Aggressive and Violent Behaviors in the School Environment Among a Nationally Representative Sample of Adolescent Youth

Abstract

Though some variation within demographic subgroups exists, rates of aggressive and violent behaviors in the context of the school environment continue to persist. Implications for the coordinated prevention of aggressive and violent behaviors among adolescent youth are discussed and recommendations for school-based prevention efforts are identified.

A School‐Level Proxy Measure for Individual‐Level Poverty Using School‐Level Eligibility for Free and Reduced‐Price Meals

“…The illustrative analysis showed that patterns not apparent by race/ethnicity comparisons were seen by including poverty in over half of the outcomes and our findings even suggested health-risk unintentional injury, sexual, and dietary behaviors had stronger associations with poverty than with race, which are in agreement with the findings of previous research. [5][6][7][12][13][14]23,38,39 Although employing Method FRPM as the proxy measure for individual-level poverty fails to account for racial/ethnic composition variations that exist within each school, the illustrative analysis confirmed that including at least some schoollevel poverty measure adds important information and analyses done without poverty are subject to biases and likely will not fully characterize risks.…”

“…26 This allows for analysis of local data as well as comparisons between jurisdictions and does not require individual student data. (9,16) .627 1 (0, 6) 6 (4,9) .002 Currently sexually active 40 (35,47) 25 (19,32) .004 50 (34, 66) 20 (16,24) .001 Ever been/gotten someone pregnant 9 (7, 11) 8 (5,11) .597 1 (0, 5) 4 (2, 7)…”

“….017 Current binge drinker 10 (8, 12) 8 (6,12) .457 23 (8,52) 24 (20,28) .961 Current marijuana user 18 (16,21) 11 (6,20) .054 8 (3,20) 21 (15,30) .015 Current smoker 4 (2, 6) 3 (2,5) .925 11 (3,33) 15 (13,19) .589 Sugary beverage consumption 34 (31,37) 28 (24,31) .007 44 (27,63) 17 (14,21) .006 Physical activity 33 (29,37) 39 (30,49) .221 30 (19,44) 38 (33,43) .222…”

“…1 Findings from the YRBS are used to inform school health policies that promote healthy behaviors. [1][2][3][4][5][6] Previous research has shown that, in addition to behaviors, socioeconomic factors play an important role in health outcomes among adolescents. 4,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] However, the YRBS does not directly measure poverty.…”

“…Because of a lack of poverty information contained on the YRBS, much of the health inequity research using YRBS data has focused on differences by race/ethnicity. [3][4][5][6]18 Other than research done using the 1992 YRBS, which was a follow-back survey to the National Health Interview Survey that provided data from household adults on family income and education attainment, there are only a few YRBS studies that have examined poverty and health behaviors. 11,[22][23][24] Those that have measured poverty have used school-level proxies based on the geographic location of the school.…”