Students’ Perceptions of School Safety:

Abstract

An important element of the context in which children are educated is the safety in their schools. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships among student perceptions of community safety, school environment, substance use, and school safety with a total of 3,092 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. Data were used from the School Safety and Discipline component of the National Household Education Survey. Path analyses provided evidence that the strongest predictors of student perceptions of safety and substance use in school were perceived safety in the school relative to their neighborhood, community safety, and school climate. We also found that actions taken by the school to enhance school safety were the weakest predictor of student perceptions of school safety and substance use. These findings offer implications for the initiatives to be taken by schools and the community to improve school safety.