Socioeconomic Status and Behavior Problems: Addressing the Context for School Safety

Socioeconomic Status and Behavior Problems:
Addressing the Context for School Safety
Michael Boroughs
Oliver T. Massey
Kathleen H. Armstrong


This summary written by Michael Boroughs, Oliver T. Massey and Kathleen H. Armstrong describes a research article on school violence and school safety and how the school environment is related to socioeconomic status or SES. Social class and poverty play an important role in our society, especially for schools in urban areas. In looking at the home life of students in urban schools, families of low SES struggle to make ends meet in paying the bills and for food. Parents often work long hours for low pay and many are not able to help their children with their homework and make sure that they stay out of trouble. Low SES families often lack stability in residential living, employment and health status which cause disruptions in the families. Schools are titled “low SES schools,” when a majority of the students in the school are from low SES families. These schools are often in execrable conditions and lacking basic learning supplies such as textbooks, updated libraries and computers.

Due to the conditions these children face, it is not surprising that achieving academic success in low SES schools is infrequent. This article explains that previous research has found that poverty is the risk factor most highly correlated with antisocial behavior as well as poor academic achievement. Children, who are struggling with these challenging conditions in the school, neighborhood and home, often turn to violence as an outlet for their problems. Violence in the school is frightening and anxiety-provoking leaving both students and teachers on-edge. This type of school environment becomes difficult for kids who try to stay out of trouble and focus on school. They likely feel anxiety that violence could erupt at any moment, making it difficult for the average child to focus in the classroom.

This research study found that low SES schools reported nearly 1,000 incidents of violence in each year of the study, totaling 3,000 in 3 years. It was also likely that the perpetrators of the violence committed more than one act. Also, low SES schools had four times the number of students carrying out violent acts. These facts show that these are not isolated incidents, but rather they reflect the typical school environment for low SES schools.

The incident rates in elementary schools are particularly shocking; low SES schools had almost 15 times the rate of incidents in comparison to high SES schools. This shows that violent behavior often begins in elementary school and that interventions should be in place to change the environment in the school and prevent these children from continuing on this path through middle school and high school. These violent conditions lead to a poorer quality of life for all students and staff and lower student academic achievement.

No child, not even the aggressive or violent one, wants to be in these conditions, but children do not have the means to fix these problems on their own. While more and more schools are attempting to implement policies in order to make schools safer, this article explains that it is especially important to develop effective interventions for low SES schools that continue to be plagued by violence.