Adolescent school injuries and classroom sex compositions in German secondary schools

Abstract

Background School injuries are an important adolescent health problem. Previous research suggests that relevant risk behaviors for school injuries, risk-taking and aggression, are highly susceptible to peer effects. Specifically, evidence suggests that the ratio of men and women in peer groups (sex ratio) affects individuals’ propensity for aggression and risk-taking. However, potential associations of classroom sex ratios with adolescent school injury risks have not been studied so far. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association of classroom sex compositions with adolescent school injuries. Methods We investigate the association of classroom sex ratios with school injuries in a longitudinal survey dataset containing 13,131 observations from 9,204 adolescent students (ages 13-16) from secondary schools in Germany. The data also allow us to identify injuries due to aggressive behavior and analyze these injuries in detail. We use multilevel logistic regression models to analyze risks of both overall and aggression-related school injuries. Results Adolescent students’ risk for school injuries is significantly and positively associated with male-skewed classroom sex ratios (OR = 1.012, p=0.012). Specifically, the risk of sustaining a school injury increases by 33.5 percent when moving from the 10th to the 90th classroom sex ratio percentile. Moreover, we find an even stronger positive association between male-dominated classrooms and aggression-related injury risks (OR = 1.022, p=0.010). Compared to classroom sex ratios at the 10th percentile, the risk of an aggression-related injury is 78 percent higher in classrooms with a sex ratio at the 90th percentile. Finally, we find that both boys’ and girls’ injury risks equally increase with a higher proportion of male students in their classroom. Conclusions Our findings indicate that sex composition of classrooms is an important contextual factor for adolescent school injuries, in particular school injuries resulting from aggression. These findings illustrate the need to integrate a contextual perspective on school injuries among adolescent students both into research and into intervention planning.

Not Next to You: Peer Rejection, Sociodemographic Characteristics and the Moderating Effects of Classroom Composition

“…Empirically, gender is a key stratifier of friendship preferences (e.g., Gifford-Smith & Brownell, 2003 ), consistent with gender forming a strong basis for ingroup and outgroup categorization (Maccoby, 1988 ). School-class gender composition appears related to non-academic outcomes, as a higher share of girls has been linked to fewer in-school injuries (Filser et al, 2022 ) but also to worse mental health, particularly among boys (Getik & Meier, 2022 ). However, research on whether school-class gender composition impacts peer relationships is scarce, one exception being a study following the transition from mixed-sex to same-sex education in one U.S. elementary school (Barton & Cohen, 2004 ).…”

Too Many Males or Too Many Females? Classroom Sex Ratio, Life History Strategies and Risk-Taking Behaviors

“…However, there are some interesting results, such as the following cases: in the US, adolescent females showed higher probability of participating in serious violence when they were part of male-skewed friendship networks, while male adolescents who were part of female-skewed friendship networks showed lower probability (Haynie et al, 2007 ). In Germany, both male and female adolescent students showed higher risk of school violence in male-skewed classrooms, mainly in relation to injuries attributable to other students (Filser et al, 2022 ); and in the Netherlands, a higher relation between status and relational aggression in adolescent male students was found in classrooms with male-skewed sex ratios (Zwaan et al, 2013 ). However, in Israel, it was found that female-skewed classrooms sex ratio promoted academic improvement in both females and males, which was mediated by lower classroom disruption and violence (Lavy & Schlosser, 2011 ).…”