Perceptions of school violence as a problem and reports of violent events: a national survey of school social workers.
Awareness of violence as a problem is important in developing school-based interventions to reduce violence. How would social workers who reported a potentially lethal event in their schools within the past year rate the seriousness of the problem in their schools? What variables would be associated with the perception of a serious violence problem in a school? These questions were explored in a national survey of school social workers. The results suggest that school social workers did not perceive violence as a serious problem on the basis of a single event even when the event was life threatening. From a zero-tolerance perspective, school violence as a problem was underestimated in all community settings but more often in suburban and rural settings than in inner-city or urban settings. The social workers' perception of a serious problem was contingent on the presence of multiple types of violence and the community setting of the school.
Astor
R A
RA
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48109, USA. rastor@umich.edu
Behre
W J
WJ
Fravil
K A
KA
Wallace
J M
JM
D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012574:Schools; D012940:Social Problems; D012947:Social Work; D014481:United States; D014754:Violence