School Violence Case Study

Parental Education Levels and Children’s School Violence In this section, the links between parental education levels and their children’s violent behavior at school will be discussed.

School Violence. Adolescents who are exposed to fighting in the home and neighborhood are more likely to engage in fighting at school (Franke, Huynh-Hohnbaum & Chung, 2002). A study by Knous-Westfall et al. (2012) reported that children exposed to parental IPV actually learn that violence is an effective way to deal with conflict. Witnessing the violence makes the children more likely to display aggressive behavior (Morcillo et al., 2015). Franke, Huynh-Hohnbaum and Chung (2002) found that risk factors of violent behavior among school children included poverty,

Men and women who are abused as children are more likely to grow up as abusers themselves. Studies show that both men and women who experience parental violence have higher levels of violence perpetration (Kaura & Allen, 2004). Child abuse, IPV, parental divorce, substance abuse and lack of social support are all linked to an increased risk of aggressive behavior and violence for both men and women (Lewis & Fremouw,

A study by Hotaling and Sugarman (1986) found that fathers’ education attainment level predicted the likeliness of violence perpetration. The highest rate of violence is reported by men with a high school education. Also, men who had been exposed to family violence as children and possessed fewer educational and economic resources were more like to perpetrate violence (Hotaling & Sugarman, 1986). Low parental education significantly increased the likelihood of male youth violence perpetration and childhood sexual abuse (Fang & Corso, 2007). Additionally, low parental education increased the risk for young boys to perpetrate partner violence and young girls to be victimized (Fang & Corso, 2007).

A Focus on Mothers and Daughters. Socialization theory addresses that the mother is a major socialization agent, especially for young girls. This is due to gender identity and mothers being the primary agents of socialization (Elliott et al., 2002). In general family poverty and low levels of parental education significantly increase the risk of perpetrating youth violence for females (Fang & Corso, 2007). Signs such as youth violence perpetration, physical abuse and childhood neglect are major predictors for female violence perpetrators (Fang & Corso,