A Multilevel Latent Class Analysis of Adolescent Engagement in Interpersonal Violence: The Role of Stressful Life Events, School Climate, and School Characteristics

Abstract

Objective: Little is known about the role of school-level factors in adolescent violence. Using multilevel latent class analysis, we identified groups of adolescents and schools based on adolescent involvement in violent behaviors and assessed how these group memberships differed by individual and school characteristics.

Method: We used baseline data from a randomized controlled trial of a school-based violence prevention program. Participants included 2,768 adolescents (Mean_age=13 years) enrolled in 7^th grade across 24 public schools in southeast Texas.

Results: We identified three classes of adolescents, including a Non-violent class (74.5%), a Moderately Violent class (20.0%), and a Highly Violent class (5.4%). Adolescents in the latter two classes reported more stressful life events and less positive student-to-teacher relationships than their peers in the Non-Violent Class. Two school-level classes were also identified: Moderate Risk Schools in which the Non-violent adolescent class was the majority, and High-Risk Schools, which consisted mainly of Highly and Moderately Violent classes. Schools with larger sizes were more likely to fall in the High-Risk Schools class. Class memberships did not significantly vary based on student-to-student relationship, awareness of the need for reporting violent incidents, or % of economically disadvantaged students in schools.

Conclusions: To better address youth violence, schools should provide supports to buffer the negative impact of stressful life events and foster positive teacher-student relationships. Furthermore, given a disproportionate number of high risk students are in larger schools, school size should be considered a risk factor for aggression.

Keywords: adolescents; multilevel latent class analysis; school characteristics; stressful life events; violent behaviors.