One of the negative consequences of bullying in schools is its adverse effect on students' sense of safety. Previous studies yielded mixed results and a nonlinear relationship between bullying and students' sense of safety and pointed to the need for revealing possible mediating and moderating factors in order to better understand this…

The study aims to examine changes over time in school victimization and climate in Israel, and whether these changes varied between Jewish and Arab schools and schools with different SES. A secondary analysis of the Ministry of Education database of structured student surveys regarding victimization and climate, was conducted during 2008-2019. All…

The purpose of this study is to ascertain how the four domains of self-debasing cognitive distortions, namely personalisation, catastrophising, overgeneralisation and selective abstraction could predict or inform bullying bystanders' emotional disturbance in reactions to witnessing bullying. A descriptive case study research design was adopted.…

This study examined if differences in the experiences of student support co-occurred with differences in student perceptions of safety and the experience of bullying victimization as functions of race (Black/African American students; White/Caucasian students) and grade band (middle school students; high school students). Participants for this…

Arming teachers remains a divisive issue in the United States. Since one goal of this policy is to improve perceptions of safety, it is important to understand how arming teachers impacts students. Using survey data from six Midwestern school districts, we apply Ferraro's risk assessment model to explore how individual and school conditions impact…

Feeling safe in school is important for students' learning, well-being, and quality of life. Variables possibly associated with feeling unsafe in school, such as mental health problems, traditional bullying, cyberbullying, and various health problems, were explored. Altogether, 2,028 adolescents (M[subscript age] = 14 years, 50% boys) from 72…

Background: Victimization at school has been shown to affect a student's perceptions of school climate, specifically in regard to how safe they feel at school and how fair they perceive their schools to be. Objective: The current study investigated the potentially protective role of supportive teachers and peers in reducing the negative influence…

We describe a holistic approach to promoting school safety that merges an emphasis on student voice with staff training in restorative practices. We first describe current approaches to keeping schools safe based on the existing research literature. Given that most of these approaches rely on access to credible information about potential threats…

Background: Although cyber victimization (CV) occurs in both middle school (MS) and high school (HS)--and these experiences appear to differ between boys and girls--to our knowledge, no studies have directly examined these differences across specific acts of CV. Further, limited research has examined school environment factors, such as school…

This paper examines the extent to which transgender students' experiences with school-based victimization and school protective factors contribute to or reduce substance use. We conducted secondary analyses of school-based victimization, school protective factors, and substance use of a subsample of transgender students from the 2013-2015…

Black boys often experience oppression and marginalization in schools. Black boys with disabilities in secondary school are frequently targeted with inequitable and biased discipline practices, exacerbating the school-to-prison pipeline. As such, it is important to examine the school climate experiences of Black boys to inform the creation of…

Guided by the social-ecological, social identity, and social misfit theories, the present study examined the gender, racial/ethnic, and grade-level differences of students' perceived school safety and their associations with bullying victimization and school-wide bullying using a sample of 25,896 students from 114 public schools. Results of…

Extant research indicates that peer victimization is an important factor in the development of internalizing symptoms for youth. However, few studies have examined contextual factors that may impact how peer victimization contributes to these symptoms in middle childhood, especially in the form of victimization. The current study evaluated…

Zero tolerance as an approach to school safety has been around for almost 3 decades. Despite widespread criticisms of zero tolerance policies, few empirical studies have investigated the relationship of zero tolerance with school safety. More generally, the Government Accountability Office report on school shootings noted the need for research on…

This study examined relations between patterns of dating aggression and victimization and school environment factors among 4,114 early adolescents attending 37 middle schools in four sites in the United States (51% Black, non-Hispanic, 21% Hispanic, and 17% White). Latent class analyses revealed a five-class solution that differentiated among…