Relationships between School Climate, School Achievement, and Students’ Violent Behaviour

The quality of the school climate is often cited as an important factor for adapting to school life, which can largely influence students’ behaviour at school. This paper aims to examine the relationship between the school climate and violent behaviour and the differences in the mentioned variables concerning school achievement, gender, and a class of students in the function of a better approach to the prevention of violent behaviour. The research was conducted on a random sample of 823 high school students. The study used questionnaires for assessing violent behaviour (PRONA, Čolović, Kodžopeljić, Nikolašević 2014) and a questionnaire for evaluating the quality of the school climate (Vessels 1998). Students reported a lower level of violent behaviour. A statistically significant negative correlation between violent behaviour and the quality of the school climate was established. No statistically significant differences were found in the perception of the quality of the school climate concerning school achievement and gender. Still, there were in the assessment of violent behaviour concerning school achievement and differences concerning students’ gender. Statistically significant differences were found in the propensity for violent behaviour and the perception of the school climate concerning the class attended by the students. The above results indicate the importance of the quality of the school climate in the prevention of violent behaviour, but also the need to consider numerous additional factors to explain the occurrence of peer violence in school.