Impacts of the School Context on Victimization in a Sample of Chinese Adolescents: A Multilevel Approach

Abstract

Although the impacts of the school context on victimization in adolescents are well researched in Western societies, empirical testing of the contextual impacts are lacking in China. The present study examines both violent and property victimization in adolescents in the Chinese setting from a lifestyle/routine activity perspective using a multilevel approach. These data are collected from a sample of 3,628 high school students in a southern city of China. The results of a hierarchical logistic regression model reveal that school contextual variables including school type, level of bonding to school, and school history are significant predictors of violent victimization while student-staff ratio is significant in predicting property victimization in adolescents. At the student level, a higher level of perceived school disorder and delinquency with friends is related with higher odds of both violent and property victimizations; bonding to parents and schools tends to reduce the odds of both violent and property victimizations, net of demographic factors. The results lend support to lifestyle/routine activity theories. Implications of the findings are highlighted in the section “Discussion and Conclusion.”