(From the ISHN Member information service)   An article in Issue #2, 2015 of the Journal of Interpersonal Violence reports that severe physical abuse affects student educational achievement. Mild physicalabuse and sexual abuse were not correlated with student dropout and eventual years of schooling several years later. "We used data from the Ontario Child Health Study (N = 1,893), a province-wide longitudinal survey. Potential confounding variables (family socio-demographic and parental capacity) and child-level characteristics were assessed in 1983, and child abuse was determined in 2000-2001 based on retrospective self-report. Results showed that PA and SA were associated with several factors indicative of social disadvantage in childhood. Multilevel regression analyses for years of education revealed a significant estimate for severe PA based on the unadjusted model (−0.60 years, 95% CI = [−0.45, −0.76]); estimates for non-severe PA (0.05 years, CI = [−0.15, 0.26]) and SA (−0.25 years, CI = [−0.09, −0.42]) were not significant. In the adjusted full model, the only association to reach significance was between severe PA and reduced years of education (−0.31 years, CI = [−0.18, −0.44]). Multilevel regression analyses for failure to graduate from high school showed significant unadjusted estimates for severe PA (OR = 1.77, 95% CI = [1.21, 2.58]) and non-severe PA (OR = 1.61, CI = [1.01, 2.57]); SA was not associated with this outcome (OR = 1.40, CI = [0.94, 2.07]). In the adjusted full models, there were no significant associations between child abuse variables and failure to graduate. The magnitude of effect of PA on both outcomes was reduced largely by child individual characteristics. Of particular note, severe PA was associated with reduced years of education after accounting for a comprehensive set of potential confounding variables and child characteristics". Read more>>

(From the ISHN Member information service)  An article in Issue #12, 2014 of the Journal of Interpersonal Violence uses "General Strain" theory to explain and understand interpersonal aggression at school. "Using data from a sample of 296 middle school students in a southwestern state of the United States, this article examined whether different types of strain and negative emotions are positively associated with psychological, physical, and general bullying. Overall findings of negative binomial regression analyses tended to be consistent with our expectations, while some aspects of GST received more empirical support than others. Strains and negative emotions were mostly related positively either to psychological or physical bullying, with negative emotions, anger and depression, partly mediating the strain-bullying relationship." This being the first encounter with strain theories for us, our quick look on the Internet found an excellent Canadian government report examining the roots of violence in response to a school shooting in Ontario. The Appendix on Literature reviews in that report has discussed several such strain theories in relation to school violence. Other sections of that report review school-based and school-linked violence prevention. Read more>>

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #2, 2013 of Educational Psychology reports on the effect of a in-school team tea her development program to manage student conflicts in schools. The researchers report that " This study evaluated a professional learning approach using a core team (CT) model to assist primary (elementary) schools to develop whole-school collaborative conflict resolution processes. Thirteen schools were matched and randomly assigned to the enhancing relationships in school communities programme (n = 10) or a non-programme control group (n = 3). Programme schools provided a core (professional learning) team, who attended professional learning days, and disseminated programme content throughout their schools. Programme schools also received one full school staff workshop. After one year, CT participants were more likely to apply a collaborative conflict resolution model to problem scenarios and report greater knowledge and skills compared to non-programme-school control participants. Compared to the non-programme control group, non-core team programme school staff described using more cooperative approaches to handling conflict, especially when they had received more professional development from their CT. Programme school teachers taught more hours conflict resolution curriculum, and increases in hours taught by programme (but not control) teachers were associated with teacher reported increases in student understanding and use of cooperative methods. Patterns also supported a role of self-efficacy in implementation."  Read more>>

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #12, 2012 of Injury reports on estimated frequency of firearm injuries to children in the US in 2008. This is a topic of unfortunate relevance to the recent incidents in that country. The authors report that " The Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) for the year 2008 was used for the current study. All ED visits occurring amongst children aged less than or equal to 18 years and that had an External Cause of Injury (E-Code) for any of the firearm related injuries were selected for analysis. A total of 14,831 ED visits (in children) in the United States had a firearm injury. The average age of the ED visits was 15.9 years. Males constituted a predominant proportion of all ED visits (89.2%). A total of 494 patients died in the emergency departments (3.4% of all ED visits) whilst 323 died following in-patient admission into the same hospital (6% of all inpatient admissions). The most frequently documented firearms were assaults by firearms and explosives (55% of all ED visits), accidents caused by firearms and air gun missiles (33.6%), and injuries by firearms that were undetermined (7.4%). The average charge for each ED visit was $3642 (25th percentile is $1146, median is $2003, and 75th percentile is $4404). The mean charge for those visits that resulted in in-patient admission into the same hospital was $70,164 (25th percentile is $16,704, median is $36,111, and 75th percentile is $74,165) and the total charges for the entire United States was about $371.33 million."  Read more.