Victimization and Safety in Schools Serving Early Adolescents

Abstract

Hierarchical linear modeling techniques were used to examine the relations between school-level variables and victimization, behavior, and perceptions of school safety using a nationally representative sample of 8th-graders from the National Education Longitudinal Study. The results indicated that victimization, getting into trouble for bad behavior, and perceptions of school as unsafe were more characteristic of schools with 6th- through 8th-grade or 7th- through 9th-grade configurations than in kindergarten through 8th-grade or kindergarten through 12th-grade schools. After controlling for school-level variables, ethnicity and socioeconomic status did not emerge as strong predictors. Females were less likely to report being victimized or getting into trouble for bad behavior than were males. The results also indicated that schools with kindergarten through 8th-grade and kindergarten through 12th-grade configurations reported dealing with repeated occurrences of bad behavior and with serious behavioral infractions more harshly than did other types of schools.