Relationships between incidents of school violence and exposure to protective and risk factors
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between incidents of school violence and exposure to risk and protective factors in children. The study focused on four major categories of protective and risk factors, Individual, Family, School and Peer. Data on the extent to which risk and protective factors existed in students' lives was collected. Students with high levels of protective factors reported committing few acts of violence. Students who indicated the highest levels of protective factors reported committing even fewer acts of violence when compared to the whole population. Most of the risk factors of interest in the study had a moderate to strong positive relationship with incidents of school violence as measured by correlation coefficients. However, the coefficients showed that the protective factors had a slight to moderate positive relationship to non-violence. Chi-square analysis revealed that the strong relationships between risk and protective factors and violence were not likely due to chance. Combinations of protective factors showed a stronger relationship to non-violence than individual factors. Certain categories of risk and protective factors appeared to serve as better predictors of violence than others. Beta weights obtained from regression equations indicated that the Individual and Peer risk- and protective-factor categories appeared to have a higher impact in prediction of school violence.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Kline, Purdue University.
Subject Area
School administration|Educational psychology|Social psychology
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