Structural Equation Modeling about the Domestic Violence Exposure on Adolescent's School Violence: Focus on Attitude toward School Violence

Abstract

Purpose : Many preceding studies on school violence point out in common that the most important cause of school violence is the domestic violence exposure among diverse domestic environmental factors. However, most of the preceding studies provide for very limited information about the pathways through which the domestic violence exposure leads to school violence. Thus, this study focuses on the attitudes toward school violence in the pathway from domestic violence exposure to school violence.To this end, this study attempted to examine the effect of domestic violence exposure on adolescent's school violence and whether attitude toward school violence mediate in the process to provide for practical basis useful to prevention of and intervention in the school violence.

Method : Using data from the Korean adolescents 1140 from eighth grade to eleventh grade. Adolescent's experience of being abused by parents/exposure to violence between their parents was measured by the CTS scale(Straus,1979). School violence was measured by school violence scale(Junho Kim, 1997). Attitude toward school violence was measured by attitude toward violence(Junho Kim, 1997). Data analyses included descriptive statistics and SEM(Structural Equation Modeling).

Results : Outcome data suggested that adolescents' experience of being abused by parents had very significant direct effects on their school violence. However, exposure to violence between their parents had no significant direct effects on their school violence.

Experience of being abused by parents and exposure to violence between their parents had significant indirect effects on their school violence. All in all, attitude toward school violence was confirmed as an mediate factor in the relationship between their experience of being abused by parents/ exposure to violence between their parents and their school violence.

Implication : The finding that adolescents' experience of being abused by parents has direct effects on their school violence suggests that families should be a reference point for intervening school violence. Since adolescents' attitudes toward school violence play some mediate role in the relationship between their domestic violence exposure and school violence, the adolescents who show some affirmative attitudes toward school violence need to be guided through such family-linked systems as family counselling, and these offenders of school violence should be encouraged through psychological counselling services to develop their behaviors in a desirable. In addition, it is also necessary to awaken those adolescents admitting the school violence that the violence should not be justified in any case, while operating the programs providing for the correct solutions to their conflicts with their friends and educating them on the human rights to awaken them of victims' mental and physical pain of school violence.