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Social disorganization theory suggests that certain school-level indicators of disorder may be important predictors of bullying-related attitudes and behaviors. Multilevel analyses were conducted on bullying-related attitudes and experiences among 22,178 students in 95 elementary and middle schools. The intraclass correlation coefficients indicated that 0.6-2% of the variance in victimization, 5-10% of the variance in retaliatory attitudes, 5-6% of the variance in perceptions of safety, and 0.9% of the variance in perpetration of bullying was associated with the clustering of students within schools. Although the specific associations varied somewhat for elementary schools as compared to middle schools, the hierarchical linear modeling analyses generally suggested that school-level indicators of disorder (e.g., student-teacher ratio, concentration of student poverty, suspension rate, and student mobility) were significant predictors of bullying-related attitudes and experiences. Student-level characteristics (i.e., sex, ethnicity, status in school) were also relevant to students' retaliatory attitudes, perceptions of safety, and involvement in bullying. Implications for school-based research and violence prevention are provided.

Although there is increasing awareness of the overrepresentation of ethic minority students-particularly Black students-in disciplinary actions, the extant research has rarely empirically examined potential factors that may contribute to these disparities. The current study used a multilevel modeling approach to examine factors at the child (e.g., teacher-rated disruptive behavior problems) and classroom or teacher levels (e.g., teacher ethnicity, level of disruptive behavior in classroom) that may contribute to the overrepresentation of minority students in office disciplinary referrals (ODRs). Data come from 6,988 children in 381 classrooms at 21 elementary schools. The analyses indicated that even after controlling for the student's level of teacher-rated behavior problems, teacher ethnicity, and other classroom factors, Black students were significantly more likely than White students to receive ODRs. Results also suggested that ethnic match between students and their teachers did not reduce the risk for referrals among Black students.

Bullying poses a threat to children's social-emotional functioning and their perceptions of school climate, yet few studies have examined different types of social-emotional and behavior problems presented by children involved in bullying, as a bully, victim, or bully/victim across multiple school levels. The current study used data from 24,345 elementary-, middle-, and high-school students to examine the association between frequent involvement in bullying and aggressive impulsivity, attitudes toward aggressive retaliation, internalizing symptoms, peer relations, and perceptions of school climate. Logistic regression analyses indicated that bully/victims were most likely to display internalizing symptoms, problems in peer relationships, and have poorer perceptions of the school environment. Both frequent bullies and bully/victims displayed aggressive-impulsive behavior and endorsed retaliatory attitudes. High-school students frequently involved in bullying tended to display the greatest risk for internalizing problems, but less risk for aggressive impulsivity. Developmental trends and implications for prevention and early intervention are discussed. C 2008

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