Bullying is a pervasive concern across the nation. Positive school climate is related to a reduction in bullying behaviors; thus, researchers aim to determine ways to enhance school climate in an effort to address bullying in schools. Many factors contribute to a positive school climate, including an authoritative leadership approach that provides consistent and fair discipline and positive support of students. In contrast, inconsistent and unfair discipline negatively impacts school climate and may exacerbate bullying among students. In some schools, discipline strategies are not applied equally to all students, and findings have consistently demonstrated that students from underrepresented groups, especially Black students, have been disproportionately affected. Moreover, the utilization of zero tolerance policies often disparately impacts minority students, with more frequent consequences such as suspension and expulsion for minor infractions. This study assessed the impact of unfair discipline on perceptions of school climate, safety, and bullying in predominantly rural schools, with specific examination of the experiences of Black students. The results of the study indicated that significant discrepancies continue to exist with Black students receiving a significantly greater proportion of suspensions than their proportion of enrollment in the schools. Surprisingly, disciplinary discrepancy did not significantly predict student perceptions of school climate, school safety, or bullying behaviors. Alternately, interesting findings emerged with respect to other student-level variables. Students who selected Black as their race had significantly less positive perceptions of school climate and the addition of student perceptions of unfair rules to the model significantly predicted perceptions of school climate. School-related variance did not significantly contribute to these findings. Next, students who perceived their school climate as more positive were significantly more likelihood to perceive their school to be safe. Furthermore, consistent with previous research, student likelihood of being bullied in the last 4 weeks increased significantly as grade decreased, meaning bulling experiences are more frequent in middle school and early high school as opposed to late high school years. Finally, negative perceptions of school climate significantly predicted the likelihood of student experiences of bullying. Overall, the findings suggest a need for disciplinary reform where the focus is on reducing bias and increasing positive supports for students.

Research on family influences on adolescents’ aggression has revealed a relation between maternal depressive symptoms and adolescents’ frequency of aggression. A recent cross-sectional study of these relations (Pugh & Farrell, 2011) indicated that maternal depressive symptoms had a significant relation with teachers,’ students,’ and mothers’ reports of adolescents’ aggression. This effect was mediated by parenting practices and family functioning. The cross-sectional designs used in previous studies examining relations between maternal depressive symptoms and adolescents’ aggression make it difficult to draw clear inferences regarding the causal nature of this association. The present study used longitudinal data across five waves of data from a large multi-site study to explore reciprocal relations between maternal depressive symptoms and adolescents’ aggression and the role of parenting practices and family functioning as a mediator of this relation. Participants were 521 mother-adolescent dyads (64% Male; 69% African American) from 18 schools from four different sites throughout the United States representing a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. About 40% of the mothers met criteria for clinically elevated depressive symptoms. Data were collected across five waves from fall of the sixth grade to spring of the eighth grade. Maternal depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale and adolescents’ aggression was assessed using adolescents’ reports on the Problem Behavior Frequency Scales and mothers’ and teachers’ ratings on the Behavior Assessment System for Children. Analyses revealed positive correlations between maternal depressive symptoms and adolescents’ aggression within each time point (p < .01). Autoregressive path models revealed the reciprocal nature of maternal depressive symptoms and mothers’ report of aggression among female adolescents (significant paths at the majority of time points, p < .05), but not among male adolescents. Hence, findings provide support for the reciprocal relation between maternal depressive symptoms and female adolescents’ aggression. With few exceptions, support was not found for parenting and family variables mediating this relation.

Electronic aggression is a rapidly growing focus of research, but it lacks a unifying theoretical framework that is necessary to advance the field. The lack of a theoretical framework has led to inconsistencies in measurement of electronic aggression, making it difficult to draw conclusions across studies. In general, researchers have assumed that electronic aggression constitutes a new form of aggression, a counterpart to physical, verbal, and relational aggression, due to unique features surrounding the perpetration of electronic aggression. Furthermore, researchers have treated electronic aggression as a categorical variable based on the assumption that “cyberbullies” constitute a distinct group of adolescents. However, these assumptions have not been empirically tested. It is possible that media represents an additional dimension on which aggression can be classified. The purpose of this study was to test competing models of aggression. It was hypothesized that form of aggression (i.e., physical, verbal, and relational) would be more salient in explaining relations among aggressive behaviors than media (in-person or electronic). It was also hypothesized that adolescents who perpetrated aggression would not be distinguished by what media they used to perpetrate aggression. Finally, it was hypothesized that a dimensional model would provide a better explanation of aggression than a categorical one. Participants were 1052 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students from three public schools in a medium-sized city in the southeastern United States. All grades were approximately equally represented (352 sixth grade students, 350 seventh grade students, 340 eighth grade students). The racial composition of the sample was 76% Black or African American, 15% multiracial, 6% European American, and 2% American Indian or Alaska Native. Fifteen percent of participants reported that their ethnicity was Hispanic or Latino. Data were collected in the fall, winter, spring, and summer beginning in the winter of 2010. Due to the cross-sectional nature of this study, one data point was randomly selected for each participant. Among other measures, participants completed the Problem Behavior Frequency Scale - Revised, a self-report measure that assessed the extent to which they engaged in physical, verbal, relational, and electronic aggression. Interestingly, a confirmatory factor analysis that took both media and form into account provided the best model to explain adolescent aggression. A latent profile analysis revealed two groups of adolescents: a moderately aggressive class and a low aggressive class. As hypothesized, neither group was distinguishable by the media they used to perpetrate aggression. Also as hypothesized, a comparison of the confirmatory factor analysis model and the two-class solution of the latent profile analysis indicated that a dimensional model provided the best fit. This study supports a theoretical framework of aggression in which aggression is classified both by form and media.

Research indicates that many youth-serving agencies do not adopt evidence-based innovations in the field of youth violence prevention. This qualitative study was designed to explore a sample of community-based decision makers’ perceptions of why innovative, evidence-based programs and practices for the prevention of violence by youth are, or are not, adopted at the local level. The rationale for this study was that knowledge of evidence-based innovations in youth violence prevention originates primarily from research scientists who are external to the organizations that are the intended recipients of the innovations. Prior research has not viewed the failure to adopt evidence-based innovations from the perspective of the impediments and facilitators of recipient organizations’ capabilities of understanding the value of and acquiring the new external knowledge. This research study used interviews from a purposefully selected sample of 28 decision makers in public and nonprofit organizations with youth-serving missions located in three urban cities. These interviews constituted a secondary data set for this study and were drawn from a larger set of 38 interviews after a review for suitability. The learning process model of absorptive capacity was used as an a priori framework for the analysis of the interviews. This model recognizes the influences of environmental conditions, knowledge characteristics, learning relationships, mental models, structures and processes, and strategies on the organizational capability to absorb new external knowledge. This study revealed that environmental conditions were a key impediment to the acquisition of new evidence-based knowledge for use in the adoption of YVP programs. Key findings were a lack of issue leadership and strategy at the local level and unstable funding for agencies’ core and non-core programs, such as YVP efforts. A second set of key findings demonstrated that mental models were facilitators and impediments. A high value was placed on YVP as an issue area, but the expectation was that YVP programs require external funding. Decision makers also defined program success differently than prevention scientists. Recommendations are offered for prevention science researchers to increase the likelihood that innovations in YVP will be discovered and utilized by practitioners.

Nesta dissertação, procuramos compreender os sentidos e significados que os profissionais de serviços de saúde e de assistência social de um município do interior paulista têm acerca dos transtornos de comportamento em crianças e adolescentes. Para tanto, foi realizado um estudo qualitativo em dois serviços de saúde e 2 conselhos tutelares de um município do interior paulista. Participaram do estudo 13 profissionais. A coleta de dados foi realizada através de uma entrevista semiestruturada realizada em local escolhido pelos participantes. Para a organização e tratamento dos dados foi utilizada a técnica de análise de conteúdo de Bardin, que nos permitiu construir três categorias temáticas: \"Transtornos de comportamento: que comportamento é esse?\" \"Transtornos de comportamento: como se desenvolvem?\" \"Ações (des)articuladas entre os setores saúde e assistência no atendimento à crianças e adolescentes com transtorno de comportamento\". Verificamos que o conhecimento acerca da aplicabilidade diagnóstica dos transtornos de comportamento não é clara para os profissionais de nosso estudo, o que acaba dificultando a identificação e o encaminhamento dessas crianças e adolescentes aos serviços de saúde mental e assistência social. Para os profissionais de nosso estudo, os principais fatores de risco atribuídos ao desenvolvimento dos transtornos de comportamento em crianças e adolescentes são aqueles que ocorrem nas relações entre as crianças e seus familiares, como a violência doméstica, a desestruturação familiar, a falta de afeto e as práticas educativas, fatores que podem inclusive potencializar ou não a predisposição genética da criança ou adolescente a desenvolver transtornos de comportamento. Já os fatores macrossociais, como as condições sociais e culturais, a ação do estado e as características da sociedade nas quais vivem as crianças e adolescentes são pormenorizados como colaboradores para o desenvolvimento de transtornos de comportamento pelos profissionais de nosso estudo. Por fim, constatamos que as ações de prevenção à violência juvenil e de atendimento à crianças e adolescentes com transtornos de comportamento dos profissionais de nosso estudo não atendem às diretrizes e normas estabelecidas pela OMS e pelas políticas nacionais de prevenção à violência no que diz respeito ao trabalho integrado e intersetorial, no desenvolvimento de ações preventivas, na consolidação do atendimento pré-hospitalar sistematizado, hierarquizado e subsidiado por práticas baseadas em evidências e na capacitação adequada dos recursos humanos / In this dissertation, we seek to understand the senses and meanings that the professionals working in health and social welfare services from a city of the countryside of São Paulo have about behavior disorders in children and teenagers. For this purpose, we performed a qualitative study in two health services and two guardianship councils from a city in the countryside of São Paulo. This study was attended by 13 professionals. Data collection took place by means of semi-structured interviews held in a place chosen by the participants. In order to organize and treat data, we used the Bardin\'s content analysis technique, which enabled us to draw up three thematic categories: \"Behavior disorders: what behavior is this?\" \"Behavior disorders: how do they develop?\" \"(Dis) articulated actions between the health and social welfare sectors in meeting the demands of children and teenagers with behavior disorders\". We have found that the knowledge about the diagnostic applicability of behavior disorders is not clear to the professionals who took part in our study, which ends up hindering the identification and referral of these children and teenagers to mental health and social welfare services. According to the professionals who attended our study, the main risk factors blamed on the development of behavior disorders in children and teenagers are those that occur in relationships between children and their relatives, such as domestic violence, family breakdown, lack of affection and educational practices, which are factors that may or may not increase the genetic predisposition of the child or teenager to develop behavior disorders. Conversely, macro-social factors, such as social and cultural conditions, state action, and the characteristics of the society where children and teenagers live are specified as collaborators for the development of behavior disorders by the professionals of our study. Lastly, we have noted that the actions to prevent youth violence and to meet the demands of children and teenagers with behavior disorders carried out by the professionals of our study do not comply with the guidelines and standards established by the WHO and the national policies on violence prevention with respect to the integrated and intersectoral work, development of preventive actions, consolidation of a systematized prehospital care, i.e., hierarchized and subsidized by evidence-based practices, and appropriate training of human resources

Thesis advisor: Thanh V. Tran / It has been well documented that El Salvador faces tremendous challenges in terms of youth involvement in problem behavior. It has also been observed that spirituality and religiosity are important factors in the lives of many Salvadoran youth. While scholarship in developed nations among adolescents and young adults has consistently found spirituality and religiosity to be protective factors against delinquency, violence, and substance abuse, few studies have systematically examined the relationships between these concepts in the Salvadoran context. The principal purpose of this dissertation is to examine the direct and mediated relationships between spirituality, religiosity, and problem behavior among high-risk and gang-involved youth in San Salvador, El Salvador. Structured interviews were conducted with 301 high-risk youth and gang members (81.6% male) between the ages of 11 and 25 (M age = 18.5, SD = 3.3) living in marginalized Salvadoran neighborhoods. Drawing from the Social Development Model, it was hypothesized that higher levels of spirituality and religiosity, as mediated by antisocial bonding and antisocial beliefs, would be associated with lower levels of participation in delinquency, violence, and substance use and abuse. Structural equation modeling, as well as logistic and multiple regression analyses, were employed to examine the direct and mediated associations between these variables. The results of this dissertation indicate that spirituality and, to a lesser degree, religiosity are of relevance to the behavior of Salvadoran high-risk and gang-involved youth. In examining the relationship of spirituality and religiosity to social developmental factors of relevance to problem behaviors, it is evident that spirituality has implications across the board in terms of setting in motion dynamics that are associated with youth involvement in problem behaviors. While not associated with minor forms of problem behavior, religiosity was found to be protective against several severe manifestations of problem behavior. Findings from this dissertation have several implications for social work research and practice. These implications relate to the salience of spirituality and religiosity as protective factors in the Salvadoran context, the differential impact of spirituality and religiosity on problem behavior involvement, and the identification of factors that mediate the relationship between spirituality, religiosity, and problem behavior. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work. / Discipline: Social Work.

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Violence is among the most serious threats to the health and safety of young people between the ages of 10 and 24 in the United States. The purpose of this cross-sectional quantitative study using secondary data from the CDC's 2015 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) data set was to examine the characteristics (age, sex, race and ethnicity, insurance or payer source, and housing status) of young people between the ages of 10 and 24 who seek medical care for assault-related injuries through the emergency department (ED). The social ecological model was used to examine the complex interplay between individual, relationship, community, and societal factors, which allows for a better understanding of the range of factors that put people at risk for or protect them from being a victim of or engaging in violence. Chi-square and logistic regression with clustered robust standard errors was used to analyze the differences and the relationships between 6 characteristic variables and the likelihood of ED visits among young people between the ages of 10 and 24 for assault-related injuries. The results of this study provide researchers with a better understanding of the demographics of young people who seek care in the ED for assault-related injuries. Understanding this population is critical in examining the effectiveness of ED-based youth violence prevention programs. Future research is needed to understand the value and outcomes of existing ED-based youth violence prevention programs. Should public health practitioners use these results, positive social change can occur by empowering social norms that value equality, safety, and human rights instead of valuing power over another and the acceptance of violent behaviors as normal.

This dissertation focused on the topic of youth violence in two very different populations, young workers and youth offenders. Youth violence at the home, in school and in the community has been well documented in the literature but very little is known about the prevalence of and risk factors for victimization at the workplace in young workers. In chapter two, a retrospective cohort study was conducted using National Crime Victimization Survey data from 2008–2012. We calculated a rate of workplace violence victimization and compared those rates between occupations and demographic characteristics in young workers 16–24 years. Multilevel, weighted Poisson regression models were used to compare rates of workplace victimization across occupations and demographic characteristics. The rate of workplace violence victimization was 1.11 (95% CI: 0.95–1.27) incidents per 1,000 employed person-months. Young workers in retail sales occupations had a higher rate of workplace victimization than workers in health care occupations (RR = 0.52, 95% CI: 0.26–1.03) but a lower rate of workplace victimization than workers in protective service occupations (RR = 2.25, 95% CI: 1.34–3.77). Rates of workplace violence victimization differed significantly by age, income and workplace location. In contrast, the prevalence of and risk factors for juvenile offender are well-known. However, there still exist major gaps in determining the effectiveness of tertiary interventions, justice-based processes (i.e. formal appearance in court vs. informal agreement or meeting with court officer) and placement (e.g. detention centers, foster care, mental health institutions). In chapters three and four, the effectiveness of justice-based processes and placement on recidivism in young offenders 12–16.5 years were evaluated using data received from the Iowa Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning Agency (CJJP) from 2010–2013. Multivariable logistic regression was used to impute risk level scores, to calculate propensity scores and to measure associations between demographic or complaint characteristics and main exposures. A sensitivity analysis was conducted by comparing the associations between process type and recidivism in a sample matched on propensity scores to the original unmatched sample. Cox Proportional Hazards models were used to compare time to recidivism by process type or placement in matched and unmatched samples. In chapter three, out of 2,901 youth offenders, 41% recidivated over an 18-month period. Eighteen percent were formally processed while 82% received an informal agreement. Youth who received an informal agreement had a lower risk of reoffending at any time compared to youth who were formally processed in both the unmatched (HR = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.76–1.13) and matched sample (HR= 0.86, 95% CI: 0.65–1.14). These estimates were not statistically significant. We observed an offense-specific association between processing and recidivism. Property (HR = 0.74; 95% CI: 0.57–0.96) offenders who received an informal agreement were significantly less likely to recidivate compared to property offenders who were formally processed. In chapter four, out of 1,469 youth offenders, 36% recidivated over an 18-month period. Nine percent received placement while 91% did not. Youth who received placement had up to an 87% higher risk of reoffending at any time compared to youth who did not receive placement in both unmatched (HR = 1.52, 95% CI: 1.11–2.08) and matched (HR= 1.87, 95% CI: 1.23–2.84) samples. We observed a charge-specific association between receiving placement and recidivism. Youth charged with a simple misdemeanor (HR = 2.74; 95% CI: 1.63–4.60) or other charges (HR = 6.60, 95% CI: 1.56–28.00) and received placement were significantly more likely to recidivate compared to those who did not receive placement. These findings contribute to the youth violence literature in the following ways. Chapter two identified the occupations and target populations in need of policies and evidence-based interventions aimed at improving the working conditions for young workers. Chapter three and four supports the continual evaluation of the juvenile justice system to determine the best practices that may reduce violence and recidivism in young offenders.

There is an increasing interest in the life outcomes of youth that are exposed to community violence. Previous research has found that community violence has a direct effect on youth development. It has also shown that there are economic costs for communities that have high levels of community violence. Thus far, the literature on youth in these areas has focused on protective factors such as school connectedness, family connectedness, religion and positive life outcomes. There is little research on the affects of mentoring on life outcomes for individuals that were exposed to community violence during adolescence. This study explores mentoring as a mediating variable that promotes positive life outcomes by analyzing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health studies. A nested multiple regression model was used to evaluate the data. The results show that individuals with mentors are more likely to be civically engaged during young adulthood.