Urban African American Youth and Their Caregivers’ Perceptions of School Safety in Chicago

• Published date: 01 April 2018
• Date: 01 April 2018
• DOI: 10.1177/1541204016680406
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Urban African American

Youth and Their Caregivers’

Perceptions of School Safety

in Chicago: A Social-Ecological

Perspective

Jun Sung Hong

1,2

, Dexter R. Voisin

3

, and Jungup Lee

4

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine multiple factors related to school safety perceptions of

youth and parents. Study sample consisted of 131 low-income, urban African American youth an d

their parents. Females were more likely to perceive their school as unsafe. Parents who were

close to their child reported schools as safe. Both youth and parents perceived school as safe

when youth has a positive relationship with teachers. Youth whose school was far from their

neighborhood reported feeling safe. Neighborhood satisfaction was associated with school safety

perceptions among youth. Community violence exposure was related to school safety percep-

tions among parents.

Keywords

African American, community, school safety, social-ecological perspective, youth

Violent crimes in schools have reportedly decreased in the past two decades. However, other

misbehavior such as bullying, harassment, and threats remain serious concerns (Robers, Zhang,

Morgan, & Musu-Gillette, 2015), which can impact how students perceive their schools. According

to a nationwide survey of school districts between 1995 and 2013, the percentage of students who

reported feeling unsafe in their school decreased from 12%to 3%(Robers et al., 2015). However, the

survey also found that higher percentages of African American and Hispanic/Latino students

reported perceiving their schools to be unsafe compared to their European American counterparts

(Robers et al., 2015). Likewise, students in school located in urban areas are more likely to perceive

their school environment to be unsafe than are students in rural or suburban areas (Robers et al.,

1

School of Social Work, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

2

Department of Social Welfare, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, Seoul, Korea

3

School of Social Service Administration, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

4

College of Social Work, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Jun Sung Hong, School of Social Work, Wayne State University, 5447 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, MI 48202, USA.

Email: fl4684@skku.edu

Youth Violence and JuvenileJustice

2018, Vol. 16(2) 174-189

ªThe Author(s) 2016

Reprints and permission:

sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav

DOI: 10.1177/1541204016680406

journals.sagepub.com/home/yvj

2015). For urban, African American youth, perceptions of their school environments may be influ-

encedbylackofresources,disorganization,crime, and violence occurring daily in their

communities.

Schools are one of the primary institutions t hat exert a tremendous amount of influence on

youths’ academics, behavior, and interpersonal relations. There are expectations that schools func-

tion to prepare and provide youth with the needed skills to fully integrate into society. How youth

perceive their schools can have a major impact on their academic perform ances and how they

behave and socialize with their friends, peers, and adult figures (Wang & Holcombe, 2010). Not

surprisingly, students’ fear of crime and violence in a school interferes with their academic perfor-

mance and achievement. Such fear can interfere with students’ psychological engagement in school

and undermine their confidence in their ability to meet demands and challenges in school (Bowen &

Bowen, 1999). Studies have also shown that threat of crime and violence in school is predictive of

school refusal behavior and frequent absenteeism (Astor, Benbenishty, Zeira, & Vinokur, 2002;

Dube & Orpinas, 2009).

An accumulated body of research has highlighted the importance of assessing children and

adolescents’ school perceptions in the face of family-, school-, and neighborhood-level stressors

from a racially and ethnically diverse sample (Hong & Eamon, 2012; Hong et al., 2016; Shumow &

Lomax, 2001). Indeed, scholars have made significant progress in advancing our understanding of

youths’ school perceptions. However, little is known specifically about factors are associated with

perceptions of school safety among African American youth and their caregivers in urban areas with

a disproportionate rate of crime and violence. Understanding caregivers’ perceptions of their child’s

schools is important because parental involvement is recognized as vital components of violence

prevention and school safety (Dake, Price, & Telljohann, 2003). Their perceptions may influence

their willingness to be involved in advocating for safer schools and forming more collaborative

partnerships with teachers. They can also encourage involvement in their children’s education and

promotion of motivation, success, graduation, and eventually college attendance. Examining Afri-

can American adolescents and their parents’ perceptions of school safety is critical because youth

who fail in school are at an elevated risk of school-to-prison pipeline (Alexander, 2012).

To address these research gaps, a social-ecological perspective is applied to examine individual

and contextual factors that may correlate with low-income, urban African American adolescents and

parents’ perceptions of school safety. More specifically, the present study aims to explore

individual-, family-, school-, and community-level factors that are related to school safety percep-

tions of low-income, urban African American adolescents and their caregivers.

Social-Ecological Perspective

A social-ecological perspective underscores th e importance of understanding the confluence of

multiple factors, such as individual, family, school, and community that shape youths’ perceptions

of their school environments. According to the social-ecological perspective, individual attitudes,

behaviors, and perceptions are influenced by a range of factors from those that are proximal to the

individual, such as biological (e.g., age, gender/biological sex, race/ethnicity) and sociodemo-

graphic characteristics (e.g., family socioeconomic status [SES]), to those that are broader in scope

(e.g., culture).

Individual Context

Individual-level characteristics such as age, sex, and SES may affect youths’ school perceptions.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S. Department of Justice revealed that a higher percentage

of younger students in public schools reported being afraid of being attacked or harmed compared to

Hong et al. 175