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Children's perceptions of school‐based violence
Author(s) -
Gumpel Thomas P.,
Meadan Hedda
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
british journal of educational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.557
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 2044-8279
pISSN - 0007-0998
DOI - 10.1348/000709900158191
Subject(s) - psychology , respondent , perception , psychological intervention , developmental psychology , intervention (counseling) , human factors and ergonomics , sample (material) , poison control , medicine , psychiatry , chemistry , environmental health , chromatography , neuroscience , political science , law
Background. An important first step in understanding school‐based violence is understanding children's subjective perceptions of the phenomena. Understanding these perceptions is likely to be a major factor in determining the integrity of both prevalence and intervention studies. Aims. We investigated how elementary and secondary aged children perceived school‐based violence. Sample. A sample of 979 children from a nested random sample of elementary (grades 3‐6) and middle school (grades 7‐8) classrooms in Jerusalem participated in this study. Methods. To understand children's perception of school violence, we used an instrument composed of 19 dichotomous items, each presenting a one‐line description of a behaviour, which the respondent would define as either ‘ intentionally harmful’ or not. Results. Eighth graders were significantly less likely to label the behaviours described as violent compared to all other grades; and seventh graders were less likely as compared to third, fourth and fifth graders; also, some between‐gender differences were found. Conclusion. The respondents often view the behaviours described as intentional and aggressive; this finding should serve as an impetus to widen the scope of school‐based violence interventions to include these behaviours, especially for younger children.