Relationships Between Teacher Support, Informal Social Control and Students’ Perceptions of Safety

Mowry, David T.

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/113560 Copy

Description

Title

Relationships Between Teacher Support, Informal Social Control and Students’ Perceptions of Safety

Author(s)

Mowry, David T.

Issue Date

2020

Keyword(s)

• Safety
• Middle School
• Mental Health

Abstract

Background: Despite the efforts of schools and their communities to impose new policies to protect their students, students continue to report high levels of concerns about being attacked in certain school settings (Lenzi, et. al., 2017). Unlike looking at risk factors in past studies, this study was to focus on protective correlates. Informal social control is defined as teachers intervening in cases such as bullying or assault. It is hypothesized that higher levels of teacher support and informal social control leads to higher perceptions of safety in students. Methods: 316 sixth grade students (52.9% female) were included in the study. Their ages ranged from 11 to 13 years (M= 11.66, SD= 0.51). These students were from a large public middle school in the United States. The study measured perception of safety and scales of teacher support and informal social control. Bivariate correlations and multivariate regression were conducted to identify the significance of the relationships between teacher support/informal social control and student safety perceptions.Results: Teacher support and informal social control were both positively correlated with the perceptions of student’s safety. Though regression analyses, Teacher support (B= 0.26, p< .01) and informal social control (B=0.15, p<.01) were both associated with the perceptions and feelings of safety in the students. Discussion: These results highlight the importance of new policies that give teachers the tools and knowledge to help and protect students both at school and within their communities. Further exploration is needed to continue to make students feel safe and accepted during their education.

Publisher

University of Illinois School of Social Work

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/113560

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2020 David T. Mowry

Owning Collections