Fight, Flight, or Skipping Class: What Predicts Fear and Avoidance Behaviors in the Face of School Violence?

Abstract

School violence is the threat or act of violence that occurs on school property, on the way to and from school, or at school-sanctioned events. It includes things like bullying and cyberbullying, hate speech, and in extreme cases, school shootings. Research suggests that both the experience of and concerns about school violence are associated with increased internalizing disorders (i.e., depression and anxiety), poorer academic performance, and the development of chronic conditions later in life. In addition to fear, children may avoid certain locations at school, or school altogether, if they feel they might be attacked or harmed. Children who feel fear or exhibit avoidance behaviors are more likely to carry a weapon with them to school. This project sought to identify predictors of fear and avoidance that might help identify particularly vulnerable groups who may benefit from intervention. The 2022 School Crime Supplement (SCS) data were utilized to test the hypotheses, and a Bayesian zero-inflated Poisson regression model was fit to the data due to the high number of students who reported no fear or no avoidance behaviors during the past school-year. A greater number of bullying experiences were found to be associated with both an increased number of avoidance behaviors and level of fear as well as higher odds of reporting any avoidance behaviors or fear. More frequent bullying was associated with an increased number of avoidance behaviors only. Private school attendance was associated with 2.2-2.9 times higher odds of reporting zero avoidance behaviors and zero fear compared to public school attendance. There was a small effect of household income such that higher income was associated with fewer avoidance behaviors and a lower level of fear. Lastly, males were found to be 15 less likely to report any level of fear compared to females. Consistent with prior literature, bullying victimization was associated with both increased avoidance and fear; additionally, this study found small associations between income and both outcomes and between sex and level of fear. The effect of private school attendance might be explained by the small sample of private school students in this dataset, so future work should oversample this group to learn more about their specific experiences. While this project lays the groundwork for identifying vulnerable groups, qualitative work is needed to understand how students conceptualize avoidance and fear, with the ultimate goal of designing a scale to measure these constructs.