Students' perceptions of violence in the public schools: the MetLife survey.

PURPOSE: To investigate secondary school students' perceptions of violence in American public schools. METHODS: Subjects included 726 public school students in grades 7 through 12. A two-stage clustered and stratified (by grade level, region, and location) sample design was used to obtain the sample. Each student completed a self-administered survey instrument under the supervision of their teacher. RESULTS: The sample was 54% female and the majority of students were white. One in five students reported living in a neighborhood with a lot or some crime. In the majority of cases, males, students from neighborhoods in which crime was prevalent, and students with low academic achievement were most likely to have committed acts of violence. Almost a third of the boys, 7% of girls, and 40% of those who earned poor grades reported having ever carried a weapon to school. One in ten boys and almost 20% of those who earned poor grades reported threatening a teacher. One in four students reported having ever been a victim of violence at or around school, and 14% were very worried or somewhat worried about being physically attacked or hurt at school. One in four students believed the efforts by their schools to address violence were less than adequate. CONCLUSIONS: Schools cannot ignore the need to create a safe environment by coordinating deterrents to violence through discipline, prevention, and education. Because schools alone cannot eliminate the problem of violence, communities must also be involved by working with the schools to create a safe and nurturing environment which fosters learning. VioLit summary: OBJECTIVE: This article by Everett and Price explored seventh through twelfth grade students' perceptions of violence and weapons in U.S. public schools. METHODOLOGY: The authors prepared a quasi-experimental secondary analysis of the data collected by Louis Harris and Associates, Inc. in their investigation, "Violence in America's Schools," a survey for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. The authors obtained data from this quasi-experimental survey on 726 students in American public secondary schools. Each school's principal was responsible for obtaining parental consent. The survey instrument included 44 items, most of which were closed-ended questions. Sections addressed categories of information in the following order: home life, perceived scope of violence (as either victim, observer or perpetrator), impact of violence, school's strategies to reduce school violence, and demographics. A stratified and two-stage clustered sample design produced the sample. The sampling procedures for selection of respondents began with a sample of representative schools being selected from a list of public schools that included grades 3 through 12. Stratification by location, region and grade level sorted the schools. This survey instrument was completed by each student as a supervising teacher read each question aloud. The authors were looking for answers to the following general questions: 1) What types of violence are most prevalent in the public schools?; 2) What types of students are committing acts of violence in and around schools?; 3) What do students believe are the motivations for other students' acts of violence?; 4) How many students are victimized?; 5) How does violence impact students?; and 6) What steps have schools taken to address the issue of violence in schools, and have these measures been successful? Descriptive statistics were utilized to provide an overview of the characteristics of the student sample. The authors used a chi-square analysis the ascertain the significance of difference among respondents. FINDINGS/DISCUSSION: The authors found answers to all of the above six questions. In general, 75% of their sample was white, and 54% of their sample was female. They calculated that 20% of the sample lived in a neighborhood with some level of crime. The types of violence that students experienced included reports of weapons having been brought to school: 33% of the boys, 7% of the girls, and 40% of low academic achievers brought weapons to school. The most likely student perpetrators of violence were low academic achievers (those earning poor grades), males, and those from high crime prevalence communities. In addition, the authors found that one-tenth of the boys and 20% of low academic achievers reported having issued a violent threat to a teacher. The authors found that the reasons behind student violence included involvement in gangs, with students in high-crime neighborhoods being significantly more likely to commit violent acts (p AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS: The authors concluded that American public schools need to make the creation and maintenance of a safe school environment a high priority. They presented the three elements of success: education, prevention and discipline. The authors recommended that more schools employ education and prevention strategies over the more commonly used disciplinary techniques. The authors asserted that neighborhoods must work cooperatively with their local schools in order to effectively address the problem of violence in schools. EVALUATION: In general, this study supports prior research findings that violence in schools is a primary concern of American students. It should be noted that only 45% of the schools contacted completed surveys. The validity of generalizing these findings to all American public secondary schools should be questioned. There may have been an unaddressed self-selection bias on the part of principals who refused to participate. This sample under-represented students from high crime neighborhoods, non-white students and low academic achievers, a point made by the authors. In conclusion, this study emphasizes key components of the problem of violence in America's public schools, as perceived by the students themselves. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado) Senior High School Student Juvenile Violence School Violence Juvenile Perceptions Student Perceptions Violence Perceptions Public School School Environment Firearms In School Weapons In School Fear of Violence Fear of Victimization Community Violence Violence Effects Language: en