School Size and Youth Violence: The Mediating Role of School Connectedness

Youth violence continues to be considered a public health concern in the United States. This study utilized longitudinal data to test the possible mediating and moderating effects of school connectedness between school size and youth violence. The participants were obtained from Waves I and II of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a nationally representative ongoing survey of 7th through 12th grade students in the United States. A series of multilevel models using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM6) procedures were compared. Results did not support school connectedness as a moderator; however, results did support school connectedness as a mediator between school size and youth violence. These findings highlight the importance of how the quality of individual student-school personnel relationships can play a role in preventing violence both within and outside of the school setting