Factors Associated with School Violence: A Systematic Review

Purpose: To offer the scientific community the studies which identify risk factors influencing or causing school violence.

Methods: The literature related to factors influencing school violence or violent behaviour (psychosocial, family, individual, environmental, etc.) published in the Spanish language from 2000 to the present was systematically reviewed. A search done in the largest Spanish language database, Dialnet, and the CSIC-ISOC platform resulted in a selection of 122 articles. Of these, only those related to the origin of or factors in violent behaviour were included. Duplicates were rejected, leaving 110 valid articles, of which only 19 met inclusion criteria.

Results: Publication dates of the articles reviewed reflect an increase in research on the factors influencing or causing social problems in recent years. The contributions of various authors were analysed based on a series of variables, such as personal (self-esteem, age, sex, etc.), family (punishment, abuse, conflicts etc.), school (low performance, lack of norms, etc.) and environmental (communications media, internet, etc.). Most of the contributions are concerned with family and school, which are the most studied, leaving environmental factors with a low rate of contributions.

Discussion: School violence cannot be attributed to any single cause. Most authors agree on a pattern of possible causes, in which the interaction of all of them leads to their interpretation, and thereby to possible intervention and prevention models.