PARENTS AND ADOLESCENTS PERCEPTIONS OF SAFETY IN SCHOOL: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

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• PARENTS AND ADOLESCENTS PERCEPTIONS OF SAFETY
  IN SCHOOL A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
• MCH Epidemiology Conference
• December 7, 2005
• Catherine Vladutiu, Talia Engelhart, Mary D.
  Overpeck, Denise Haynie,
• William Modzeleski
• U.S. Department of Health Human Services
• Health Resources and Services Administration
• Maternal and Child Health Bureau
• Office of Data and Program Development
• National Institute of Child Health Human
  Development
• Division of Epidemiology, Statistics, and
  Prevention Research
• U.S. Department of Education
• Office of Safe Drug Free Schools

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OBJECTIVES

• To describe the differences in the ways parents
  and students perceive safety in school
• To measure differences in perceptions by age,
  race ethnicity, gender, parental education, and
  urbanicity

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HYPOTHESES

• Parents perceive their childrens schools are
  safer than students believe their schools to be
• Age, gender, race ethnicity, parental
  education, and urbanicity will be associated with
  the differences in perceptions of safety.

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BACKGROUND

• School safety is a critical component of
  education, social development, and general
  well-being
• School safety (absence of) any threat to a
  students well being that could result from human
  action, which may be self-inflicted or imposed by
  others1
• School safety is associated with bullying,
  fighting, and weapon carrying in school

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SCHOOL VIOLENCE
2002 http//www.keystosaferschools.com/Map_School
_Shootings.htm
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BACKGROUND

• Studies have shown students feel unsafe at
  school, fear being hurt, and skip school to avoid
  violence 1,2,3,4,5
• Adolescents often perceive safety in school in
  terms of safety in community
• Studies have shown parents believe their children
  are safe, but not much is known about how much
  they know about safety in school 6,7,8

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LITERATURE REVIEW

• Age
• Older students are less likely to feel safe1,2
• Race Ethnicity
• Race has not been shown to be a significant
  factor in school safety8, 14 Hispanic and NH
  Black students are more likely to miss school
  from feeling unsafe and more likely to be
  threatened at school
• Gender
• Boys feel less safe than girls6, 7,11
• Urbanicity
• Few children feel safe in urban schools1,2,3,13
• Parental Education
• Not widely measured in the current literature7, 8

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BACKGROUND

• Safety perceptions are important because
• Students perceptions may help to deter or
  promote negative behavior
• Parents perceptions may influence their
  willingness to support prevention efforts
• Teachers perceptions may influence when/how they
  are willing to intervene

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RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• Are there differences between parents and
  students perceptions of safety?
• Are there differences in perceptions of safety by
  age, gender, race ethnicity, parental
  education, and urbanicity?

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DATA SOURCES

• Health Behaviors in School-Aged Children (HBSC)
  (2001/2002)
• After exclusion of missing responses and children
  
• Measures
• Students perception of safety
• Age
• Gender
• Race ethnicity
• Urbanicity
• Parental education

• National Survey of Childrens Health (NSCH)
  (2003)
• After exclusion of missing responses and children
  
• Measures
• Parental perception of safety
• Childs age
• Childs gender
• Childs race ethnicity
• Urbanicity
• Parental education

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MEASURES- HBSC

• Perceptions of school safety
• Students reported their level of agreement with
  the following statement I feel safe at school.
  Responses were classified on a five-point scale
  as either
• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

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MEASURES- HBSC

• Age (self-reported)
• Gender (self-reported)
• Race ethnicity
• Responses were combined into 5 categories
  Non-Hispanic White, Non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic,
  Multiple races (student endorsed more than one
  race), and other races.
• Urbanicity
• Three categories of urbanicity were used urban
  (city), suburban (near a large city) and rural
  (not near a large city).
• Parental Education
• Students reported parent education separately for
  mothers and fathers, with the highest level of
  education selected less than 12 years, 12 years,
  or more than 12 years of education.

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MEASURES-NSCH

• Perceptions of school safety
• Parents or guardians reported perceptions of
  their childs safety by responding to the
  following question How often do you feel
  he/she (child) is safe at school? Responses
  included
• Never
• Sometimes
• Usually or Always
• Dont know
• Refused

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MEASURES-NSCH

• Age (parental report of child)
• Gender (parental report of child)
• Race ethnicity
• Responses were combined into 5 categories
  Non-Hispanic White, Non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic,
  Multiple (parents who endorsed more than one
  race), and other races.
• Urbanicity
• Parents reported their zip codes and were
  categorized into urban, suburban and rural
  classifications.
• Parental education
• Parents reported their education level by
  responding to a question asking for the highest
  level of education attained in the household
  less than 12 years, 12 years, or more than 12
  years of education.

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METHODS

• Prevalence
• Risk Ratios

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DEMOGRAPHICS
Age (HBSC)
Age (NSCH)
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DEMOGRAPHICS
Gender
Race Ethnicity
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DEMOGRAPHICS
Parental Education
Urbanicity
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SAFETY PERCEPTIONS
HBSC
NSCH
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RESULTS -Age

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RESULTS -Age
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RESULTS -Age

• Students
• 16 year olds were significantly more likely to
  feel unsafe than 11-14 year olds 3 times as
  likely as 11 year olds RR 0.98 (0.84-1.14)
• Younger students felt safer at school (43.9)
• Parents
• Age was not a factor for parental perceptions of
  safety among those who felt their child was never
  safe at school (no increased risk in feeling safe
  or unsafe)
• Parents of younger children felt their children
  were more safe at school (61.6) than older
  children (45.4)

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RESULTS -Gender

• Students
• Boys were twice as likely to feel unsafe at
  school than girls
• Parents
• No significant differences in response by childs
  gender

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RESULTS Race Ethnicity

• Students
• Non-Hispanic black students reported feeling the
  least safe (12.2) they were significantly more
  likely and at a higher risk of feeling less safe
  than other groups (RR1.13)
• Non-Hispanic White students reported feeling the
  safest at school (32.1)
• Parents
• Parents of Hispanic children felt their child was
  the least safe (6.2)

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RESULTS -Urbanicity

• Students
• Students living in urban areas were less likely
  to feel safe (25.1)
• Parents
• No significant differences in safety perceptions
  by urbanicity suburban and rural parents felt
  their children were slightly more safe than urban
  parents

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RESULTS -Parental Education

• Students
• Students with parents who completed more than 12
  years of education were more likely to feel safe
• Students with parents with were at a higher risk of feeling unsafe (RR1.05)
• Parents
• As years of parental education increased, parents
  were less likely to feel their child was unsafe
  at school, but not more likely to feel their
  child was always safe

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LIMITATIONS

• Data from two different sources
• Year of data collection
• Sample size
• Validity of self report
• Framing of safety perception questions
  (categorization)

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SUMMARY

• Parents do not have the same fear regarding their
  childrens safety that students have
• As children aged, they felt less safe at school
• Gender illustrated a greater gap between boys and
  girls perceptions of safety (boys felt less safe)

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SUMMARY

• Students perceptions were more influenced by
  race than those of the parents (NH Black students
  felt less safe)
• Urbanicity status was associated with safety
  perceptions among students more so than among
  parents urban students felt less safe
• Parental education uniformly affected both
  students and parents perceptions higher
  parental education feeling safer in school

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PUBLIC HEALTH IMPLICATIONS

• Feeling unsafe at school is prevalent among
  students (40) and may contribute to greater
  school absence, social conflicts, and low
  self-esteem
• Parental awareness of how safe their children are
  at school is critical to the promotion of
  policies and programs aimed at improving school
  safety the lack of awareness may prevent the
  implementation of effective change in schools
• Unsafe schools perpetuate fear and anger instead
  of learning which may lead to negative physical,
  psychological, and social well-being

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NEXT STEPS

• Further research and policy changes based on
  studies like this can minimize the gap between
  parental and student perceptions to ensure a
  safer environment
• Future analyses should investigate the
  perceptions of parents and their actual children
  within one study as well as examine safety
  perceptions among school officials and educators
• School safety questions should be included in
  future surveys and should include specific items
  that may provide students reasons for their
  perception of safety

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CONTACT INFORMATION

• Catherine Vladutiu, MPH
• HRSA/Maternal and Child Health Bureau
• Office of Data Program Development
• 5600 Fishers Lane, Room 18-46
• Rockville, MD 20857
• T [phone]
• cvladutiu_at_hrsa.gov
• For more information www.hrsa.gov
• HRSA Bullying Campaign www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.g
  ov

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