The importance of rule fairness: the influence of school bonds on at-risk students in an alternative school

Abstract

Using Hirschi’s social bonds theory as a foundation, this study examines the effects of at-risk students’ school bonds on their classroom behaviour. In this article, school bonds are defined as the students’ attachment to teachers/staff, students’ affiliation to the school, students’ belief in the fairness of the school rules and students’ involvement in school-related activities. The data are from a sample of 77 at-risk students attending an alternative middle school in a small city in the northeastern region of the USA. The findings based on results of a school-wide survey and students’ school records, parallel prior research demonstrate a statistically significant inverse relationship between school bonds (namely the affiliation and the belief bonds) and classroom misconduct. The results of this study reveal the driving force behind reducing classroom misconduct is students’ perception of fairness of school rules (as defined by the belief bond).

Keywords:

• at-risk youth
• school bonds
• alternative schools
• student behaviour
• social bonds theory

Acknowledgement

I would like to acknowledge the assistance of Dr Glenn Pierce, Principal Research Scientist, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Northeastern University, Boston, MA for his guidance on this project.

Notes

1. These types of alternative schools are not meant to be overly rigid definitions and ideally are used as general categories for classifying the appropriate student for the appropriate school (Soleil 1999).

2. A factor analysis found only one dimension and confirms Krohn and Massey’s (1980) approach, as well as the current study’s creation of the affiliation school bond.

3. GED programmes are common in the USA for students who drop out of high school but desire a high school degree. They are a set of exams that suggest the test taker, if he/she passes, possesses the knowledge required to graduate from high school.

4. The primary reason students were present less than 25 days per quarter was due to families moving out of the school district; other reasons included students being allowed to return to their original school mid-year, a high rate of absenteeism or illness, suspension from the alternative school, or being incarcerated in a juvenile detention facility mid-quarter.

5. Responses from the other nine questions were not used because they did not address the research questions of the current study.

6. Despite many other studies on school bonds and school-wide behaviour and general delinquency, I chose to rely heavily on Jenkins (1995, 1997) due to the fact that her measures most closely resembled the items on the current study’s student survey.

7. Although, generally only alphas of greater than .70 are acceptable, it is important to note that Gottfredson’s (2001) Cronbach score on the commitment bond scale was .53 and Welsh, Greene, and Jenkins’s (1999) was .54.

8. School spirit day occurred once in the academic year during “School Spirit week.” On this day and during this week, students celebrated their school and their school sports teams by dressing in the school colours, holding pep-rallies and giving speeches about their experiences at the school and on the sports teams. This is a common occurrence in conventional and alternative schools in the USA.

9. I would like to note that although the use of the category “Hispanic, Latino or Spanish-origin” would have been more accurate and appropriate; the school administration chose to use only the term “Hispanic.”