Schools as Communities: The Relationships Among Communal School Organization, Student Bonding, and School Disorder

Research has identified several characteristics of schools and communities related to school disorder that may be manipulated in efforts to reduce these problems. This study supported by U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention focused on two of these predictors of disorder: the social organization and level of student bonding in a school. Data from a nationally representative sample of 254 public, non-alternative, secondary schools were used to examine structural equation models representing hypothesized relationships among communal school organization, student bonding, and school disorder. The study hypothesized that schools that are more communally organized will have lower levels of school disorder and that the relationship between communal school organization and school disorder will be mediated by student bonding. Both hypotheses were supported. However, schools that were more communally organized did experience less disorder, but the effects were small and statistically significant only for the measure of student delinquency. Also, levels of student bonding did mediate the relationship between communal school organization and student delinquency, but not the relationship between communal school organization and teacher victimization. The findings on the positive effects of communal organization have great potential for school-based delinquency prevention. Study limitations are presented and discussed with a recommendation for future research in the exploration of the relationships among the elements of communal school organization. References