School crime and disruption as a function of student-school fit: An empirical assessment

A theoretical model is described which conceptualizes school crime and disruption as a function of the congruence or fit between the personal characteristics of students and the social environments of the schools they attend. In a direct empirical test of the model, indices representing 10 distinct dimensions of student-school fit are related to three composite measures of school misconduct: school crime, school avoidance, and class misbehavior. A number of significant relationships are found between dimensions of student-school fit and the three indices of school misbehavior, several of which manifest one of the nonlinear forms specified by the model, providing at least modest support for a person-environment fit theory of school crime and disruption.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, San Francisco, September 1978. Analyses reported here were supported by a research grant (G-78-0049) from the National Institute of Education.Received Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Michigan. Current research interests include alienation and involvement in high school, person-environment fit, and survey methodology.Current research interests include the development and treatment of aggressive and deviant behavior in adolescence and socialization experiences in high school.Received Ph.D. in personality psychology from the University of Michigan. Current research interests include adolescent self-esteem, delinquent behavior, and alternative schools.