Prosocial and Antisocial Students’ Behaviour in the Context of School Safety

Prosocial behaviour is recognized as a factor that contributes to adolescent socialization, psychosocial adjustment, and development. This research examined the prosocial and antisocial students’ behaviour in relation to school safety. A sample of 719 students from the 2nd to 4th grades of high school completed a self-report questionnaire (476 girls, 219 boys; Mage = 16.64). The research was conducted in person during the first semester of 2021 at nine high schools in the territory of the Republic of Serbia. The questionnaire items were chosen in cooperation with a team of psychologists and pedagogues from selected high schools. The measures included the Prosocial Behaviour Scale, which includes the factors Prosocial behaviour (α=.96) and Antisocial behaviour (α=.89); and the School Safety Scale, which includes the factors Violent behaviour (α=.92); Unsafe school environments (α=.90); Victimization (α=.89); and Violation of norms (α=.86). Discriminant analysis established the existence of differences between groups of prosocial and antisocial students in the space defined by school safety variables. Differences between groups of prosocial students were determined in relation to violent behaviour (.766), unsafe school environment (.657) and victimisation (-.480). Differences between groups of antisocial students were determined in relation to violent behaviour (.975), victimization (-.239), unsafe school environment (.155) and violation of norms (.144). The absence of violent behaviour, victimization and a higher degree of safety in the school environment characterizes schools with a higher prevalence of prosocial student behaviour than antisocial. Therefore, promoting positive behaviour patterns in the school environment is important.