Early adolescent health risk behaviors, conflict resolution strategies, and school climate

Drawing upon an ethnically and socio-economically diverse sample of 323 7th grade students from twelve urban schools within one school district, this mixed method study examined early adolescents' self-reported health risk behaviors as related to their conflict resolution strategies and their school's conflict resolution climate. Survey data suggested that early adolescents who reported using more cooperative and fewer aggressive conflict resolution strategies also reported to engage in fewer personal health risk behaviors. Reported engagement in fewer behavioral risks also was associated with attending schools with more supportive “conflict resolution climates.” Serial small group interviews in selected schools indicated that conflict resolution climate quality was associated with how well teachers were perceived to respond to students' conflicts and how they managed teacher–student conflicts. In addition, many students in less supportive climates exhibited cynical attitudes regarding the viability of the conflict resolution strategies promoted by schools and prevention programs.     

Risk or resource: Does school climate moderate the influence of community violence on children’s social‐emotional development in the Democratic Republic of Congo?

Exposure to community violence is thought to create risk for the social and emotional development of children, including those children living in low‐income, conflict‐affected countries. In the absence of other types of community resources, schools may be one of the few community resources that can help buffer children from the negative effects of community violence exposure. We sampled 8,300 students ranging in age from 6–18 years in 123 schools from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to examine whether and how two distinct dimensions of positive school climate can protect two key features of children's social‐emotional development in the presence of community violence. Multi‐level models tested the hypothesis that students’ perceptions of a positive school climate moderated the relation between community violence and self‐reported mental health problems and peer victimization. Findings support the hypothesis. Specifically, a positive school climate protected against mental health problems and peer victimization in the presence of high community violence. Students who experienced high community violence and a negative school climate generally demonstrated the worst development. We find complex interactions between the dimensions of school climate and exposure to violence on student social‐emotional development that highlight the salience of children's contexts for developmental studies in low‐income countries. We use dynamic developmental systems theory and differential impact to discuss the dual potential of schools as a buffer against the effects of violence or as a source of compounded risk.     

School Climate as “Social Order” and “Social Action”: A Multi-Level Analysis of Public Elementary School Student Perceptions

The present study employed a sample of 25,087 students enrolled in 117 elementary schools to test whether student perceptions obtained in a general survey of school learning and social environment conformed to the dimensions of Stockard and Mayberry's (1992) conceptual framework for school climate, and whether data could be summarized as grouped (school) or non-grouped (individual) data. A confirmatory factor analysis showed that the proposed framework adequately fits student perceptions of school climate. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses showed between-school differences. Although school membership accounted for a small amount of variance in school climate measures, school climate means showed relatively high reliability. School climate dimensions most immediate to the student (Action-Instrumental support and Action-Expressive support) showed the strongest relations to both student self-reported academic performance and student satisfaction, and these relations were generally the same across the schools. As predicted, expressive support as opposed to instrumental support was more beneficial (in terms of self-reported academic performance) to students in schools having proportionally more socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Implications of results for educational research and educational practice regarding school climate are discussed.     

School-wide social emotional learning (SEL) and bullying victimization: Moderating role of school climate in elementary,middle, and high schools

Guided by the school-wide social-emotional learning framework and social-ecological model, in this study we examined the associations between students' perceptions of four core social emotional learning (SEL) competencies (i.e., responsible decision-making, social awareness, self-management, and relationship skills) and school climate and their experience with bullying victimization through a multilevel framework. We also examined the multilevel moderating effects of students' perceptions of school climate, gender, and school levels (elementary, middle, and high schools) on the association between SEL competencies and bullying victimization. Participants were 23,532 students (4th to 12th grade) from 90 schools in Delaware. Using hierarchical linear modeling and controlling for demographic factors and school climate at both student and school levels, we found that three of the four core SEL competencies (i.e., social awareness, relationship skills, and self-management) and student-level school climate perceptions had significant associations with students' bullying victimization experiences. Moreover, the positive association between social awareness and bullying victimization and the negative association between self-management and bullying victimization were both mitigated in schools with more positive school climate at the student level. The association between some of the SEL competencies and bullying victimization varied depending on students' gender and grade levels. The findings highlight the unique and differentiated relations among the four core SEL competencies and students' bullying victimization experiences; they also suggest the importance of including school climate assessment and applying gender- and grade-level-specific efforts in bullying prevention programs with an SEL focus.     

Student Misbehavior in Hong Kong: The Predictive Role of Positive Youth Development and School Satisfaction

This study examined the predictive influences of positive youth development and school satisfaction on student misbehavior. The respondents were 1652 Grade 7 students (738 boys and 912 girls) recruited from 13 secondary schools in Hong Kong. Data was collected by a set of validated questionnaires. A predictive model was tested and developed by using structural equation modelling. The results showed that positive youth development (characterized by social competence, emotional competence, cognitive competence, behavioral competence, moral competence, recognition for positive behavior, beliefs in the future, and prosocial norms) positively influenced school satisfaction and reduced student misbehavior. School satisfaction significantly mediated the predictive effect of positive youth development on student misbehavior, particularly among girls. Girls reported having significantly higher levels of school satisfaction, moral competence, prosocial norms, and recognition for their positive behavior, while boys reported having significantly more frequent misbehavior. Off-task disruptive behavior was the most frequent misbehavior among students in Hong Kong. These findings contribute to research on positive youth development, quality of school life and student wellbeing, particularly in the Chinese context. Future research and practical implications for fostering students’ psychosocial competence and school satisfaction for preventing misbehavior were discussed.     

How school climate relates to chronic absence: A multi–level latent profile analysis

Chronic absence is a significant problem in schools. School climate may play an important role in influencing chronic absence rates among schools, yet little research has evaluated how school climate constructs relate to chronic absence. Using multilevel latent profile analysis, we evaluated how profiles of student perceptions of school climate at both the student and school level differentiated school–level rates of chronic absence. Participants included 25,776 middle and high school students from 106 schools who completed a district administered school climate survey. Students attended schools in a large urban school district where 89% of 6th through 12th grade students were African-American and 61% were eligible for the federally subsidized school meals program. Three student–level profiles of perceptions of school climate emerged that corresponded to “positive,” “moderate,” and “negative” climate. Two predominant patterns regarding the distribution of these profiles within schools emerged that corresponded to the two school–level profiles of “marginal climate” and “climate challenged” schools. Students reporting “moderate” and “negative” climate in their schools were more likely to attend schools with higher chronic absence rates than students reporting that their school had “positive” climate. Likewise, “climate challenged” schools had significantly higher chronic absence rates than “marginal climate” schools. These results suggest that school climate shares an important relation with chronic absence among adolescent students attending urban schools. Implications for prevention and intervention programs are discussed.     

Are school policies focused on sexual orientation and gender identity associated with less bullying? Teachers' perspectives

Bullying is common in U.S. schools and is linked to emotional, behavioral, and academic risk for school-aged students. School policies and practices focused on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) have been designed to reduce bullying and show promising results. Most studies have drawn from students' reports: We examined teachers' reports of bullying problems in their schools along with their assessments of school safety, combined with principals' reports of SOGI-focused policies and practices. Merging two independent sources of data from over 3000 teachers (California School Climate Survey) and nearly 100 school principals (School Health Profiles) at the school level, we used multi-level models to understand bullying problems in schools. Our results show that SOGI-focused policies reported by principals do not have a strong independent association with teachers' reports of bullying problems in their schools. However, in schools with more SOGI-focused policies, the association between teachers' assessments of school safety and bullying problems is stronger. Recent developments in education law and policy in the United States and their relevance for student well-being are discussed.     

Delaware School Climate Survey-Student: its factor structure, concurrent validity, and reliability

The Delaware School Climate Survey—Student (DSCS—S) was developed to provide schools with a brief and psychometrically sound student survey for assessing school climate, particularly the dimensions of social support and structure. Confirmatory factor analyses, conducted on a sample of 11,780 students in 85 schools, showed that a bifactor model consisting of five specific factors and one general factor (School Climate) best represented the data. Those five factors are represented in five subscales of the DSCS—S: Teacher-Student Relations, Student-Student Relations, Fairness of Rules, Liking of School, and School Safety. The factor structure was shown to be stable across grade levels (i.e., elementary, middle, and high school), racial-ethnic groups (i.e., Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic), and gender. As evidence of the survey's concurrent validity, scores for each of the five subscales and the total scale correlated moderately, across groups and at the school level, with academic achievement and suspensions and expulsions.     

Context Matters for Social-Emotional Learning: Examining Variation in Program Impact by Dimensions of School Climate

This paper examines whether three dimensions of school climate—leadership, accountability, and safety/respect—moderated the impacts of the INSIGHTS program on students’ social‐emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes. Twenty‐two urban schools and N = 435 low‐income racial/ethnic minority students were enrolled in the study and received intervention services across the course of 2 years, in both kindergarten and first grade. Intervention effects on math and reading achievement were larger for students enrolled in schools with lower overall levels of leadership, accountability, and safety/respect at baseline. Program impacts on disruptive behaviors were greater in schools with lower levels of accountability at baseline; impacts on sustained attention were greater in schools with lower levels of safety/respect at baseline. Implications for Social‐Emotional Learning program implementation, replication, and scale‐up are discussed.     

Behavioral Self‐Regulation,Early Academic Achievement,and the Effectiveness of Urban Schools for Low‐Income Ethnic Minority Children

The independent and joint associations between child behavioral self‐regulation ability and school effectiveness in relation to academic achievement were examined in a sample of low‐income African American (n = 132) and Latino (n = 198) children attending kindergarten and first grade across a large metropolitan area. Child behavioral self‐regulation and school effectiveness were positively associated with both reading and mathematics performance. School effectiveness moderated the effect of behavioral self‐regulation on reading but not math achievement. Lower child behavioral self‐regulation during early elementary school was associated with lower reading achievement the following year but only among children attending less effective schools. Behavioral self‐regulation was not related to reading achievement among children attending more effective schools. Implications of these findings for policies addressing disparities in early academic achievement are discussed.     

Profiles of Student Perceptions of School Climate: Relations with Risk Behaviors and Academic Outcomes

School climate has been linked to a variety of positive student outcomes, but there may be important within‐school differences among students in their experiences of school climate. This study examined within‐school heterogeneity among 47,631 high school student ratings of their school climate through multilevel latent class modeling. Student profiles across 323 schools were generated on the basis of multiple indicators of school climate: disciplinary structure, academic expectations, student willingness to seek help, respect for students, affective and cognitive engagement, prevalence of teasing and bullying, general victimization, bullying victimization, and bullying perpetration. Analyses identified four meaningfully different student profile types that were labeled positive climate, medium climate‐low bullying, medium climate‐high bullying, and negative climate. Contrasts among these profile types on external criteria revealed meaningful differences for race, grade‐level, parent education level, educational aspirations, and frequency of risk behaviors.     

Perceptions of Ethical Climate and Research Pressures in Different Faculties of a University: Cross-Sectional Study at the University of Split,Croatia

We determined the prevailing ethical climate at three different schools of a single university, in order to explore possible differences in the ethical climate related to different research fields: the School of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Naval Architecture; the School of Humanities and Social Sciences; and the School of Medicine. We used the Ethical Climate Questionnaire to survey the staff (teachers and administration) at the three schools, and used the research integrity and organizational climate (RIOC) survey for early-stage researchers at the three schools. The dominant ethical climate type perceived collectively at the three university schools (response rate 49%, n = 294) was Laws and professional codes, which is associated with the cosmopolitan level of analysis and the ethical construct of principle. Individually, the same climate predominated at the schools for engineering and humanities, but the School of Medicine had the Self-interest ethical climate, which is associated with the individual level of analysis and the egoism ethical construct. In the RIOC survey (response rate 85%; n = 70), early-stage researchers from the three university schools did not differ in their perceptions of the organizational research integrity climate, or in their perceived individual, group or organizational pressures. Our study is the first, to the best of our knowledge, to show differences in perceived ethical climate at a medical school compared to other schools at a university. Further studies are needed to explore the reasons for these differences and how they translate to organizational outcomes, such as job satisfaction, commitment to the institution and dysfunctional behaviour, including research misconduct.

     

Individual and Contextual Factors Associated With School Connectedness in the Context of Counseling in Schools

School connectedness refers to students' beliefs that their peers and adults at school care about their learning and themselves as individuals. School connectedness has been widely documented as a significant predictor for positive student outcomes, yet little is known about factors associated with it as an outcome variable. Guided by the advocating student-within-environment framework situated with the social development model, this study explored individual and contextual factors associated with school connectedness among 1,201 students in Grades 4 to 8. Gender, ethnicity, grade level, and social skills were found to be significant individual factors, whereas school support for learning and acceptance of diversity were significant contextual factors. Together, the individual and contextual factors explained 47% of the variance in school connectedness. Our findings also revealed grade-related variability concerning associations between the factors and school connectedness. These findings provide further insights into fostering connectedness in the context of counseling in schools with consideration to students' developmental needs.     

Positive School Climate as a Moderator of Violence Exposure for Colombian Adolescents

In Colombia, many adolescents have experienced violence related to the decades‐long armed conflict in the country and have witnessed or been directly victimized by violence in their communities, often related to gang activity or drug trafficking. Exposure to violence, both political and community violence, has detrimental implications for adolescent development. This study used data from 1857 Colombian adolescents in an urban setting. We aim to understand the relations between exposure to violence and adolescent outcomes, both externalizing behaviors and developmental competence, and then to understand whether school climate (i.e., safety, connectedness, services) moderates these relations. Results demonstrate that armed conflict, community violence victimization, and witnessing community violence are positively associated with externalizing behaviors, but only armed conflict is negatively associated with developmental competence. School safety, connectedness, and services moderate the relation between community violence witnessing and externalizing behaviors. School services moderates the relation between community violence victimization and developmental competence. As students perceived more positive school climate, the effects of community violence exposure on outcomes were weakened. This study identifies potential levers for intervention regarding how schools can better support violence‐affected youth through enhancements to school safety, connectedness, and services.     

Teachers’ Knowledge of Evidence-Based Interventions and Available School Resources for Children with Emotional and Behavioral Problems

School professionals need to be prepared to support children with emotional and behavioral problems. Teachers in particular should be aware of the resources provided by their school as well as the evidence-based practices available to support children with behavioral problems. This study explored general education teachers’ knowledge of 10 evidence-based interventions as well as resources and data collected at their schools to support children with mental health problems. Participants included 239 general educators from 5 school districts. Overall, most teachers had not heard of 9 out of 10 of the evidence-based programs presented. Teachers were also not sure whether their schools provided specific assessments and interventions to support children. One particularly noteworthy finding was that 57% of teachers were not sure whether their schools provided functional behavioral assessment and intervention planning. Findings illuminate a need for continued work in this area.     

Systematic Screening for Behavior in K–12 Settings as Regular School Practice: Practical Considerations and Recommendations

There is a priority for schools to address students' social and emotional needs as is done for academic learning. Tiered models of prevention provide a framework for teaching social skills and behavioral expectations, as well as academics, with positive, proactive, evidence-based practices. Central to responding to students' needs is accurate measurement of their performance. Systematic screening for behavior addresses this need. Specific screening tools are presented with brief evidence for their use. Then practical considerations and recommendations are offered for school leadership teams as they plan for using systematic behavior screening as a regular school practice. The study was framed within tiered models of prevention; however, screening practices may be used outside of tiered models provided structures are in place for responding to student needs when detected. Content is offered to guide school leadership teams as they undertake systematic behavior screening efforts.     

Socio‐economic,socio‐political and socio‐emotional variables explaining school bullying: a country‐wide multilevel analysis

Why do some countries, regions and schools have more bullying than others? What socio‐economic, socio‐political and other larger contextual factors predict school bullying? These open questions inspired this study with 53.316 5th‐ and 9th‐grade students (5% of the national student population in these grades), from 1,000 schools in Colombia. Students completed a national test of citizenship competencies, which included questions about bullying and about families, neighborhoods and their own socio‐emotional competencies. We combined these data with community violence and socio‐economic conditions of all Colombian municipalities, which allowed us to conduct multilevel analyses to identify municipality‐ and school‐level variables predicting school bullying. Most variance was found at the school level. Higher levels of school bullying were related to more males in the schools, lower levels of empathy, more authoritarian and violent families, higher levels of community violence, better socio‐economic conditions, hostile attributional biases and more beliefs supporting aggression. These results might reflect student, classroom and school contributions because student‐level variables were aggregated at the school level. Although in small portions, violence from the decades‐old‐armed conflict among guerrillas, paramilitaries and governmental forces predicted school bullying at the municipal level for 5th graders. For 9th graders, inequality in land ownership predicted school bullying. Neither poverty, nor population density or homicide rates contributed to explaining bullying. These results may help us advance toward understanding how the larger context relates to school bullying, and what socio‐emotional competencies may help us prevent the negative effects of a violent and unequal environment. Aggr. Behav. 35:520–529, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The Role of Neighborhood Context and School Climate in School‐Level Academic Achievement

In recent years, the quality of education available to children has become increasingly dependent on the social and economic demographics of neighborhoods in which the children live. This study assesses the role of community violence in explaining the relation between socio‐economic status (SES) and academic outcomes and the potential of positive school climate to promote academic achievement. With a sample of 297 Chicago public elementary schools, we examine community‐level and school‐level data and use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping to illustrate how school academic achievement coincides with neighborhood economics and crime statistics. Results support the hypothesized mediation, such that lower SES was associated with lower academic achievement, and violent crime partially mediated this relation. School climate was positively associated with academic achievement, and student safety significantly moderated the relation between SES and academic achievement. Implications for theory, research, and intervention are discussed.     

The School and Community Study: Characteristics of Students Who Have Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities Served in Restructuring Public Schools

We present selected initial results from a study investigating the effects of school restructuring and reform activities on outcomes for students who are identified as having serious emotional and behavioral disabilities. A review of the literature revealed six key areas of reform for investigation: accountability, governance, parent involvement, includedness, curriculum and instruction, and pro-social discipline. Ten schools (five elementary, two K-8, one middle, and two high schools) actively engaged in school restructuring and reform efforts were selected to participate in the study, and their status related to these six areas is presented. Characteristics of the students identified as having emotional and behavioral disabilities and served in these schools in special education settings (N = 116) are described. Results from the administration of standardized assessments revealed that these students have significant levels of emotional and behavioral disabilities that impair their functioning at school and at home. Further, school staff are providing the majority of counseling services to these students during the school day, with non-school professionals providing services to 25% of the students.     

Supportive school climate and student willingness to seek help for bullying and threats of violence

This study investigated the relations between student perceptions of support and student willingness to seek help for bullying and threats of violence in a sample of 7318 ninth-grade students from 291 high schools who participated in the Virginia High School Safety Study. Hierarchical linear modeling indicated that students who perceived their teachers and other school staff to be supportive were more likely to endorse positive attitudes toward seeking help for bullying and threats of violence. In schools with more perceived support, there was less of a discrepancy in help-seeking attitudes between girls and boys. Findings suggest that efforts by school staff to provide a supportive climate are a potentially valuable strategy for engaging students in the prevention of bullying and threats of violence.