چکیده:
Objectives: This research aimed at evaluating the moderator role of school connection on the impact of violent friends on tendency to violent behaviors in adolescent students of Tehran high schools.Method: A sample consisted of 3529 participants from Tehran high school students population selected using multi stage sampling. Participants completed School Connection Questionnaire (SCQ), Iranian Adolescents Risk-Taking Scale (IARS), and demographic questionnaire. Data analyzed by regression analysis.Results: School connection affected male and female students differently. In males, school commitment and belonging to school (two dimensions of school connection) reduced the impact of friends` violent behaviors on participants` tendency to violence. But in females, being influenced by friends` violent behavior acted independently of school connection.Conclusion: Preventive program in this field should consider gender differences. In males, enhancing school commitment and belonging to school might reduce tendency to violence in spite of the violent behavior of friends. But in females, probably efficient disciplines to prevent conducting violent behaviors in school or helping girls to find nonviolent friends might reduce tendency to violent behaviors.
خلاصه ماشینی:
Research literature supports this view: School connection (Battisich, Solomon, Kim, Watson, & Schaps, 1995; Becker & Luthar, 2002) and investment on school achievement (Comer, 1985) help youth to handle difficult conditions.
A similar study conducted by Brookmeyer, Fanti, and Henrich (2006) found that both parents and school connectedness have protecting effect against the effects of exposure to violence on later violent behavior.
Being involved with an adult who might be a teacher can serve as a protective factor against violence or other high risk behavior (Fitzpatrick, 1997; Hagen, 1997, Masten & Marie-Gabrielle, 2002).
In this regard we designed a method to evaluate the relations of different dimensions of school connection (School Belonging, School Commitment, School Engagement, and Relations with Peers [in school]), and gender differences with tendency to violent behaviors in adolescent students in Tehran, Iran.
In constructing this scale, several questions from Adolescents Risk Behavior Questionnaire (ARQ; Gullone, Moore, Moss, & Boyd, 2000) and Youth Risk Behavior Survey Scale (YRBS) (Brener, Collins, Kann, Warren, & Williams, 1995) were used.
We can conclude that investment on school work and perceiving school as a pleasant place with fair discipline can protect adolescents from engaging in violent behaviors, the same result as in the case of tendency to substance abuse (Poshtmashhadi, Ahmadabadi, Panaghi, zadehmohammadi, & Rafiei, 2010; Diaz, 2004).
S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001, Schiraldi & Ziedenberg, 2001) and lack of involvement in school activities (Mayer, 1995) are associated with violence in adolescents.