ASSESSMENT OF VIOLENCE AND OTHER HIGH-RISK BEHAVIORS WITH A SCHOOL SURVEY

This study reports the results of a school safety survey administered to 10,909 7th-, 9th-, and 11 th-grade students in a Virginia suburban school district. The survey assesses attitudes toward aggressive behav ior and high-risk behaviors including weapon carrying, fighting, and s ubstance use. Analyses of statistical significance and effect size ind icated that the elimination of surveys judged to be invalid substantia lly reduced the reported incidence of ail forms of high-risk behavior; although boys reported more high-risk behavior than girls, more than 10% of girls reported high-risk behavior including fighting, substance use, and carrying weapons at school within a 30-day period; aggressiv e attitudes and gang membership were linked to high-risk behaviors; an d there was strong correspondence between high-risk behaviors at schoo l and outside of school, but tower frequencies at school than outside of school. These results have implications for future use of school su rveys and identification of students likely to engage in high-risk beh avior.