The School Assessment for Environmental Typology (SAfETy): An Observational Measure of the School Environment

• Published in: American journal of community psychology 2015-12, Vol.56 (3-4), p.280-292
• Main Authors: Bradshaw, Catherine P., Milam, Adam J., Furr-Holden, C. Debra M., Lindstrom Johnson, Sarah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Bias; Clinical Psychology; Community and Environmental Psychology; Crime; Crime - prevention & control; Crime - statistics & numerical data; Crime prevention; Environment; Environmental design; Ethnic Groups; Graffiti; Health Psychology; Humans; Maryland; Observations; Organizational Culture; Original Article; Ownership; Parents & parenting; Personality and Social Psychology; Prevention; Prevention programs; Psychology; Public Health; Reproducibility of Results; Risk; Safety; Safety Management - methods; Safety Management - statistics & numerical data; School climate; School environment; School safety; School violence; Schools; Schools - statistics & numerical data; Secondary schools; Social disorganization; Social Environment; Students; Substance abuse; Surveillance; Surveys and Questionnaires - standards; Typology; Vandalism; Violence - prevention & control
• ISSN: 0091-0562; 1573-2770
• DOI: 10.1007/s10464-015-9743-x

School safety is of great concern for prevention researchers, school officials, parents, and students, yet there are a dearth of assessments that have operationalized school safety from an organizational framework using objective tools and measures. Such a tool would be important for deriving unbiased assessments of the school environment, which in turn could be used as an evaluative tool for school violence prevention efforts. The current paper presents a framework for conceptualizing school safety consistent with Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) model and social disorganization theory, both of which highlight the importance of context as a driver for adolescents’ risk for involvement in substance use and violence. This paper describes the development of a novel observational measure, called the School Assessment for Environmental Typology (SAfETy), which applies CPTED and social disorganizational frameworks to schools to measure eight indicators of school physical and social environment (i.e., disorder, trash, graffiti/vandalism, appearance, illumination, surveillance, ownership, and positive behavioral expectations). Drawing upon data from 58 high schools, we provide preliminary data regarding the validity and reliability of the SAfETy and describe patterns of the school safety indicators. Findings demonstrate the reliability and validity of the SAfETy and are discussed with regard to the prevention of violence in schools.