School Climate and
Delinquency
Denise C. Gottfredson
Department of Criminology and
Criminal Justice
University of Maryland
April 21, 2011
This Presentation
Summarize research relating school
environmental factors and
delinquency
 Summarize what is know about the
effectiveness of interventions to
alter school climate
 Next steps for research and practice

What is “School Climate”
“Personality is to the
individual what ‘climate’ is
to the organization” (Halpin
& Croft, 1963)
School-Related Individual
Factors vs. School Factors

Attachment/commitment to school

School performance

Self-control

Association with deviant peers
Research summarized in Gottfredson (2001)
Taxonomy of School
Climate
Inputs
 Ecology
 Milieu
 Social System
 Social organization
 Administration and management
 Culture
 Peer culture
 Sense of community

Adapted from Tagiuri (1968)
ExternallyDetermined
School
Milieu
School-Level
School
Culture
Peer Culture
Sense of
Community
Community
Context
School
Ecology
Individual-Level
Social
System
Social
Organization
Admin./
Management
Individual
Attitudes,
Behaviors
and Beliefs
Problem
Behavior
ExternallyDetermined
School
Milieu
School-Level
School
Culture
Peer Culture
Sense of
Community
Community
Context
School
Ecology
Individual-Level
Social
System
Social
Organization
Admin./
Management
Individual
Attitudes,
Behaviors
and Beliefs
Problem
Behavior
Social Organization

Curricular offerings and organization




Specialized prevention curricula
Time allocated to instruction and to
different content areas
Grouping of students for instruction (e.g.,
tracking)
Attention to student heterogeneity (e.g.,
extra support for low achievers)
Administration and
Management





Discipline management – fairness and
clarity of school rules
Teacher and student shared decisionmaking
Decision-making/problem solving
structures
Strong leadership: establishing a central
mission/clarity of goals
Effective communication
ExternallyDetermined
School
Milieu
School-Level
School
Culture
Peer Culture
Sense of
Community
Community
Context
School
Ecology
Individual-Level
Social
System
Social
Organization
Admin./
Management
Individual
Attitudes,
Behaviors
and Beliefs
Problem
Behavior
Culture
Peer norms/culture
 Sense of community

Cooperative emphasis
 Positive relationships – “ethos of
caring”
 Consensus about norms for behavior
 Expectations/emphasis on academics

History of Research on School
Climate and Delinquency

1970’s: Comparison of school means on
student outcomes demonstrating large
variability in outcomes across schools

Early to Mid 1980’s: refined community
measures, broadened school
characteristics to include important
aspects of social organization, school
culture, and school administration
Safe School Study

1976 national sample of 642 secondary
schools

Extensive data collection: Principal,
teacher, and student surveys

Extensive questioning: victimization
experiences, personal characteristics, and
characteristics of schools

Census data on the school communities
Gottfredson and Gottfredson, 1985
Characteristics Related to Teacher
Victimization Rates: Community and
School Milieu Variables

Input characteristics of the students
and communities in which the
schools were located accounted for
54% and 43% for jr. and sr. high
schools.

Controlling for these characteristics,
characteristics of the schools
accounted for an additional 12% and
18% of variance
School Characteristics Contributing to
Higher Teacher Victimization Rates: School
Administration/Management Variables

Greater use of ambiguous sanctions

Lower perceptions among students
that rule enforcement is firm and
clear (junior high schools)

Less teacher-administration
cooperation (senior high schools)
ExternallyDetermined
School
Milieu
School-Level
School
Culture
Peer Culture
Sense of
Community
Community
Context
School
Ecology
Individual-Level
Social
System
Social
Organization
Admin./
Management
Individual
Attitudes,
Behaviors
and Beliefs
Problem
Behavior
School Characteristics Contributing to
Higher Teacher Victimization Rates: School
Culture Variables



Lower school averages on student
beliefs in the conventional social rules
(sr. high schools)
More punitive teacher attitudes
More democratic attitudes of teachers
(jr. high schools only)
National Study of Delinquency
Prevention in Schools

Intended to describe …


level of crime and disorder
policies and practices currently being
implemented to increase school safety
or reduce disorder
Sampling Design
 Nationally
representative sample
of schools stratified by location
and level
 Probability sample of 1287
schools
 First principal survey in 1997
 Second principal survey, student
and teacher surveys in 1998
Are Safe School Study
Findings Replicated?
To what extent is school disorder
explained by externally determined
characteristics of the school and
community?
 To what extent are perceived
fairness and clarity of rules and
more positive school psycho-social
climates related to school disorder?

Survey Measures
School Disorder
Teacher Victimization
Student Victimization
Student Delinquency
School Climate
Social Climate
Organizational Focus
Morale
Planning
Administrative Leadership
Discipline Management
Fairness of Rules
Clarity of Rules
Teacher
Student
Student
Teacher
Teacher
Teacher
Teacher
Student
Student
Measuring Exogenous
Variables
Exogenous Variable
Description
% Students African-American
Common Core of Data
% Teachers African-American
Self-report from teacher questionnaire
Poverty & Disorganization
Factor score from 1990 Census measures
(welfare, female headed household, median
income, poverty, divorce rate, male and female
unemployment)
Residential Crowding
Factor score from 1990 Census measures
(crowding, foreign household)
Student enrollment
Natural log of enrollment from principal & CCD
Urbanicity
Factor score from 1990 Census measures
(population size, urban level, proportion living in
urban areas)
% students male
Self-report gender from student questionnaire
Grade level
Middle/junior high (0); senior high (1)
Variance in School Disorder
Total R2
Incremental
R2
Student Delinquency
Exogenous Factors only
School Climate Factors
added
.12
.49
.37
.23
.34
.11
.25
.55
.30
Student Victimization
Exogenous Factors only
School Climate Factors
added
Teacher Victimization
Exogenous Factors only
School Climate Factors
added
Structural Model
Teacher
Victimization
Structural Controls
•Percent Students male
Social Climate
•Concentrated
Poverty/AA
•Size and Urbanicity
Student
Delinquency
Discipline
Management
•Residential Crowding
•Grade Level
Student
Victimization
ExternallyDetermined
School
Milieu
School-Level
School
Culture
Peer Culture
Sense of
Community
Community
Context
School
Ecology
Individual-Level
Social
System
Social
Organization
Admin./
Management
Individual
Attitudes,
Behaviors
and Beliefs
Problem
Behavior
School Size and
Student Victimization
Structural Controls
•Community
Concentrated
Disadvantage
•Urbanicity/Mobility
•Racial/Ethnic Student
Composition
•Average Student Age
Student
Enrollment
Personal
Victimization
Student-Teacher
Ratio
Number of
Different Students
Taught
Property
Victimization
School Size and
Student Victimization
Structural Controls
•Urbanicity/Mobility
•Racial/Ethnic Student
Composition
•Average Student Age
-
Personal
Victimization
+
•Community
Concentrated
Disadvantage
Student
Enrollment
Property
Victimization
Student-Teacher
Ratio
Number of
Different Students
Taught
School Culture Mediates
Effect
•Structural Controls
•Community
Concentrated
Disadvantage
•Urbanicity/Mobility
•Racial/Ethnic Student
Composition
•Average Student Age
Student/Teacher
Ratio
Consensus
about Norms
Personal
Victimization
ExternallyDetermined
School
Milieu
School-Level
School
Culture
Peer Culture
Sense of
Community
Community
Context
School
Ecology
Individual-Level
Social
System
Social
Organization
Admin./
Management
Individual
Attitudes,
Behaviors
and Beliefs
Problem
Behavior
Communal Social
Organization (CSO)
Schools in which “…members
know, care about, and support
one another, have common
goals and sense of shared
purpose, and…actively
contribute and feel personally
committed” (Solomon et al.,
1997)
Does CSO Influence School
Disorder?

Do schools with higher levels of
communal school organization have
lower levels of school disorder?

If so, is the effect of communal
school organization on school
disorder mediated by student
bonding?
Measurement Model:
School Factors
Communal
School
Organization
Supportive
Relations
Common
Goals
& Norms
Student
Bonding
Attachment
Belief
Commitment
Effects of CSO
Structural Controls
•Percent Students male
•Concentrated
Poverty/AA
•Size and Urbanicity
•Residential Crowding
•Grade Level
Communal School
Organization
Student
Bonding
Student
Delinquency
Cross-level interactions?
Does CSO interact with student
bonding such that student
bonding has less of an effect on
delinquency in schools that are
more communally organized?
CSO Influences Individuallevel Associations
The relationship between bonding
and delinquency is influenced by
CSO:
Attachment and belief have less
effect on delinquency in higher
CSO schools
ExternallyDetermined
School
Milieu
School-Level
School
Culture
Peer Culture
Sense of
Community
Community
Context
School
Ecology
Individual-Level
Social
System
Social
Organization
Admin./
Management
Individual
Attitudes,
Behaviors
and Beliefs
Problem
Behavior
Lessons from School
Shootings
Source: National Research Council
and Institute of Medicine. (2003)
Deadly Lessons: Understanding
Lethal School Violence. Case Studies
of School Violence Committee.
Washington DC: The National
Academies Press.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10370#toc
Characteristics of the
Communities

Gulf between youth culture and
adults
Shooters intensely concerned about
status and protecting themselves –
they mistrusted others in the school
 Adults had poor understanding of
children’s experiences
 Shooters felt there was “nowhere to
turn”
 Specific warnings given and missed

School Climate and Delinquency -Important Dimensions

Social System
 Social organization (social climate,
student/tchr ratio, # students
taught)
 School and discipline management

Culture
 Sense of community
Mean Effect Sizes: Individual
vs. Environmental Change
Effect Size
All interventions
All individually focused
interventions
All environmentally
focused interventions
Outcome
Mean†
Min
Max
N‡
Crime
-0.02
-0.67
0.41 33
Anti-Soc.
0.20*
-0.59
1.62 58
AOD
0.03*
-0.44
0.54 68
Crime
0.24*
-0.16
0.65 12
Anti-Soc.
0.14*
-0.86
0.57 21
AOD
0.13*
-0.23
0.40 20
Source: Gottfredson, Wilson, and Najaka (2002)
* p < 0.05
† Inverse variance weighted mean effect size (random effects model).
‡ Number of effect sizes contributing to the analysis.
ExternallyDetermined
School
Milieu
School-Level
School
Culture
Peer Culture
Sense of
Community
Community
Context
School
Ecology
Individual-Level
Social
System
Social
Organization
Admin./
Management
Individual
Attitudes,
Behaviors
and Beliefs
Problem
Behavior
Mean Effect Size: Changing
Social Organization
Effect Size
Environmentally focused
intervention
Outcome
Mean†
Min
Max
N‡
Reorganization of grades or
classes
Crime
0.24*
0.23
0.36
2
Anti-Soc.
0.23*
0.23
0.23
2
Source: Gottfredson, Wilson, and Najaka (2002) * p < 0.05; † Inverse variance weighted mean effect size (random
effects model)., ‡ Number of effect sizes contributing to the analysis.
ExternallyDetermined
School
Milieu
School-Level
School
Culture
Peer Culture
Sense of
Community
Community
Context
School
Ecology
Individual-Level
Social
System
Social
Organization
Admin./
Management
Individual
Attitudes,
Behaviors
and Beliefs
Problem
Behavior
Mean Effect Size: Changing
Administration/Management
Environmentally focused
interventions
School discipline and
management interventions
Effect Size
Outcome
Mean†
Min
Max
N‡
Crime
0.27*
0.12
0.65
5
Anti-Soc.
0.13
-0.10
0.37
6
AOD
0.24*
0.15
0.33
2
Source: Gottfredson, Wilson, and Najaka (2002) * p < 0.05; † Inverse variance weighted mean effect size (random
effects model)., ‡ Number of effect sizes contributing to the analysis.
ExternallyDetermined
School
Milieu
School-Level
School
Culture
Peer Culture
Sense of
Community
Community
Context
School
Ecology
Individual-Level
Social
System
Social
Organization
Admin./
Management
Individual
Attitudes,
Behaviors
and Beliefs
Problem
Behavior
Mean Effect Size: Changing
School Culture
Effect Size
Environmentally focused
interventions
Outcome
Mean†
Interventions to establish
norms or expectations for
behavior
AOD
0.09
Min
Max
N‡
-0.23
0.31
12
Source: Gottfredson, Wilson, and Najaka (2002) * p < 0.05; † Inverse variance weighted mean effect size (random
effects model)., ‡ Number of effect sizes contributing to the analysis.
Final Recommendations – For
Research
Additional research needed to
experimentally test school climate
interventions – especially
“communal social organization”
 Research needed to understand how
school climate influences the
effectiveness of individual-level
school-based prevention efforts

Final Recommendations –
For Practice

Improve school climate, especially
Build stronger bonds between adults
and youths
 Promote consensus about norms for
behavior
 Enhance communication
 Promote fair and clear rule enforcement

Thank You!
 Denise
C. Gottfredson
Department of Criminology and
Criminal Justice
 University of Maryland

301-405-4717
 gott@umd.edu

References

Cook, Gottfredson, & Na (2010). School Crime Control and
Prevention. In Tonry, M. (ed). Crime and Justice: A Review of
Research.

Gottfredson, D. C. (2001). Schools and Delinquency. New York:
Cambridge University Press.

Gottfredson, D. C. and DiPietro, S. M. (2011). School Size,
Social Capital, and Student Victimization Sociology of Education,
84 (1), 69-89.

Gottfredson, D. C. & Gottfredson, G. D. (2002). Quality of
School-Based Prevention Programs: Results from a National
Survey. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 39, 1, 335.
References, Continued

Gottfredson, D. C. & Wilson, D. B. (2003). Characteristics of
Effective School-Based Substance Abuse Prevention. Prevention
Science, 4, 27-38.

Gottfredson, D. C., Wilson, D. B., & Najaka, S. S. (2002).
School-based crime prevention. In Sherman, L. W., Farrington,
D. P., Welsh, B. C., & MacKenzie, D. L. (eds.). Evidence-Based
Crime Prevention. London, UK: Routledge.

Gottfredson, G. D., & Gottfredson, D. C. (1985). Victimization in
schools. New York: Plenum.

Gottfredson, G. D., Gottfredson, D. C., Czeh, E. R., Cantor, D.,
Crosse, S. B. and Hantman, I. (2004). Research in Brief:
Toward Safe and Orderly Schools: The National Study of
Delinquency Prevention in Schools. Washington, D.C.: U.S.
Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National
Institute of Justice.
References, Continued

Gottfredson, G. D., Gottfredson, D. C., Payne, A. A., and
Gottfredson, N. C. (2005). School Climate Predictors of School
Disorder: Results from the National Study of Delinquency
Prevention in Schools. Journal of Research in Crime and
Delinquency, 42, (4), 412-444.

Payne, A. A., Gottfredson, D. C., and Gottfredson, G. D. (2003).
Schools as Communities: The Relationship among Communal
School Organization, Student Bonding, and School Disorder.
Criminology, 41, 749-778.

Payne, A. A. (2008). A multilevel analysis of the relationships
among communal school organization, student bonding, and
delinquency. Journal of Research on Crime and Delinquency, 45,
4, 429-455.

Wilson, D. B., Gottfredson, D. C., & Najaka, S. S. (2001).
School-based prevention of problem behaviors: A meta-analysis.
Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 17(3), 247-272.