Urban elementary school students' perceptions of fighting behavior and concerns for personal safety.
This study assessed urban elementary school students' experience with weapon carrying and violence, concerns for personal safety, and perceptions of passive and direct interventions in resolving fights. The survey was completed by 1,912 urban students in the fourth and fifth grades. This cross-sectional study found that one in 12 students reported weapon carrying one or more times during the past month. One-third indicated that they would hit peers back if struck by them. One-quarter of students did not feel safe going to or from school, and 23%-43% worried about being physically attacked in or around school. Adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated using logistic regression. Significant associations were found between the independent variables of age, race, gender, and academic success (grades) and the dependent variables of weapon carrying, hitting a peer back, concerns of safety, and passive solutions or direct interventions for peer fighting.
Dept. of Public Health, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606, USA. jprice@utnet.utoledo.edu
James H
JH
Price
Susan K
SK
Telljohann
Joseph A
JA
Dake
Laura
L
Marsico
Christine
C
Zyla
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D015146:Midwestern United States; D010379:Peer Group; D010465:Perception; D012449:Safety; D012931:Social Environment; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014504:Urban Health; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology*