense of safety at school and avoiding violence. A total of 95 adolescents in 9th through 12th grades from two small rural schools and one large suburban school in New York State participated in the study. Results indicated that students depend on Peer Predictability to feel safe during the school day when adults fail to predictably supervise or intervene in areas or interactions which adolescents perceive as potentially threatening. Familiarity leading to predictability allowed students to evaluate peers for the possibility of emotional or physical violence. This article presents quotes from the students that capture their unique experience.     

Student Willingness to Seek Help for Threats of Violence in Middle School

Abstract

This study examined factors that influence a student's willingness to seek help for a threat of violence. The sample consisted of 542 middle school students who completed an anonymous survey that asked students how likely they would be to seek help in response to being bullied or threatened. The survey also included measures of type of bullying, attitudes toward aggressive behavior, and perceptions of teacher tolerance for bullying. Stepwise multiple regression analyses indicated that willingness to seek help is lower in higher grade levels and among males. Students who hold aggressive attitudes and perceive the school climate to be tolerant of bullying were less likely to report a willingness to seek help. Implications for improving student willingness to seek help are discussed.     

An Examination of the Reliability,Data Screening Procedures,and Extreme Response Patterns for the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey

Abstract

This article explores psychometric characteristics of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBS), one of the most widely used instruments to assess the prevalence of violent and other high-risk behaviors in secondary school settings. Response patterns were analyzed for a subset of 414 youths who indicated that they had carried a weapon to school six or more times during the preceding 30 days, and were compared to a matched sample of youths randomly selected from the 13,610 participants in the 2001 national administration of the YRBS. Results indicated that extreme responders to the weapon-carrying item were considerably more likely than their counterparts to respond in an extreme fashion to all YRBS items, including risk items pertaining to school (e.g., physical fights on school property) and outside school (e.g., alcohol consumption) factors, as well as positive health behaviors (e.g., healthy eating habits). Overall, the results suggest an ex-treme response bias among some participants that may impact the validity of the YRBS instrument. More specifically, presence of this response bias may inflate estimates of the prevalence of school violence and related concerns. These findings are discussed in light of the need to carefully examine individual response patterns on future administrations of the YRBS in an effort to ensure maximum instrument utility.     

Creating a Culture of Tolerance in Schools

Abstract

The purposes of this article are to establish the relationships be tween prejudice or intolerance and hate-motivated school violence; to describe the aspects of school climate or culture that foster prejudice, stereotyping, and scapegoating; and, to provide examples of interventions educators might use, both individually and systemically, to create a school culture of tolerance and re spect for individual and group differences as a means for preventing bias motivated violent incidents.     

What Have We Learned from Columbine

Abstract

This study first examined a model of the predictors and mediators of both suicidal ideation and violent ideation, particularly since both types of ideation were highly correlated (r = .55) among our young adolescent participants. The variables in the model were those identified in media accounts of the histories of the 10 high-profile school shooting cases, and that have also been included in our earlier model of the predictors of suicidal ideation, which we expanded to include violent ideation. Perceptions of competence or adequacy and social support from peers and parents predicted two mediators in the model, an adjustment/depression composite (self-esteem, hope to hopelessness, and affect, along a continuum from cheerful to depressed) and anger-induced physical aggression. These variables, in turn, predicted both suicidal and violent ideation. Secondly, we examined adolescents' reactions to vignettes that described harassing events, at the hands of peers and teachers simulating the type of audience-observed ridicule experienced by the school shooters. We were particularly interested in the emotional reaction of humiliation, an effect that has received surprisingly little attention in the emotion literature. Humiliation was related to other emotions such as anger and depression, consistent with the co-occurrence of internalizing and externalizing symptoms demonstrated in the overall model. Next we compared those who reported that they would respond violently to the events in vignettes compared to those reporting nonviolent reactions. Examining the variables in the general model, those who reported violent ideation reported markedly lower perceptions of adequacy, lower levels of social support, lower self-esteem, greater hopelessness, depressed affect, and anger-induced aggression. The violent ideators also reported higher levels of both homicidal and suicidal ideation. Discussion focused on the fact that thoughts of violence toward others as well as toward the self have similar psychosocial origins that should be considered in prevention and intervention efforts.     

Preventing Dating Violence in Public Schools

Abstract

Many communities offer programs aimed at improving teen dating skills and knowledge about violence and sexual behavior. This research study evaluates one such program, operated by an interagency collaborative. Each of four participating community agencies provided one hour of curriculum during one week of health class. Lecture, group activities, and films were used in the intervention. A 0 X 0 design was used to examine changes in knowledge and attitudes among 74 students. Results indicate that most students began with fairly high knowledge levels and appropriate attitudes. Nevertheless, the program did appear to have a positive impact on those who exhibited less knowledge about and more tolerant attitudes toward exploitive dating behaviors at pre-test. Implications of results for the school context are discussed.     

Role of School Psychologists in Violence Prevention and Intervention

Abstract

Kansas school psychologists were extremely accurate in their estimates of violence in their own schools and viewed school violence prevention as an important part of their job, regardless of the rates of violence in their districts. Most had at least some involvement in their own school's violence prevention program, although many reported that they had little or no training. Despite the fact that the majority of respondents work in districts with relatively low rates of violence, over half reported that fighting, bullying, and substance abuse, early warning signs of school violence, occur a lot or a fair amount in their districts.