Examining the Relationship Between School Climate and Peer Victimization Among Students in Military-Connected Public Schools

Abstract

In the Iraq and Afghanistan war context, studies have found that military-connected youth- youth with parents and/or siblings serving in the military-have higher rates of school victimization than their nonmilitary-connected peers. A positive school climate-where students perceive high levels of school connectedness, caring relationships and high expectations from adults, and meaningful participation-is associated with lower rates of victimization in secondary public schools. Based on a survey of 7th, 9th, and 11th grade students (N =14,493) enrolled in 6 military-connected school districts (districts that have a significant proportion of military-connected students), this study explores victimization rates and the role of school climate, deployment, and school transitions in the victimization of military-connected students and their civilian peers. The findings indicate that deployment and school transitions were significant predictors of physical violence and nonphysical victimization. In addition, multiple school climate factors were significantly associated with physical violence and nonphysical victimization. The authors conclude with a discussion of future directions for research on school climate, victimization, and military-connected youth.

Exploring School Victimization and Weapon Carrying Among Military-Connected Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth in California Schools

“…In addition, being LGB and military was associated with a decreased likelihood of nonphysical victimization. This result contradicts past research, which has found higher rates of nonphysical victimization among the military-connected youth and LGB youth populations (De Pedro et al, 2016; Russell, Kosciw, Horn, & Saewyc, 2010). It is possible that youth facing challenges related to both military life events and LGB victimization have developed resilience and strategies to avoid nonphysical victimization.…”

“…Dependent variables in this study included items related to school victimization and weapon carrying, utilizing scales that have been validated in previous studies on military-connected students and school victimization (Berkowitz & Benbenishty, 2015; De Pedro, Astor, Gilreath, Benbenishty, & Berkowitz, 2016). We assessed school victimization and weapon carrying by using student self-reports of nonphysical victimization, physical violence, and weapon carrying on school grounds in the past 12 months.…”

A Systematic Review of Campus Characteristics Associated With Sexual Violence and Other Forms of Victimization

“…All three articles used different instruments and approaches to assess different dimensions of victimization. De Pedro et al (2016) used the California Healthy Kids Survey that assessed two domains of victimization, physical and nonphysical. *Mucherah et al (2018) used the Adolescent Peer Relations instrument to assess physical, verbal, and social peer victimization Oriol et al (2019) used the School Violence Questionnaire to assess traditional and cyberbullying.…”

“…1 Institution Climate. A positive school climate, indicated by having a caring relationship with adults, high expectations from teachers, school connectedness, meaningful participation (De Pedro et al, 2016), and high satisfaction with the school (* Mucherah et al, 2018) is a protective factor associated with lower levels of peer victimization. Addressing a different aspect of school climate (perception of safety on campus), Maffini (2018) found that Asian American students were more likely to both report feeling unsafe on campus and report being verbally threatened in comparison to their Asian international student counterparts.…”

School Violence and Teacher Professional Engagement: A Cross-National Study

“…The definition of factors of an ecosystem in a school social environment (aka the constructs of school climate) varies across different studies (De Pedro et al, 2016;Wang and Degol, 2016). One of the important factors consistently identified across research is the community in which the quality of interactions and relationship among school members is assessed (Wang and Degol, 2016).…”