School Climate Predictors of School Disorder: Results from a National Study of Delinquency Prevention in Schools

TLDR

The study tests hypotheses about the association of school organizational characteristics with school crime and disorder. The authors examined these hypotheses using a nationally representative sample of 254 secondary schools. Most variance in school disorder is within schools, yet school climate explains a substantial portion of variance, with perceived rule fairness and clarity reducing student delinquency and victimization, and positive psychosocial climates lowering teacher victimization but not affecting student outcomes.

Abstract

Hypotheses about the association of school organizational characteristics with school crime and disorder were tested in a nationally representative sample of 254 secondary schools. Relatively small intra-class correlations suggest that most of the variance in the individual measures of school disorder result from within-school rather than between-school variation. Therefore only a small portion of this variation is potentially explainable by between-school influences. Nevertheless, school climate explained a substantial percentage of the variance in all measures of school disorder, controlling for the effects of community characteristics and school student composition. Schools in which students perceived greater fairness and clarity of rules had less delinquent behavior and less student victimization. Rule fairness and clarity did not influence teacher victimization. Schools with more positive psychosocial climates had less teacher victimization, but climate did not influence student victimization or delinquent behavior.