Pathways from family violence exposure to disruptive behavior and suspension in elementary school

School Discipline as a Consequence of Violent Victimization in Adolescence: Understanding the Mediating Roles of Head Injury and Behavior

“…Results revealed that higher rates of victimization predicted higher rates of suspension and expulsion both directly and indirectly through problem behaviors. These findings confirm our hypotheses and provide further evidence for the relationship between violence victimization and suspension/ expulsion (Loomis, 2020; Ramirez et al, 2012). Our hypothesis that victimization would predict school discipline rates through behavior problems was also supported, consistent with prior findings indicating fighting and other behavior problems as a risk factor for school discipline (Gorman-Smith & Tolan, 2008; Guerra et al, 2003).…”

“…In our overall results, race and ethnicity were significant predictors of suspension and expulsion, albeit with some differences, as Black students in this study reported higher rates of suspension and Latino students reported higher rates of expulsion. The results in our path models that Black students reported higher rates of suspension even after adjusting for the influence of victimization, head injury, and fighting is in line with other work in which race predicts discipline outcomes even when controlling for a number of other behaviors and environmental predictors (Loomis, 2020; Barnes & Motz, 2018; Skiba et al, 2011). These findings indicate that it is important to not only implement interventions that target the direct influence of violence victimization and associated outcomes but also explicitly target disparities in decision-points that lead to disparate rates of students of color who experience exclusionary discipline.…”

“…One logical pathway may be through problem behaviors; significant research identifies behaviors such as fighting as both an outcome of violence exposure (Brady et al, 2008) and a predictor of school discipline, including suspension and expulsion (Skiba et al, 2011). Along with this, recent work has linked family violence exposure to suspension rates through disruptive behaviors in the classroom among elementary school students (Loomis, 2020), however this link has not been widely examined with adolescents. While research identifies problematic and disruptive behaviors as outcomes of exposure to violence, it is unclear what might cause these behaviors in the first place.…”

“…A growing body of research has linked violence exposure to school discipline outcomes, including suspension and expulsion (Loomis, 2020; Kennedy & Bennett, 2006; Ramirez et al, 2012; Zeng et al, 2019). In fact, as severity of violence exposure increases (e.g., from witnessing violence to victimization) a youth’s likelihood of school discipline also increases (Ramirez et al, 2012).…”

“…A link has been identified between violence exposure and a student’s higher risk of suspension and expulsion (Kernic et al, 2002; Ramirez et al, 2012) beginning as early as elementary school (Loomis, 2020) and preschool (Zeng et al, 2019). In one study, children ages 6–17 who had been exposed to maternal IPV had almost two times higher odds of being suspended during the year of the study (Kernic et al, 2002).…”