JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Poor mental health and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) predict extensive adverse outcomes in youth, including increases in long-term risk for chronic disease and injury, impaired emotional development, and poor academic outcomes. Exposure to school violence, specifically intentional gun violence, is an increasingly prevalent ACE. The anticipation of school shootings has led to the implementation of school safety and security interventions that may increase anxiety, depression, and other indicators of poor mental health among students and staff alike. Despite this, the association between exposure to existing school safety interventions and early adolescent student mental health outcomes has yet to be investigated.

Objective:

The study protocol described here aims to determine: 1) whether there is a significant difference in the prevalence of mental health outcomes, perceived school safety, and academic engagement between adolescent students (grades 6 – 12) at schools that have experienced a school shooting and those that have not; 2) whether existing interventions to promote school safety and security are associated with poor mental health outcomes among students and school staff; and 3) the strength of the association between school safety interventions and mental health outcomes among students and teachers in schools that have experienced a school shooting versus schools that never experienced a school shooting.

Methods:

This observational study will collect cross-sectional survey data from a nationwide sample of students, teachers, and principals at 12 secondary public schools across the United States. The participants come from six randomly selected exposure schools that have either experienced recent (< 2 years prior) intentional school shootings, or have experienced an intentional school shooting less recently (> 2 years ago). These schools are being directly compared to six secondary schools that have never experienced a school shooting.

Results:

Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for this research project was obtained and the study subsequently began its recruitment and data collection phase. The analytic plan is designed to determine if the strength of the association between school safety interventions and mental health outcomes differs among students and school staff in schools with varying levels of trauma exposure. Mediated analyses will be used to evaluate the role of ACEs on the relationship between exposure to an intentional school shooting, exposure to school safety strategies, and student outcomes, perceptions of school safety, and educational outcomes.

Conclusions:

The results from this study promise to generate meaningful data and analyses on the extent to which having a prior history of ACEs moderates the relationship between exposure to intentional school gun violence, school safety strategies, and student outcomes (mental health, perceptions of school safety, and academic achievement). Clinical Trial: Clinical Trials ID: NCT06153316 https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06153316?term=school%20violence%20exposure&rank=1