DOI: 10.3886/icpsr38014.v1
title: Space-time Study of Youth and School Violence - STARS for Schools, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2018-2020
title: Version 1

description: School violence, including violence en route to and from
school, can make students afraid to go to school and frequently results in
serious injury. These assaults occur in a context where the landscape that students navigate each day often includes bullying, substance use, and weapon carrying. Understanding the locations and times when students are vulnerable to assault as they proceed through their school-day routine could identify opportunities for more targeted, evidence-based prevention strategies.
The research team employed a mixed-methods, case-time-control design with
GIS-assisted activity path mapping to understand risk factors and protective
factors for school assault in the United States. Children aged 12-18 years requiring treatment at the emergency department of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) for an assault-related injury, or who attended Philadelphia schools serving as recruitment sites during the study period, were recruited for the study (n=63). Participants were interviewed using a survey questionnaire and GIS technology to recreate details of the path of their activities, indoors during school and outdoors before and after, from the time they awoke in the morning up until the time they were assaulted. In addition, participants were asked to describe their activities sequentially during that period, including companions and weapon carrying, and site-line features of each location (prospect, refuge, and escape). To include individual- and environmental-level context, participants' paths were appended with data characterizing streets, buildings, neighborhood populations, and the weather that day.
This collection contains data from the quantitative survey measures (DS1) and qualitative interview transcripts (DS2) from the path mapping section of the interview. While GIS data were collected, they were not deposited to ICPSR. Qualitative data will be released at a future date.
description: The purpose of this study was to use space-time windows of assault risk to understand how students' surroundings and experiences over the school day relate to the likelihood of being assaulted. The research team investigated the following questions:

Do individual and environmental contextual factors of adolescents' activities on their way to school, during school, and after school relate to the risk of assault?
What features of the contextual factors would enable the greatest reduction in school assault among adolescents?
How do characteristics of what students do, the people they are with, and the places they go protect them from violence, or increase the risk of violence?
description: This mixed-methods study consisted of concurrent quantitative and qualitative phases. The quantitative component used a case-time-control design to analyze detailed point paths of each student's daily activities leading up to the time of the assault. The qualitative component was intended to supplement understanding of the quantitative survey.
Initial recruitment and enrollment occurred between February and November 2018 at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) emergency department and CHOP satellite primary care clinics. Patients who presented to the CHOP emergency department for injuries based on assault were approached by study staff for screening and potential enrollment based on interest. Flyers and clinician referrals were used to recruit patients at CHOP satellite clinics. Due to slow recruitment (n=23), the study team added community recruitment via two Philadelphia educational institutions in June 2019. At each school site, a community champion helped study staff identify students who would be a good fit for the study and reached out to them to gauge their interest (n=37). An additional 4 participants were recruited via siblings who were already enrolled. For minors, child assent and parental verbal consent were obtained prior to participation. Participants aged 18 years old signed their own consent form.
Participants completed a single in-person interview either in university/CHOP office space or at their respective school. Study staff first verbally administered a survey questionnaire and logged responses in RedCAP, then asked participants to provide a geospatial activity narrative of the day they were assaulted. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Following study completion, participants received gift cards, and parents of minors also received compensation if they accompanied their child to the interview. Staff used ArcGIS to collect spatial path data and NVivo to code interview transcripts.
description: The research team administered multiple survey instruments that have been used widely in past research on youth violence and school safety, both at and outside of the University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Five larger, previously validated scales were adapted to create the quantitative baseline survey. See the Scales field for the measures used. 
Demographic items include sex, age, race, and Hispanic ethnicity. Categorical items about the assault (location, cause, type of injury) are also present.
description: Presence of Common Scales: 
Maryland's Safe and Supportive Schools Initiative (MDS3) School Climate Survey (Bradshaw et al., 2014)
Neighborhood disadvantage scale - original version by Elliott et al. 1989, modified and adapted version by Crum et al., 1996
Things I Have Seen and Heard (Richters and Martinez, 1990)
Measures from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Violence Intervention Program (VIP) intake survey
Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale (Schwarzer and Jerusalem, 1995)
description: Adolescents aged 12 to 18 years old who lived in and attended school in Philadelphia, and who had been involved in a violent school-related assault, altercation, or fight six months prior to the interview date, were recruited for this study. Students were excluded if their injuries were sustained as a result of self-harm or domestic abuse, they exhibited extreme illness or impaired cognitive ability unrelated to their assault, their parents were unable to provide consent, they were incarcerated, or they were located outside of Philadelphia for all or part of the period used to report their daily activities. Students with mental or physical disabilities were deliberately not excluded.
The research team contacted 174 potential eligible students. Of that, 74 were scheduled for an interview, and 64 completed interviews. One student was dropped due to technical malfunctions while completing the mapping portion of the interview, resulting in a final sample of 63.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Survey Data
DS2: Qualitative Interview Data
description: Children aged 12-18 living in and attending school in Philadelphia.
description: computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI); face-to-face interview