School and Community Correlates of Interpersonal Violence among High School Students

Objective: This study adds to the existing literature on adolescent interpersonal violence by examining the impact of school-climate, school composition, and community composition, on rates of victimization and perpetration among high school students. Method: Using a sample of 3,404 high school students and 1,150 school staff from 25 schools in New England, we examined how data from school staff, the Department of Education, the U.S. Census, and students, related to interpersonal violence. Results: Multilevel models showed that higher rates of staff reactive intentions to intervene in violence were related to lower rates of harassment and dating violence, whereas higher rates of staff proactive intentions were related to higher rates of dating violence perpetration. Higher rates of staff readiness to address violence were associated with lower rates of all forms of interpersonal violence victimization and perpetration. Larger student populations were associated with higher rates of sexual assault victimization, dating violence victimization, and dating violence perpetration. Larger proportions of girls in schools were related to lower rates of dating violence perpetration. Schools located in towns with higher population densities had higher rates of harassment victimization, sexual assault victimization, dating violence victimization, and dating violence perpetration. Individual-level factors including age, gender, race, and sexual identity were also associated with interpersonal violence. Conclusion: Efforts to address interpersonal violence among students should focus on increasing staff readiness to address violence and reactive intentions among staff to intervene in violence. School and community composition should be considered when creating prevention efforts to reduce interpersonal violence among students.