School engagement, risky peers, and student-teacher relationships as mediators of school violence in Taiwanese vocational versus academically oriented high schools

Abstract

Educational tracking based on academic ability accounts for different school dynamics between vocational versus academically-oriented high schools in Taiwan. Many educational practitioners predict that the settings of vocational schools and academic schools mediate school violence in different ways. Alternatively, some researchers argue the actual mediating mechanism may not vary significantly between the different school types in different cultures. The purpose of this study was to examine how within-school variables (school engagement, risky peers, and student-teacher interaction) mediate external-school variables (personal traits, parental monitoring, and victimization) and school violence in Taiwanese vocational and academically-oriented schools. Structural equation modeling analysis, based on a national representative sample (N=7,841), suggested school violence was mediated through school variables. Similar mediational findings were found between academic and vocational schools as well as between males and females. Findings suggest that school violence is mediated by within-school variables in similar ways across different school types, genders, and cultures. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc..