Mass shootings in schools raise important questions about how best to keep individuals safe and increase survivability in such situations. One of the most common techniques used is lockdown drills, which train individuals to build time and space between them and the threat. Despite their use in 95% of public K-12 schools nationwide, their efficacy…

We used a large state-wide sample of adolescent students in 8th, 10th, and 12th grades (N = 58,689) to examine the predictive value of screen time on bullying victimization, as well as its interaction with age by gender, including transgender and gender nonconforming identities. Participants were majority boys/men (52.3%), heterosexual (88.1%),…

Whereas most research has focused on the influence of teachers on student engagement, we postulate that peer experiences -- particularly bullying behavior as a victim or perpetrator -- impact student engagement over time. Using a sample of 525 adolescents (46% female, mean age = 13.51) nested within 31 classrooms from Chilean schools selected by…

While recent scholarship generally emphasizes how public school principals' perceptions influence various school safety practices, far less is understood about how principals' perceptions of school crime risk and academic climate informs schools' decisions on specific school safety outcomes, including a school's SRO/police presence and policies on…

Little is known about principals' perceptions and their links to how school safety practices operate. Using data from School Survey on Crime and Safety from 2,009 public schools in the US, the current study examines the extent to which principals/administrators' perceptions of academic climate and crime risk are related to school practices…

Limited empirical findings suggest that teacher victimization at school is highly prevalent, with detrimental negative impacts on victimized teachers. Given the scarce body of literature on teacher victimization, further research is necessary to investigate its extent, predictors, and negative consequences. The present research, using a…

Recent incidents of school-based violence have resulted in the widespread implementation of school safety strategies across the United States. While research on these strategies has grown over the past decade, there is little understanding about their collective influence on indicators of school violence. Using data from the 2007-2008 School…

A common response to school violence features the use of security measures to deter serious and violent incidents. However, a second approach, based on school climate theory, suggests that schools exhibiting authoritative school discipline (i.e., high structure and support) might more effectively reduce school disorder. We tested these approaches…

We surveyed public school educators on the workplace incivility and workplace bullying they experienced and obtained their ratings of the organizational climate of the school. We used multilevel modeling to determine the effects of individual-level and school-level predictors. Ratings of school climate were significantly related to incivility and…

The detrimental effects of school violence on students' physical and emotional health are well studied, and research has shown that school violence affects students in every nation across the globe. However, few cross-national studies have compared direct, physical forms of school violence to indirect, emotional forms such as teasing. Using…

Despite the large body of research on neighborhood racial composition and perceptions of safety, only one geographically limited study has investigated the relation between school racial composition and student perceptions of safety. Using data from a 2010 national sample of high school seniors, this study found that being in a mostly-same-race…

The current study examined the relations among self-esteem, approving normative beliefs about bullying, school climate, and bullying perpetration using a large, longitudinal sample of children from elementary, middle, and high school. Self-report surveys were collected at two points in time over the course of 1 year from 7,299 ethnically diverse…

The role of family and school-level variables on relational aggression and relational victimization was investigated among 158 fourth- and fifth-grade children. Family cohesion, maternal and paternal responsiveness, and school climate were hypothesized to be significant predictors of relational aggression and relational victimization. The results…

The No Child Left Behind Act requires state boards of education to identify schools that are unsafe. Schools that are identified by measures such as suspension and expulsion rates are subsequently labeled "persistently dangerous." To our knowledge there is no published research that attempts to characterize fighting behavior among youths…

Using a national data set, Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), we examined three dimensions of 10th-grade school climate--unfairness, hostility, and victimization--as predictors of teacher-perceived student engagement and achievement in reading and mathematics in the same year. The dimensions of school climate that predicted…