School Climate and Delinquency

1. School Climate and Delinquency Denise C. Gottfredson Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice University of Maryland April 21, 2011

2. This Presentation • Summarize research relating school environmental factors and delinquency • Summarize what is know about the effectiveness of interventions to alter school climate • Next steps for research and practice

3. What is “School Climate” “Personality is to the individual what ‘climate’ is to the organization” (Halpin & Croft, 1963)

4. School-Related Individual Factors vs. School Factors • Attachment/commitment to school • School performance • Self-control • Association with deviant peers Research summarized in Gottfredson (2001)

5. Taxonomy of School Climate • Inputs • Ecology • Milieu • Social System • Social organization • Administration and management • Culture • Peer culture • Sense of community Adapted from Tagiuri (1968)

6. School Culture School Milieu Peer Culture Sense of Community Community Context Individual Attitudes, Behaviors and Beliefs Problem Behavior Social System School Ecology Social Organization Admin./ Management

7. School Culture School Milieu Peer Culture Sense of Community Community Context Individual Attitudes, Behaviors and Beliefs Problem Behavior Social System School Ecology Social Organization Admin./ Management

8. Social Organization • Curricular offerings and organization • Specialized prevention curricula • Time allocated to instruction and to different content areas • Grouping of students for instruction (e.g., tracking) • Attention to student heterogeneity (e.g., extra support for low achievers)

9. Administration and Management • Discipline management – fairness and clarity of school rules • Teacher and student shared decision-making • Decision-making/problem solving structures • Strong leadership: establishing a central mission/clarity of goals • Effective communication

10. School Culture School Milieu Peer Culture Sense of Community Community Context Individual Attitudes, Behaviors and Beliefs Problem Behavior Social System School Ecology Social Organization Admin./ Management

11. Culture • Peer norms/culture • Sense of community • Cooperative emphasis • Positive relationships – “ethos of caring” • Consensus about norms for behavior • Expectations/emphasis on academics

12. History of Research on School Climate and Delinquency • 1970’s: Comparison of school means on student outcomes demonstrating large variability in outcomes across schools • Early to Mid 1980’s: refined community measures, broadened school characteristics to include important aspects of social organization, school culture, and school administration

13. Safe School Study • 1976 national sample of 642 secondary schools • Extensive data collection: Principal, teacher, and student surveys • Extensive questioning: victimization experiences, personal characteristics, and characteristics of schools • Census data on the school communities Gottfredson and Gottfredson, 1985

14. Characteristics Related to Teacher Victimization Rates: Community and School Milieu Variables • Input characteristics of the students and communities in which the schools were located accounted for 54% and 43% for jr. and sr. high schools. • Controlling for these characteristics, characteristics of the schools accounted for an additional 12% and 18% of variance

15. School Characteristics Contributing to Higher Teacher Victimization Rates: School Administration/Management Variables • Greater use of ambiguous sanctions • Lower perceptions among students that rule enforcement is firm and clear (junior high schools) • Less teacher-administration cooperation (senior high schools)

16. School Culture School Milieu Peer Culture Sense of Community Community Context Individual Attitudes, Behaviors and Beliefs Problem Behavior Social System School Ecology Social Organization Admin./ Management

17. School Characteristics Contributing to Higher Teacher Victimization Rates: School Culture Variables • Lower school averages on student beliefs in the conventional social rules (sr. high schools) • More punitive teacher attitudes • More democratic attitudes of teachers (jr. high schools only)

18. National Study of Delinquency Prevention in Schools • Intended to describe … • level of crime and disorder • policies and practices currently being implemented to increase school safety or reduce disorder

19. Sampling Design • Nationally representative sample of schools stratified by location and level • Probability sample of 1287 schools • First principal survey in 1997 • Second principal survey, student and teacher surveys in 1998

20. Are Safe School Study Findings Replicated? • To what extent is school disorder explained by externally determined characteristics of the school and community? • To what extent are perceived fairness and clarity of rules and more positive school psycho-social climates related to school disorder?

21. Survey Measures

22. Measuring Exogenous Variables

23. Variance in School Disorder

24. Structural Model Teacher Victimization • Structural Controls • Percent Students male • Concentrated Poverty/AA • Size and Urbanicity • Residential Crowding • Grade Level Social Climate Student Delinquency Discipline Management Student Victimization

25. School Culture School Milieu Peer Culture Sense of Community Community Context Individual Attitudes, Behaviors and Beliefs Problem Behavior Social System School Ecology Social Organization Admin./ Management

26. School Size and Student Victimization • Structural Controls • Community Concentrated Disadvantage • Urbanicity/Mobility • Racial/Ethnic Student Composition • Average Student Age Student Enrollment Personal Victimization Student-Teacher Ratio Property Victimization Number of Different Students Taught

27. School Size and Student Victimization • Structural Controls • Community Concentrated Disadvantage • Urbanicity/Mobility • Racial/Ethnic Student Composition • Average Student Age Student Enrollment Personal Victimization - - Student-Teacher Ratio Property Victimization Number of Different Students Taught +

28. School Culture Mediates Effect • Structural Controls • Community Concentrated Disadvantage • Urbanicity/Mobility • Racial/Ethnic Student Composition • Average Student Age Student/Teacher Ratio Consensus about Norms Personal Victimization

29. School Culture School Milieu Peer Culture Sense of Community Community Context Individual Attitudes, Behaviors and Beliefs Problem Behavior Social System School Ecology Social Organization Admin./ Management

30. Communal Social Organization (CSO) Schools in which “…members know, care about, and support one another, have common goals and sense of shared purpose, and…actively contribute and feel personally committed” (Solomon et al., 1997)

31. Does CSO Influence School Disorder? • Do schools with higher levels of communal school organization have lower levels of school disorder? • If so, is the effect of communal school organization on school disorder mediated by student bonding?

32. Measurement Model: School Factors Communal School Organization Student Bonding Supportive Relations Common Goals & Norms Attachment Belief Commitment

33. Effects of CSO • Structural Controls • Percent Students male • Concentrated Poverty/AA • Size and Urbanicity • Residential Crowding • Grade Level Communal School Organization Student Bonding Student Delinquency

34. Cross-level interactions? Does CSO interact with student bonding such that student bonding has less of an effect on delinquency in schools that are more communally organized?

35. CSO Influences Individual-level Associations The relationship between bonding and delinquency is influenced by CSO: Attachment and belief have less effect on delinquency in higher CSO schools

36. School Culture School Milieu Peer Culture Sense of Community Community Context Individual Attitudes, Behaviors and Beliefs Problem Behavior Social System School Ecology Social Organization Admin./ Management

37. Lessons from School Shootings Source: National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. (2003) Deadly Lessons: Understanding Lethal School Violence. Case Studies of School Violence Committee. Washington DC: The National Academies Press. http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10370#toc

38. Characteristics of the Communities • Gulf between youth culture and adults • Shooters intensely concerned about status and protecting themselves – they mistrusted others in the school • Adults had poor understanding of children’s experiences • Shooters felt there was “nowhere to turn” • Specific warnings given and missed

39. School Climate and Delinquency -- Important Dimensions • Social System • Social organization (social climate, student/tchr ratio, # students taught) • School and discipline management • Culture • Sense of community

40. Mean Effect Sizes: Individual vs. Environmental Change Source: Gottfredson, Wilson, and Najaka (2002) * p < 0.05 † Inverse variance weighted mean effect size (random effects model). ‡ Number of effect sizes contributing to the analysis.

41. School Culture School Milieu Peer Culture Sense of Community Community Context Individual Attitudes, Behaviors and Beliefs Problem Behavior Social System School Ecology Social Organization Admin./ Management

42. Mean Effect Size: Changing Social Organization Source: Gottfredson, Wilson, and Najaka (2002) * p < 0.05; † Inverse variance weighted mean effect size (random effects model)., ‡ Number of effect sizes contributing to the analysis.

43. School Culture School Milieu Peer Culture Sense of Community Community Context Individual Attitudes, Behaviors and Beliefs Problem Behavior Social System School Ecology Social Organization Admin./ Management

44. Mean Effect Size: Changing Administration/Management Source: Gottfredson, Wilson, and Najaka (2002) * p < 0.05; † Inverse variance weighted mean effect size (random effects model)., ‡ Number of effect sizes contributing to the analysis.

45. School Culture School Milieu Peer Culture Sense of Community Community Context Individual Attitudes, Behaviors and Beliefs Problem Behavior Social System School Ecology Social Organization Admin./ Management

46. Mean Effect Size: Changing School Culture Source: Gottfredson, Wilson, and Najaka (2002) * p < 0.05; † Inverse variance weighted mean effect size (random effects model)., ‡ Number of effect sizes contributing to the analysis.

47. Final Recommendations – For Research • Additional research needed to experimentally test school climate interventions – especially “communal social organization” • Research needed to understand how school climate influences the effectiveness of individual-level school-based prevention efforts

48. Final Recommendations – For Practice • Improve school climate, especially • Build stronger bonds between adults and youths • Promote consensus about norms for behavior • Enhance communication • Promote fair and clear rule enforcement

49. Thank You! • Denise C. Gottfredson • Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice • University of Maryland • 301-405-4717 • gott@umd.edu

50. References • Cook, Gottfredson, & Na (2010). SchoolCrime Control and Prevention. In Tonry, M. (ed). Crime and Justice: A Review of Research. • Gottfredson, D. C. (2001). Schools and Delinquency. New York: Cambridge University Press. • Gottfredson, D. C. and DiPietro, S. M. (2011). School Size, Social Capital, and Student Victimization Sociology of Education, 84 (1), 69-89. • Gottfredson, D. C. & Gottfredson, G. D. (2002). Quality of School-Based Prevention Programs: Results from a National Survey. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 39, 1, 3-35.