The Role of School Context in Aggression and Substance Use: A Person-Oriented Developmental Perspective

Background and Purpose: Despite longstanding research and school-based behavioral programs, aggression and substance use continue to persist among urban middle school boys. Practice strategies based on developmental trajectories and malleable risk and protective factors are needed to better address problem behaviors. Informed by person-oriented developmental psychopathology principles, this study evaluated for the ability of the school environment (i.e., interpersonal climate, behavioral norms, and safety issues) to influence youth aggression and substance use across patterns of social-cognitive risk (i.e., poor learning abilities, social skill deficits, internalizing and externalizing problems). 

Methods: Data is from a sample of urban middle school boys from the Multisite Violence Prevention Project (n = 2,632). The study utilized latent class analysis to assess for social-cognitive risk patterns at school entry. Subsequently, latent growth curve analyses were used to evaluate their aggression and substance use trajectories through the middle school years. Lastly, the study investigated for the ability of school context to moderate the relationship between patterns of social-cognitive risk and developmental patterns of aggression and substance use.

Findings: At entry into middle school, there were four social-cognitive risk patterns: a “low all” group of boys who displayed low risk across all domains (61.3%), a group with “moderate” learning and anxiety problems (15.5%), a group with “poor social skills” with some learning and conduct problems (16.9%), and a group with “high all” social-cognitive problems (6.3%). Growth curve analyses revealed that the “low all” group had the lowest growth of aggression and substance use through middle school. The “moderate” group had the average growth of behaviors, while the “poor social skills” group had higher levels of aggression and substance use at 6^th and 7^th grade. The “high all” group showed the fastest growth in problem behaviors, and had the highest levels of aggression and substance use at 8^th grade. Moderation analyses found two significant school effects on behaviors. Student-student relationships significantly moderated the relation between the probability of membership in the “poor social skills” group and growth of relational aggression only (d = 0.24; p ≤ 0.001). Additionally, student-teacher relationships moderated the relationship between membership in the “high all” group and growth of non-physical aggression only (d = 0.25; p ≤ 0.05). Notably, no school factors moderated substance use across all groups.

Conclusion and Implications: Behavioral approaches – particularly those addressing aggression – can be enhanced through tailored school programs targeting interpersonal relationships among the “poor social skills” and “high all” group. There is a need for greater attention on the quality of school relational context to reduce pattern-specific behavioral risk among urban early adolescent boys. Results are relevant to prevailing national prevention strategies and educational trends that focus on a multi-tiered approach to behavioral risk management. Information can inform school-based behavioral prevention and intervention programming.