In an effort to better prevent and respond to bullying and cyberbullying, schools are recognizing a need to focus on positive youth development. One often-neglected developmental construct in this ...rubric is resilience, which can help students successfully respond to the variety of challenges they face. Enhancing this internal competency can complement the ever-present efforts of schools as they work to create a safe and supportive learning environment by shaping the external environment around the child. Based on a national sample of 1204 American youth between the ages of 12 and 17, we explore the relationship between resilience and experience with bullying and cyberbullying. We also examine whether resilient youth who were bullied (at school and online) were less likely to be significantly impacted at school. Results show resilience is a potent protective factor, both in preventing experience with bullying and mitigating its effect. Implications for school and community-based interventions are offered.
We estimate the longitudinal effects of charter schools authorized by different authorizing bodies on student achievement by using student-level data from Indiana. The results of our analysis point ...to substantial variation, especially between the state’s two largest authorizers: Ball State University and the Indianapolis Mayor’s Office. Some of the variation is driven by the types of operators these bodies authorize to run charter schools. However, operator effects are not consistent across authorizers, suggesting a more complex story about how authorization affects student achievement. These results point to the ways that public and private interests in charter schools may complicate the work of authorizers and suggest a need for policymakers to offer more guidance in how authorizers carry out their various accountability mandates.
Drinking water instead of beverages with added sugar can help prevent obesity and cavities and promote overall health. Children spend much of their day in school, where they have variable access to ...drinking water. In 2010, federal and state law required California public schools to provide free potable water to students in areas where meals are served and/or eaten. The current study aims to identify factors associated with an excellent drinking water culture in schools.
A qualitative assessment of barriers and facilitators to providing excellent water quality and access in a purposive sample of California schools. In-depth interviews with key informants were conducted using a snowball sampling approach, after which data were analysed using both inductive and deductive methods.
California public elementary, middle/junior and high schools.
Knowledgeable individuals involved in initiatives related to school drinking water accessibility, quality or education at each selected school.
Thirty-four interviewees participated across fifteen schools. Six themes emerged as prominent facilitators to a school's success in providing excellent water access to students: active and engaged champions, school culture and policy, coordination between groups, community influences, available resources and environmentalism.
While policy is an important step for achieving minimum standards, resources and interest in promoting excellence in drinking water access and quality can vary among schools. Ensuring that schools have dedicated staff committed to advancing student health and promoting the benefits of water programs that are more salient to schools could help reduce disparities in drinking water excellence across schools.
Guided by the job demands‐resources model, we examined the multilevel associations between victimization experience with student violence directed against teachers, school climate, and teachers' ...subjective well‐being (i.e., school connectedness and teaching efficacy) among 1711 teachers (7th–12th grade) from 58 middle and high schools in China. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses revealed that teachers who reported more frequent teacher victimization perceived a lower level of teaching efficacy; however, teachers in schools with a higher level of teacher victimization scores at the school level perceived a higher level of teaching efficacy. Although school climate was positively related to teacher well‐being at both teacher and school levels, the negative association between teacher victimization and teachers' subjective well‐being at the teacher level was exacerbated in schools with a more positive school climate at the school level. The significant cross‐level moderating effect of school‐level school climate in the association between teacher‐level victimization and subjective well‐being was consistent with the "healthy context paradox" but contradicted with the "emotion contagion hypothesis.” Our findings support the risk influence of teacher victimization and the promotive role of positive school climate on teachers' subjective well‐being. Our results also indicate that teachers in schools with a more positive and collective perception of school climate tend to be more attuned to the negative influences of teacher victimization on their subjective well‐being than teachers in schools with a less positive and collective perception of school climate.
This article investigates how organizational features of high schools interact with students' ascriptive characteristics to shape opportunities to learn. It advances previous research by examining ...the intersection of students' gender-by-race cohort with their high schools' racial composition on their Grade 12 English track placement in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Using HLM with a sample of seniors, we find that school racial composition has significant effects on the track placement of different race-gender cohorts, and that schools' racial compositions interact with students' ascriptive characteristics in these processes. Net of prior achievement, track placements are influenced by individual and family characteristics, as well as school racial composition. Attending a racially imbalanced school affects students' chances of enrolling in college-prep tracks. Racially balanced high schools offer all students the greatest equality of access to college prep tracks.
The role of school lunches in diet quality has not been well studied. Here, we aimed to determine the contribution of school lunches to overall nutrient intake in Japanese schoolchildren.
The study ...was conducted nationwide under a cross-sectional design. A non-consecutive, three-day diet record was performed on two school days and a non-school day separately. The prevalence of inadequate nutrient intake was estimated for intakes on one of the school days and the non-school day, and for daily habitual intake estimated by the best-power method. The relationship between food intake and nutrient intake adequacy was examined.
Fourteen elementary and thirteen junior high schools in Japan.
Elementary-school children (n 629) and junior high-school children (n 281).
Intakes between the school and non-school days were significantly different for ≥60 % of nutrients. Almost all inadequacies were more prevalent on the non-school day. Regarding habitual intake, a high prevalence of inadequacy was observed for fat (29·9-47·7 %), dietary fibre (18·1-76·1 %) and salt (97·0-100 %). Inadequate habitual intake of vitamins and minerals (except Na) was infrequent in elementary-school children, but was observed in junior high-school children, particularly boys.
School lunches appear to improve total diet quality, particularly intake of most vitamins and minerals in Japanese children. However, excess intakes of fat and salt and insufficient intake of dietary fibre were major problems in this population. The contribution of school lunches to improving the intakes of these three nutrients was considered insufficient.
For many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth, intolerance and prejudice make school a hostile and dangerous place. This study examined simultaneously the effects of a negative school ...climate on achievement and the role that school-based supports-safe school policies, supportive school personnel, and gay-straight alliance (GSA) clubs-may have in offsetting these effects. Data were drawn from a survey of a diverse sample of 5,730 LGBT youths who had attended secondary schools in the United States. Results from structural equation modeling showed that victimization contributed to lower academic outcomes and lower self-esteem; however, school-based supports contributed to lower victimization and better academic outcomes. Moderating effects of supports on esteem and academic outcomes were also examined through hierarchical linear regression. Results suggested that a hostile school climate has serious ramifications for LGBT students but institutional supports can play a significant role in making schools safer for these students.
School transitions require students to adapt to new challenges and situations and can increase the risk of externalizing and internalizing psychological symptoms. The teacher-student relationship ...seems to be a protective factor for the risk of developing psychological symptoms during school transitions. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether the quality of the teacher-student relationship predicts the decrease of internalizing and externalizing symptoms during three school transitions, namely: from kindergarten to primary school (T1), from primary to middle school (T2), and from middle to high school (T3). We recruited 127 kindergarten students (mean age = 5.40, SD = 0.49), 113 fifth grade primary school students (mean age = 10.64, SD = 0.54), and 240 eighth grade students (mean age = 13.88, SD = 0.37) and their teachers (response rate = 95%). Data were collected from 2016 to 2018. Teachers filled out an anonymous survey, acting as informants for the students, reporting demographic details (age, gender), psychological symptoms, and quality of the teacher-student relationship. The data show that a positive teacher-student relationship quality tends to be associated with a reduction of psychological symptoms. A stable, low-conflict teacher-student relationship was confirmed as a protective factor from increased internalizing and externalizing symptoms during all normative school transitions. Furthermore, we see that an increase in teacher-student conflict during the transitions from primary to middle school, and from middle to high school is linked to an exacerbation in students' externalizing symptoms during the first year of attendance of the new school. Our study confirms the importance of the teacher-student relationship in reducing psychological symptoms associated with school transitions, in every type of transition, favoring an improved psychological adjustment to the new environment. A positive teacher-student relationship represents a protective factor for the development of students. Study limitations are discussed.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND
High cannabis use rates among American Indian (AI) adolescents necessitate the identification of factors that protect against early cannabis initiation.
METHODS
Data collected ...from 279 AI middle school students attending reservation‐based schools in 2018 and 2019 were analyzed. Three waves of data, with approximately 6 months between each, were used. A repeated measures latent class analysis examined a school‐related protective factor index over three waves. The predictive power of lifetime cannabis use on school protection class membership was estimated, along with differences in past month cannabis use at follow‐up 2 across school protection classes while holding baseline use constant.
RESULTS
Four school protection classes were identified: high, moderate, low, and declining protection. Abstinence at baseline was associated with an increased odds of membership in the high protection class compared to the moderate and low protection classes. Students with consistent and high school protection throughout middle school were significantly less likely to report past month cannabis use at follow‐up 2 compared to other classes.
IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOL HEALTH POLICY, PRACTICE, AND EQUITY
Maintaining a high level of school protection throughout middle school substantially lowers the odds of cannabis use among AI adolescents.
CONCLUSIONS
Interventions to promote school‐related protective factors in this population are essential and should be designed and tested.
Past research documents that both adolescent gender nonconformity and the experience of school victimization are associated with high rates of negative psychosocial adjustment. Using data from the ...Family Acceptance Project's young adult survey, we examined associations among retrospective reports of adolescent gender nonconformity and adolescent school victimization due to perceived or actual lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) status, along with current reports of life satisfaction and depression. The participants included 245 LGBT young adults ranging in age from 21 to 25 years. Using structural equation modeling, we found that victimization due to perceived or actual LGBT status fully mediates the association between adolescent gender nonconformity and young adult psychosocial adjustment (i.e., life satisfaction and depression). Implications are addressed, including specific strategies that schools can implement to provide safer environments for gender-nonconforming LGBT students.
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