Original article
The Effect of School Suspensions and Arrests on Subsequent Adolescent Antisocial Behavior in Australia and the United States

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2006.05.010Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

To examine the effect of school suspensions and arrests (i.e., being taken into police custody) on subsequent adolescent antisocial behavior such as violence and crime, after controlling for established risk and protective factors in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States (U.S.).

Methods

This article reports on analyses of two points of data collected 1 year apart within a cross-national longitudinal study of the development of antisocial behavior, substance use, and related behaviors in approximately 4000 students aged 12 to 16 years in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, U.S. Students completed a modified version of the Communities That Care self-report survey of behavior, as well as risk and protective factors across five domains (individual, family, peer, school, and community). Multivariate logistic regression analyses investigate the effect of school suspensions and arrests on subsequent antisocial behavior, holding constant individual, family, peer, school, and community level influences such as being female, student belief in the moral order, emotional control, and attachment to mother.

Results

At the first assessment, school suspensions and arrests were more commonly reported in Washington, and school suspensions significantly increased the likelihood of antisocial behavior 12 months later, after holding constant established risk and protective factors (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.5, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1–2.1, p < .05). Predictors of antisocial behavior spanned risk and protective factors across five individual and ecological areas of risk. Risk factors in this study were pre-existing antisocial behavior (OR 3.6, CI 2.7–4.7, p < .001), association with antisocial peers (OR 1.8, CI 1.4–2.4, p < .001), academic failure (OR 1.3, CI 1.1–1.5, p < .01), and perceived availability of drugs in the community (OR 1.3, CI 1.1–1.5, p < .001). Protective factors included being female (OR 0.7, CI 0.5–0.9, p < .01), student belief in the moral order (OR 0.8, CI 0.6–1.0, p < .05), student emotional control (OR 0.7, CI 0.6–0.8, p < .001), and attachment to mother (OR 0.8, CI 0.7–1.0, p < .05).

Conclusions

School suspensions may increase the likelihood of future antisocial behavior. Further research is required to both replicate this finding and establish the mechanisms by which school suspensions exert their effects.

Section snippets

Literature Review

Rates of antisocial and violent behaviors appear similar in Washington State and Victoria [12], [13], [14], [15]. To reduce such behavior, globally, crime and mental health prevention programs are adopting a “developmental pathways” approach [16], [17], [18], [19]. This approach recognizes that effective intervention can occur at critical developmental phases and life transition points. Interventions aim to reduce risk factors and increase protective factors [19]. Risk factors are prospective

Participants

A two-stage cluster sampling approach was used for school and student recruitment in 2002. Schools were randomly selected in the first stage and a target classroom within each school was randomly selected in the second stage. Within each state and grade level, public and private schools containing Grades 5, 7, or 9 were randomly selected using a probability proportionate to grade-level size sampling procedure [33]. The principal or contact person at each school was asked to provide a list of

Rates of Antisocial Behavior and Societal Responses

The percentage of students engaging in antisocial behavior at each time point is reported in Table 2. There were no state differences in the prevalence of antisocial behavior at either of the two assessments. Table 2 shows that, of the four comparisons of societal responses at the first assessment (one each for males and females on school suspensions and arrests), both societal response variables were significantly higher for Washington males and the comparisons for females were not

Discussion

The main finding of this study was that societal responses in the form of school suspensions increase subsequent antisocial behavior. Further, this study confirmed risk and protective factors identified in earlier studies (see Table 4 for summary of the multivariate predictors in this study). This study also showed that, although the rates of self-reported antisocial behavior were similar in Victoria and Washington State, state differences in students' experiences of school suspension and

Conclusions

In summary, these results have important implications for practice and policy. Self-reported school suspension and arrests were higher in Washington State than Victoria but in both states, only school suspension significantly increased the likelihood of subsequent antisocial behavior after controlling for a wide variety of risk and protective factors. Although the findings require replication, it seems that early exposure to school suspension may increase subsequent antisocial behavior. A more

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the financial support of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (RO1 DA12140) for the International Youth Development Study. The writing of this article was supported by a Grant from the Australian Criminology Research Council. The views expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Council. The authors wish to express their appreciation and thanks to project staff and participants for their valuable contribution to the project.

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