Profiles of Student Perceptions of School Climate: Relations With Risk Behaviors and Academic Outcomes

• NCJ Number: 250040
• Journal: American Journal of Community Psychology Volume: 57 Issue: 3-4 Dated: June 2016 Pages: 291-307
• Author(s): K. Shukla; T. Konold; D. Cornell
• Date Published: June 2016
• Length: 17 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2012-JF-FX-0062
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
• Publication Format: Article; Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined within-school heterogeneity among 47,631 high school student ratings of their school climate through multilevel latent class modeling.

Abstract

School climate has been linked to a variety of positive student outcomes, but there may be important within-school differences among students in their experiences of school climate. Student profiles across 323 schools were generated on the basis of multiple indicators of school climate: disciplinary structure, academic expectations, student willingness to seek help, respect for students, affective and cognitive engagement, prevalence of teasing and bullying, general victimization, bullying victimization, and bullying perpetration. Analyses identified four meaningfully different student profile types that were labeled positive climate, medium climate-low bullying, medium climate-high bullying, and negative climate. Contrasts among these profile types on external criteria revealed meaningful differences for race, grade-level, parent education level, educational aspirations, and frequency of risk behaviors. (Publisher abstract modified)