A Social Disorganization Perspective on Bullying‐Related Attitudes and Behaviors: The Influence of School Context

Abstract

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.

Emergency Department Visits Resulting From Intentional Injury In and Out of School

“…Intentional injuries and violence have immense mental health effects on the victims, and studies have reported that victims may be involved with future violence, either as victims or as perpetrators. 21,22 With the knowledge that intentional injuries continue to be a significant problem in the school setting, and in light of the limited information that these data offer regarding perpetrators, it is clear that more work needs to be done to understand the victim-bully relationship to design preventive efforts.…”

“…14 A number of studies have shown significant health-related issues, including an increase in risk-taking behaviors, poor school performance, and absenteeism related to bullying and violence. [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] As a consequence, there have been numerous efforts to reduce injuries in the school setting, including increased supervision of physical activities, improving student:teacher ratio, teaching students how to deescalate bullying, adding safety officers, teaching school staff how to address violence, and extra activities for students such as music and arts classes to avoid unstructured or unsupervised time in school. 2,10,22,24 Pediatric intentional and unintentional injuries have been thoroughly discussed in the literature, 20,[25][26][27][28][29][30] and several studies have identified a need for further research to understand intentional school-based injuries.…”

“…[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] As a consequence, there have been numerous efforts to reduce injuries in the school setting, including increased supervision of physical activities, improving student:teacher ratio, teaching students how to deescalate bullying, adding safety officers, teaching school staff how to address violence, and extra activities for students such as music and arts classes to avoid unstructured or unsupervised time in school. 2,10,22,24 Pediatric intentional and unintentional injuries have been thoroughly discussed in the literature, 20,[25][26][27][28][29][30] and several studies have identified a need for further research to understand intentional school-based injuries. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]10,24,25,[31][32][33] With the increasing awareness of physical and mental health issues associated with intentional injuries resulting from interpersonal violence and bullying in children, it is important to examine the overall trend for such injuries in the school setting to tailor appropriate measures for safety and prevention.…”

Stigma Is the Origin of Bullying

“…This is one expression of the social disorganization theory, which identifies specific characteristics of communities that strongly predict bullying behaviors (Kubrin & Weitzer, 2003). Some of the variables predicting the appearance and activity of the school bully include student-teacher ratio, school type (bullying is most prominent in middle schools), concentration of student poverty, suspension rates, highly mobile student population, and urban settings versus rural schools (Bradshaw, Sawyer, & O'Brennan, 2009).…”

“…Because bullying is so pervasive, it may be helpful for a school to develop a group of educators who look objectively at each bullying episode. Specific areas of investigation would include aspects of the child bullied to identify variables that research establishes contribute to bullying (Bradshaw et al, 2009). …”