From Victimization to Vulnerability: Emotional Support, Gender, and the Psychological Consequences of School Violence

• In Event: Health, Well-being, and Emotions

Abstract

Recent increases in school violence have intensified public concern about student safety and well-being. While prior research consistently demonstrates that victimization heightens fear of crime and perceptions of unsafety, less is known about how victimization independently shapes broader indicators of student well-being, or whether relational resources mitigate these effects. Drawing on fear-of-crime scholarship and the stress-buffering model of social support, this study examines the independent influence of school-based victimization on students’ psychological well-being and perceptions of safety, the moderating role of emotional support, and variation by gender. Using statewide data from the Delaware School Survey, multivariate regression models assess the direct effects of victimization and test interaction terms between victimization and emotional support. Findings are expected to show that victimization is negatively associated with well-being and positively associated with perceived unsafety. However, consistent with stress-buffering theory, emotional support attenuates these harmful effects, serving as a protective factor for victimized students. Gender-stratified analyses further explore whether these associations differ for male and female students. This study advances scholarship on school safety beyond structural security measures and highlights the importance of emotional resources in shaping how students experience and interpret violence. The findings have implications for sociological understandings of vulnerability, resilience, and the production of safety in educational contexts.

Author

• Gift Onwuadiamu, University of Delaware