Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsTypesCausesImpactRecognizing the Signs of School ViolencePrevention

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Types

Causes

Impact

Recognizing the Signs of School Violence

Prevention

Close

An estimated 246 million children experience school violence every year; however, girls and gender non-conforming people are disproportionately affected.

“School violence can be anything that involves a real or implied threat—it can be verbal, sexual, or physical, and perpetrated with or without weapons. If someone is deliberately harming someone or acting in a way that leaves someone feeling threatened, that‘s school violence,” saysAimee Daramus, PsyD, a licensed clinical psychologist.

This article explores the types, causes, and impact of school violence and suggests some steps that can help prevent it.

Types of School Violence

School violence can take many forms. These are some of the types of school violence:

How to Choose the Best Treatment Program for a Teen

Causes of School Violence

These are some of therisk factorsthat can make a child more likely to commit school violence:

It’s important to note that the presence of these factors doesn’t necessarily mean that the child will engage in violent behavior.

Impact of School Violence

Below, Dr. Daramus explains how school violence can affect children who commit, experience, and witness it, as well as their parents.

Impact on Children Committing Violence

Children who have beenvictims of violenceor exposed to it in some capacity sometimes believe that becoming violent is the only way they‘ll ever be safe.

When they commit violence, they may experience a sense of satisfaction when their emotional need for strength or safety is satisfied. That‘s short-lived however, because they start to fear punishment or retribution, which triggers anger that can sometimes lead to more violence if they’re scared of what might happen to them if they don’t protect themselves.

Children need help to try and break the cycle; they need to understand that violence can be temporarily satisfying but that it leads to more problems.

Victims of school violence may get physically injured and experience cuts, scrapes, bruises, broken bones, gunshot wounds, concussions, physical disability, or death.

Emotionally speaking, the child might experiencedepression, anxiety, or rage. Their academic performance may suffer because it can be hard to focus in school when all you can think about is how to avoid being hurt again.

School violence is traumatic and can cause considerable psychological distress. Traumatic experiences can be difficult for adults too; however, when someone whose brain is not fully developed yet experiences trauma, especially if it’s over a long time, theirbraincan switch to survival mode, which can affect their attention, concentration, emotional control, and long-term health.

According to a 2019 study, children who have experienced school violence are at risk for long-term mental and physical health conditions, including attachment disorders, substance abuse, obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and respiratory conditions.

The more adverse childhood experiences someone has, the greater the risk to their physical and mental health as an adult.

Impact on Children Who Witness School Violence

Children who witness school violence may feel guilty about seeing it and being too afraid to stop it. They may also feel threatened, and their brain may react in a similar way to a child who has faced school violence.

Additionally, when children experience or witnesstrauma, their basic beliefs about life and other people are often changed. They no longer believe that the world is safe, which can be damaging to their mental health.

For a child to be able to take care of themselves as they get older, they need to first feel safe and cared for. Learning to cope with threats is an advanced lesson that has to be built on a foundation of feeling safe and self-confident.

Children who have experienced or witnessed school violence can benefit from therapy, which can help them process the trauma, regulate their emotions, and learn coping skills to help them heal.

Impact on Parents

Parents react to school violence in all kinds of ways. Some parents encourage their children to bully others, believing that violence is strength. Some try to teach their children how to act in a way that won’t attract bullying or other violence, but that never works and it may teach the child to blame themselves for being bullied.

Others are proactive and try to work with the school or challenge the school if necessary, to try and keep their child safe.

It can be helpful to look out for warning signs of violence, which can include:

It’s important to report these signs to parents, teachers, or school authorities. The child may need help and support, and benefit fromintervention.

Preventing School Violence

Dr. Daramus shares some steps that can help prevent school violence:

A Word From Verywell

School violence can be traumatic for everyone involved, particularly children. It’s important to take steps to prevent it because children who witness or experience school violence may suffer physical and mental health consequences that can persist well into adulthood.

How Parents Can Help Troubled Teens Cope With Anger

7 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Preventing school violence.UNESCO.What you need to know about school violence and bullying.UNESCO.School violence and bullying.Nemours Foundation.School violence: what students can do.Ehiri JE, Hitchcock LI, Ejere HO, Mytton JA.Primary prevention interventions for reducing school violence.Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017;2017(3):CD006347. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD006347.pub2Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Understanding school violence.Ferrara P, Franceschini G, Villani A, Corsello G.Physical, psychological and social impact of school violence on children.Italian Journal of Pediatrics. 2019;45(1):76. doi:10.1186/s13052-019-0669-z

7 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Preventing school violence.UNESCO.What you need to know about school violence and bullying.UNESCO.School violence and bullying.Nemours Foundation.School violence: what students can do.Ehiri JE, Hitchcock LI, Ejere HO, Mytton JA.Primary prevention interventions for reducing school violence.Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017;2017(3):CD006347. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD006347.pub2Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Understanding school violence.Ferrara P, Franceschini G, Villani A, Corsello G.Physical, psychological and social impact of school violence on children.Italian Journal of Pediatrics. 2019;45(1):76. doi:10.1186/s13052-019-0669-z

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Preventing school violence.UNESCO.What you need to know about school violence and bullying.UNESCO.School violence and bullying.Nemours Foundation.School violence: what students can do.Ehiri JE, Hitchcock LI, Ejere HO, Mytton JA.Primary prevention interventions for reducing school violence.Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017;2017(3):CD006347. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD006347.pub2Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Understanding school violence.Ferrara P, Franceschini G, Villani A, Corsello G.Physical, psychological and social impact of school violence on children.Italian Journal of Pediatrics. 2019;45(1):76. doi:10.1186/s13052-019-0669-z

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Preventing school violence.

UNESCO.What you need to know about school violence and bullying.

UNESCO.School violence and bullying.

Nemours Foundation.School violence: what students can do.

Ehiri JE, Hitchcock LI, Ejere HO, Mytton JA.Primary prevention interventions for reducing school violence.Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017;2017(3):CD006347. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD006347.pub2

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Understanding school violence.

Ferrara P, Franceschini G, Villani A, Corsello G.Physical, psychological and social impact of school violence on children.Italian Journal of Pediatrics. 2019;45(1):76. doi:10.1186/s13052-019-0669-z

Meet Our Review Board

Share Feedback

Was this page helpful?Thanks for your feedback!What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

Was this page helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!

What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

What is your feedback?