Students' personal traits, violence exposure, family factors, school dynamics and the perpetration of violence in Taiwanese elementary schools

Abstract

School violence has become an international problem affecting the well-being of students. To date, few studies have examined how school variables mediate between personal and family factors and school violence in the context of elementary schools in Asian cultures. Using a nationally representative sample of 3122 elementary school students in Taiwan, this study examined a theoretical model proposing that negative personal traits, exposure to violence and parental monitoring knowledge have both direct influences as well as indirect influences mediated through school engagement, at-risk peers and poor student-teacher relationships on school violence committed by students against students and teachers. The results of a structural equation modeling analysis provided a good fit for the sample as a whole. The final model accounted for 32% of the variance for student violence against students and 21% for student violence against teachers. The overall findings support the theoretical model proposed in this study. Similar findings were obtained for both male and female students. The study indicated that to reduce school violence more effectively in the context of elementary schools, intervention may exclusively focus on improving students' within-school experiences and the quality of the students' relationships with teachers and school peers.