Pacifistic School Climate and Violence

Abstract

The study focuses on explaining differences in violent behaviour among 203 15- to 16year old German students from 4 schools of the highest and 4 of the lowest educational track. In open-ended interviews, violent behaviour, pacifistic attitudes, quality of family experience and stressful experiences (e. g., job worries, social isolation, family break-up) were assessed. Although, overall (especially male) students of the lower track schools displayed more violence, the large differences between individual schools were more striking. Of the individual characteristics, stressful experiences made no, quality of family experience a weak contribution only to explaining violence. The context variable 'pacifistic school climate' (operationalized as percentage pacifistic students) was most influential and strongly moderated the impact of family experiences. The findings suggest that interventions in school may help to reduce violence.