Report

Adolescent school injuries and classroom sex compositions in German secondary schools



Publication Details

Author list
Filser, Andreas; Stadtmüller, Sven; Lipp, Robert; Preetz, Richard
Publisher
Center for Open Science
Publication year
2021
Languages
English-United States


Link zum DOI


Abstract

School injuries are an important adolescent health problem. Previous research suggests that relevant risk behaviors for school injuries, risk-taking and aggression, are highly susceptible to peer effects. Specifically, evidence suggests that the ratio of males and females in peer groups (sex ratio) affects individuals’ propensity for aggression and risk-taking. However, research so far has ignored potential associations of classroom sex ratios with adolescent school injury risks. In this paper, we investigate the association of classroom sex compositions with adolescent school injuries in a longitudinal survey dataset containing 13,131 observations from 9,204 adolescent students (ages 13-16) from secondary schools in Germany. The data also allow us to identify injuries that were due to aggressive behavior and analyze these injuries in detail. Results from multilevel logistic regression models reveal that adolescent students’ risk for school injuries is significantly and positively associated with male-skewed classroom sex ratios. Moreover, we find an even stronger positive association between male-dominated classrooms and aggression-injury risks. Finally, we find that both boys’ and girls’ injury risks equally increase with a higher proportion of males in their classroom. We discuss the implications of our findings with regard to the sex ratio literature and potential interventions.



Authors/Editors



How to cite

Citation by Harvard Standard
Filser, A., Stadtmüller, S., Lipp, R. and Preetz, R., 2021. Adolescent school injuries and classroom sex compositions in German secondary schools, Center for Open Science.


Citation by APA
Filser,A. et al.. (2021). Adolescent school injuries and classroom sex compositions in German secondary schools. Center for Open Science.



Last updated on 2021-17-09 at 18:01