School Violence Exposure as an Adverse Childhood Experience

This study hypothesize that school safety strategies may contribute to poor mental health and distress among various school populations and proposes the following research questions to be answered through this study: 1. Is there a significant difference in the prevalence of mental health outcomes, perceived school safety, and academic engagement between early adolescent and adolescent students (grades 6 - 12) at schools that have experienced a school shooting and those that have not? 2. Are existing interventions to promote school safety and security associated with poor mental health outcomes among students and school staff? 3. Does the strength of this association between school safety interventions and mental health outcomes differ among students and teachers in those schools who have experienced a school shooting versus among students and teachers in those schools who never experienced a school shooting? And, among our sample of students, are these associations moderated by their ACE history? Participants will be asked to self-report data on their mental health and wellness, and perceived school safety through a survey. Researchers will compare the surveys from the participants from exposure schools (those who experienced a gun shooting incident) with surveys from the participants from non-exposure schools (those who have not experienced a gun shooting incident)