Much of the existing research on adolescent firearm and weapon carrying lacks a theoretical framework. Relatedly, few studies have examined the relationship between weapon carrying and bullying victimization experienced at school, which has been established as a key strain in adolescence. The present study seeks to provide a partial test of…

Background: Being bullied online is associated with being bullied in school. However, links between online bullying and violence-related experiences are minimally understood. We evaluated potential disparities in these associations to illuminate opportunities to reduce school-based violence. Methods: We used five cohorts of Youth Risk Behavior…

Shooting incidents at kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) schools in the United States have sparked calls to increase security or adopt altogether new approaches to school safety. These approaches include allowing teachers or staff to carry firearms in some schools. To learn what teachers across the United States think about school safety…

Background: Among adolescents, the pathway from being offered drugs to engaging in drug use has been established. The prevalence of drug transactions specifically in schools is less understood. The purpose of this study was to identify the prevalence of adolescents who have reported drug transaction experiences (being offered, sold, or given an…

The problem addressed by this study is how violence in the school affects school safety teams' perceptions of safety. School safety teams are often made up of a principal, counselor, school resource officer and a teacher, in an effort to address safety issues in the school. Studies show that students tend to report unsafe behaviors in school the…

The Federal Commission on School Safety has proposed a number of school security measures, including that trained teachers be allowed to carry concealed weapons at school. Prior to implementing such a policy, legislators and school administrators would be well advised to understand the potential effects of the policy on students. The current study…

The tables in this report provide national-level estimates of the extent to which students ages 12-18 enrolled in grades 6-12 experience bullying during school. The tables show how bullying victimization varies by student and school characteristics such as sex, race/ethnicity, grade, household income, region, school locale, school enrollment size,…

Four-day school weeks have proliferated across the United States in recent years, reaching over 650 public school districts in 24 states as of 2019, but little is known about the effects of the four-day school week on high school students. This study uses district-level panel data from Oklahoma and a difference-in-differences research design to…

The goal of the current study was to investigate the association of experiences of bullying with 17 individual risk behaviors in a large, non-clinical sample of middle and high school students. Data were analyzed from the 2013 Georgia Student Health Survey II, administered to 6th-12th grade students in all public schools in Georgia (n = 513,909).…

In recent years, there has been a growing social, educational, and public policy focus on investigating the correlates associated with youth carrying weapons in their communities and schools. Victimization and other correlates such as drug use and violent risk behaviors among youth have been linked to deviant behavior including weapon carrying.…

This report presents information provided by New Jersey public schools on disciplinary infractions and their consequences for the 2018-19 school year to the Student Safety Data System (SSDS). The SSDS collects incidents of violence, vandalism, weapons, substance use, and harassment, intimidation and bullying (HIB), as well as HIB trainings and…

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Risk Assessment and Distress Recovery (RADR) Scale--a new self-report psychological screening tool for high school students that explores risk factors related to mental health characteristics of students who have engaged in school violence. The sample consisted of 1093 high school students…

To better understand how students perceive their physical safety in school, ACT surveyed high school students who took the ACT® test as part of a national administration in October 2018. Students were asked about their physical safety in school, including: (1) school climate; (2) the types of safety measures their school currently implements; (3)…

The Montana Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is administered by the Montana Office of Public Instruction every two years to students in grades 7 through 12. The purpose of the survey is to help monitor the prevalence of behaviors that not only influence youth health, but also put youth at risk for the most significant health and social problems…

This report has been revised to best highlight information from the new Student Safety Data System for the 2017-18 school year. The New Jersey Department of Education (Department) migrated to a new reporting system, the Student Safety Data System (SSDS), which includes improved definitions, new reporting fields, and updated guidance for reporting…