School disconnection and youth violence exposure

Past studies have shown that attachment to school, which includes attitudes towards academics, connection to teachers, or bonding to classmates, predicts school adjustment and achievement (Osterman, 2000) and positive psycho-social functioning (Dornbusch et al., 2001). The data were derived from the 2005 NYC Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), sponsored by Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The questionnaire is part of the Youth Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) and administered to public high schools in all five New York boroughs. The responders were youth from ninth to twelve grades, predominantly Hispanic, African-American, Caucasian, and Asian ethnic backgrounds; and were chosen from the three high risk neighborhoods of the South Bronx, North and Central Brooklyn, and East and Central Harlem. The research variables included ‘connection to school', carrying weapons to school, getting into physical fights, feeling unsafe at school, physical and sexual assaulting in romantic dating. We will illustrate the relationships between school disconnection and violence exposure or violent behaviors using descriptive charts, tests of dependence, and odds-ratio computations. For example, students who were connected to school were less likely to carry a weapon (50.5 < 62.9), and those students who engaged in fights scored slightly higher (19.7 > 16.2) in disconnection to school.