School Climate Enhancement and Bullying Prevention in Southern Illinois, 2016-2019 (ICPSR 37311)
Version Date: Dec 17, 2020 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Mary Louise Cashel, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37311.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
The study assesses school climate and bullying across 45 schools in 20 rural districts and 5 counties of Southern Illinois. Investigators also evaluated the effectiveness of a low-cost, component-based intervention that focused on improving classroom management, playground monitoring, and school-wide disciplinary procedures. This mixed-methods study incorporated hierarchical linear modeling, with mixed-effects longitudinal models for repeated outcomes. The project design incorporated random assignment, with multiple pre- and post-intervention assessments.
Major categories of variables include: students' feeling of safety in school areas; students' history of involvement in or observation of bullying; staff opinion and experience of bullying prevention methods; school policies on bullying; staff completion of training workshops; and demographics.
The units of analysis are individuals and schools.
Citation View help for Citation
Export Citation:
Funding View help for Funding
Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
School district
Restrictions View help for Restrictions
Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reason for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
-
Syntax for Dataset 1 "School Climate Survey" is provided in the P.I. Codebook and in a zip package in this release. The zip package contains the most up-to-date version.
-
Fileset 8 "Exit Interview" consists of a P.I. Questionnaire; no data was deposited.
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
This study assessed school climate and bullying across 45 schools in 20 rural districts and 5 counties of Southern Illinois. Investigators also evaluated the effectiveness of a low-cost, component-based intervention that focused on improving classroom management, playground monitoring, and school-wide disciplinary procedures. Training and intervention components were selected based on meta-analytic reviews. Data was collected repeatedly over the course of three years, via staff and student surveys, classroom management questionnaires, playground observations, and bullying incident reports. The study identified effective targets for bullying prevention and their cost-effectiveness.
Study Design View help for Study Design
For all schools, baseline data were collected in the form of school climate surveys completed by teachers and students (Grades 4-12) in Spring 2016, and playground/lunchroom observations conducted by graduate assistants in Fall 2016. Follow-up surveys were collected in Spring 2017 and for the final post-intervention period in Spring 2018. Schools were randomly assigned to receive all of the selected interventions in either Year 1 (Wave 1) or Year 2 (Wave 2) of the project. For Wave 1 schools, investigators collected baseline and two years of post-intervention survey data. For Wave 2 schools, investigators obtained two years of baseline and one year of post-intervention survey data. Follow-up behavioral observations were conducted for all schools in Spring 2017, Fall 2017, and Spring 2018.
The analyses for this project centered on hierarchical linear modeling, with mixed-effects longitudinal models for repeated outcomes. The project design incorporated random assignment, with multiple pre- and post-intervention assessments.
During the course of the study, the P.I. introduced several training, surveying, and reporting components to participating schools. Deposited filesets are related to the components and overall study goals.
- Fileset 1: "School Climate Survey" consists of questionnaire, data, and codebook relating to surveys administered to students, teachers, and staff.
- Fileset 2: "Fidelity Checklist" consists of questionnaire, data, and codebook relating to staff adaptation of a National Center for Safe and Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE) workshop on addressing bullying and school environment.
- Fileset 3: "Playground Observation and Training Form" consists of questionnaire, data, and codebook relating to investigator observations made after schools received playground-monitoring training.
- Fileset 4: "Administrator School Climate Survey" consists of questionnaire, data, and codebook relating to surveys administered to principals and superintendents.
- Fileset 5: "Classroom Strategies Management Discipline Questionnaire" consists of questionnaire, data, and codebook relating to surveys administered to teachers.
- Fileset 6: "Discipline Bullying Policies" consists of data and codebook compiled from all schools' policy handbooks.
- Fileset 7: "School Information" consists of data and codebook relating to school demographic characteristics and use of a web-based reporting tool provided to schools by the investigators.
- Fileset 8: "Exit Interview" consists of questionnaire only, relating to exit interviews asked of principals and superintendents.
Sample View help for Sample
The sample included 20 school superintendents, 35+ principals, 650+ teachers/staff, and 5,000+ students who participated each year. The sample was taken from from 45 schools within 20 districts in Southern Illinois. All districts were classified as either Rural(Fringe/Distant/Remote; n = 12) or Town (Remote, n = 8) according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for Universe
Students (Grades 4-12), Teachers, Staff and School administrators in 45 rural schools across five counties of Southern Illinois: Jackson, Perry, Union, Alexander and Pulaski.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
20 out of 24 invited school districts participated.
Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales
Several Likert-type scales were used.
HideNotes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.
ICPSR usually offers files in multiple formats for researchers to be able to access data and documentation in formats that work well within their needs. If you have questions about the accessibility of materials distributed by ICPSR or require further assistance, please visit ICPSR’s Accessibility Center.
One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.

This dataset is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), the criminal justice archive within ICPSR. NACJD is primarily sponsored by three agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice: the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.