Session: Measurement of Safety and Peer Victimization: A Focus on Youth in Context (Society for Prevention Research 23rd Annual Meeting)

Schools are a context in which there are increasing concerns about safety. Yet, there are often questions about appropriate methods for measuring safety and victimization, and the extent to which those methods are valid and reliable across multiple contexts. This panel features three papers which aim to address the growing concerns about efficient methods for assessing youths’ perceptions of safety and their display of aggressive and problem behaviors. The first paper leverages data from a novel observational system called the School Assessment for Environmental Typology, which was used to examine security practices in relation to student victimization and fear. Leveraging data from a state-wide initiative focused on improving school safety and promoting a favorable school climate, this paper found that security personnel were observed in 72.4% of the schools. The presence of school security was not significantly associated with school demographics but was significantly associated with observations of disorder.

The second paper also uses observational data to examine associations between adult and student behaviors in non-classroom settings (e.g., hallway/stairway, cafeteria). Youth are typically provided greater independence in non-classroom settings, but there is often less supervision during these times, which in turn increases opportunities for engagement in problem behavior and peer victimization. Observational data (N = 800) were collected from multiple non-classroom locations in 58 high schools. Results demonstrated the reliability and validity of this non-classroom measure and an association between teachers’ efforts to actively connect with students and observations of students’ prosocial behaviors. 

Another context where the risk for victimization has been increasing is on-line. Cyberbullying is a rapidly growing focus of prevention research, but it is not clear if cyber-bullying differs substantially from other forms of peer victimization. The third study used data from 1052 middle schoolers to test competing models regarding the form of aggression perpetrated (i.e., physical, verbal, and relational) in relation to the context (e.g., in person vs. on line). A number of latent variable approaches were employed, thereby highlighting the relevant of the context in which the aggressive behavior is demonstrated. Taken together, the findings from these three studies illustrate the importance of solid measurement and the use of innovative methods for assessing peer victimization and safety issues, both at school and on-line. An expert in youth violence prevention will serve as a discussant, thereby providing insight into practices and policies relevant to school safety and its measurement.