Education (BL): School Bonding Attendance Activities and Orientation - Subject Baseline

This measure appears in the following time-points: Baseline.

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Related Construct

Academic Achievement and Commitment

Description of Measure

There are several themes to the information obtained from subjects about school: school attachment, descriptive information about the school experience (attendance, achievement and behavior problems) and involvement in school activities. Each of these are addressed below.

School attachment

The school attachment items included are taken from the work of Cernkovich & Giordano (1992). The items are used to evaluate the adolescent's educational experience along two dimensions: Bonding to Teachers (e.g., "Most of my teachers treat me fairly.") and School Orientation (e.g., "Schoolwork is very important to me.") Respondents rate 13 statements, using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree," with higher scores indicating a greater degree of academic commitment. The mean is taken for the items associated with each subscale. The items are first asked regarding the community school which the youth attends and, for youths housed in a facility for three or more months during the recall period, the items are repeated to attain the degree of academic commitment regarding the facility school.

A two-factor CFA model was applied to the Bonding to Teacher and School Orientation dimensions in the baseline data set, producing an acceptable fit. The following values were obtained: Bonding to teachers alpha: .65; School orientation alpha: .83; NFI: .92; NNFI: .90: CFI: .93 and RMSEA: .07. A one-factor model also produced an acceptable fit. A two-factor CFA model was also fit to these items for youth in school in detention at the baseline interview. This model was also acceptable: bonding to teacher alpha: .63; school orientation alpha: .88; NFI: .86: NNFI: .92; CFI: .94 and RMSEA: .07.

Descriptive information about the school experience

The section is comprised of questions developed by the working group to assess school attendance, achievement and behavior problems. The subject is also asked to report on his/her involvement in extra-curricular activities. The behavior problem items were taken from questions asked to arrive at ratings for the Psychopathy Checklist - Youth Version.

Involvement in School activities

The subject is also asked to report on his/her involvement in a range of typical extra-curricular activities offered in a school setting.

The following computed scores are available:

Total Number Extra-curricular School Activities [s0totexa]; count of endorsed activities
Bonding to Teacher - community school [s0schtch]; mean of 3 items
School orientation - community school [s0schatc]; mean of 7 items
Satisfaction - community school [S0Sch_HSSatisfaction]; mean of 2 items
Engagement - community school [S0Sch_HSEngagement]; mean of 4 items, two of which are reverse-coded
Bonding to Teacher - institution school [s0dettch]; mean of 3 items
School orientation - institution school [s0detatc]; mean of 7 items
Satisfaction - institution school [S0Sch_DetSatisfaction]; mean of 2 items
Engagement - institution school [S0Sch_DetEngagement]; mean of 4 items, two of which are reverse-coded
Attendance - Number of days [s0dem35r]

The following individual items are also available:

Descriptive information about school experience.

Over last year average number days missed per month [S0dem35]
Enrolled in school (currently/before coming to detention) [S0dem26]

If not enrolled, have you dropped out of school [S0dem26b]
If not enrolled, have you obtained a GED [S0dem27]

Highest grade completed before GED [S0dem28]
What were grades like in school [S0dem29]
Ever been suspended from school [S0dem30]

How many times suspended [S0dem31]
Age first time suspended [S0dem32]

Ever been expelled from school [S0dem33]

How many times expelled [S0dem34]
Age first time expelled [S0dem34b]

Ever have years when you missed more than what you missed in last year [S0dem36]

Age when you missed the most [S0dem37]
Average number of days missed per month when missed the most [S0dem38]
Missed school in the past - suspended/expelled [S0MissSuspExp]
Missed school in the past - physical illness [S0MissPhysIll]
Missed school in the past - mental health/emotion problems [S0MissMental]
Missed school in the past - afraid to go [S0MissAfraid]
Missed school in the past - refused to go/truancy [S0MissTruant]
Missed school in the past - other reason [S0MissOther]

Ever skip school or classes [S0dem41]
Have you ever failed a class [S0dem42]
Ever cheat on exam or plagiarized info [S0dem48]
Gone to school any days in past year [S0Sch2]

If not enrolled, reason not enrolled in school during the past year [S0Sch2a]
If not enrolled, how long ago last attended school [S0Sch3]

Ever get into fights at school [S0Sch29]

How often did you fight at school [S0Sch30]
How old were you when they started [S0Sch31]
How many of these fights did you start [S0Sch32]

You ever bully anyone [S0Sch34]

How often did you bully [S0Sch35]
At what age did it start [S0Sch36]

Were you ever picked on by a bully [S0Sch37]

How often were you bullied [S0Sch38]
At what age did start being bullied [S0Sch39]

Descriptive information about the last community school attended.

Community school ID [S0Sch_CommCode]
Community school type [S0Sch_CommType]
Last time you went to that school (refers to the school in S0Sch_CommCode) [S0Sch6]
How long have you gone to that school (refers to the school in S0Sch_CommCode) [S0SchT]
Days spent student government [S0Sch_18]
Days spent athletic teams [S0Sch_19]
Days spent cheerleading sport [S0Sch_20]
Days spent music band [S0Sch_21]
Days spent school clubs [S0Sch_22]
Days spent National Honor Society [S0Sch_23]
Days spent newspaper yearbook [S0Sch_24]
Days spent attending events play [S0Sch_25]
How important to participate in school activities [S0Sch26]

Descriptive information about the institutional school attended

Facility code associated with detention school [S0Sch_DetCode]
How long have you been at this facility - converted to days [S0NDay6]

Hours per week spent doing homework

Community school - hours a week spent doing homework (refers to the school in S0Sch_CommCode) [S0Sch7]
Institutional school - hours a week spend doing homework [S0DetSc7]

Data Issues

There are some cases where an institutional school was mistakenly entered into the community school section. Data for these cases were removed and are noted with a missing value code of -800 (Data missing).
If the subject is in a detention or other locked facility at the time of the interview, variables s0sch2, s0sch2a, s0sch6 and s0sch3 were skipped.
Item s0sch6 (last time went) is only asked if they attended school during the past year (s0sch2).
If the subject was not in a detention or locked facility at the time of the interview, then all community school items above focus on the community school at which the subject was currently enrolled. If they were in a detention or locked facility at the time of the interview, then these questions focus on the community school the subject attended prior to coming to the facility.
Beginning with version 01.05, if the subject was enrolled in the community school for less than one month (s0schT = 1), then item s0sch7 (homework), and all community school bonding, orientation, satisfaction, engagement and activity items were skipped. Prior to version 01.05, these items were asked for all subjects regardless of the length of enrollment.
If the subject is in detention/locked facility at the time of the interview, and they were there for less than three months, then item s0detsc7 (homework), and all institutional school bonding, orientation, satisfaction and engagement items were skipped.

References

Eccles, J.S., Wigfield, A., & Schiefele, U., (1998). Motivation to succeed. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) and N. Eisenberg (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology (5th ed., Vol. III, pp. 1017-1095). New York: Wiley.
Cernkovich, S. and Giordano, P. (1992). School bonding, race and delinquency. Criminology, 30(2), 261-291.