Are Black High School Students More Likely To Feel Unsafe At School?

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

Although the literature on racial group perceptions of school safety is vast, there is a gap in the literature that fails to take into account whether feeling disliked by peers and feeling close to peers influences black students perceptions of their school safety. The focus of this study is to answer the question “Are black students more likely to feel unsafe at school?” This study seeks to address the aforementioned gap by running an ordinal logistic regression using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Major findings from the analysis reveal: every one-unit increase in feeling close to peers increases the students odds of being in a higher category of feeling safe in school by 63.2%, every one-unit increase in feeling disliked by peers in the past week decreases the students odds of being in a higher category of feeling safe in school by 27.4%, and every one-unit increase in feeling that teachers care about students increases the students odds of feeling safe in school by 49.6%. The American school system needs reform, and showcasing these statistics and prevalence rates can help combat racism in classrooms and promote positive school climates.

Author

• Amber Alvarez, Florida State University