Citation

Welsh WN. Youth Violence Juv. Justice 2003; 1(4): 346-368.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1541204003255843

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Using survey responses from 5,203 students, this article explores the effects of school climate (e.g., clarity and fairness of rules) and individual student characteristics (e.g., age, sex, race, and dimensions of bonding) on two different measures of school disorder: students' self-reported Offending and less serious Misconduct at school. Between-school factors and within-school factors were examined using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) techniques. Schools varied significantly on both measures of disorder, but individual-level variables explained greater portions of variance in Offending than Misconduct. School climate variables explained a larger percentage of variance in Misconduct. Implications for theory and prevention are discussed.