School Discipline

• Child
• Young Adult

Child

School Behavior

Information about child behavior at school is collected from the mother, starting with the 1988 survey. The mother reports, for all school age children, whether the child has ever had any behavior problems at school resulting in a note or being asked to come in and talk to the teacher or principal. She also reports, in each survey round, whether the child has ever been suspended or expelled from school and the grade in which the event first happened. These items are assigned to the year-specific MOTHER SUPPLEMENT area of interest and can be found in the Child documentation as follows: 

In 2000 only, the above items were asked in the Child Supplement and therefore assigned to the year-specific CHILD SUPPLEMENT area of interest. In all other survey rounds, they are found in the MOTHER SUPPLEMENT area of interest.

School Survey

As part of the 1995-1996 Child School Survey, there is information on the number of times the child was suspended in 1993-1995 and the number of students suspended from the same school at the same grade level. The School Survey also reports the number of times the child was expelled and the number of children at the same grade level expelled in the child's school. These items, documented as follows, are assigned to the CHILD SCHOOL SURVEY area of interest:

Table 1. Variable titles and question names for school discipline questions from Child School Survey

For some children, information was obtained from more than one school, since the child attended more than one school during the interview window. The question names for variables from the Child Schooling Questionnaire are prefixed with a "C" following by the school number (1 or 2). Titles for questions from the first school begin wtih "SCHOOLING #1", and titles for questions from the second school begin with "SCHOOLING #2".

BPI Scale

As part of the antisocial subscale of the Behavior Problems Index, completed by mothers in all survey years for children ages 4 and older, there are two items related to school discipline:

BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS INDEX: CHILD IS DISOBEDIENT AT SCHOOL
BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS INDEX: CHILD HAS TROUBLE GETTING ALONG WITH TEACHER

The BPI items are assigned to the MOTHER SUPPLEMENT area of interest for each survey year. Since 2008, the BPI items are also assigned to the ASSESSMENT ITEMS area of interest.

Young Adult

While Young Adult respondents are not asked explicitly about any school discipline, they do provide information about the main reason they left school, as well as the main reason for any gaps in secondary school attendance, with one of the answer categories for those questions being suspension/expulsion.

Comparison to Other NLS Cohorts: The 1980 NLSY79 survey included several questions on school discipline problems: whether respondents had ever been suspended or expelled from school, and if so, the number of times, date of most recent disciplinary action, and when/if the youth had returned to school. Similar to the Young Adult, the questions in the NLSY79 schooling section about reasons for nonenrollment include expulsion/suspension. Information was collected on behavior problems evidenced by children of NLSY79 respondents that resulted in either the parent's notification or disciplinary action. NLSY97 respondents are asked whether they have been suspended and, if so, for what periods. The Young Women and the Young Men surveys ask respondents whether they have ever been suspended or expelled from school. For more precise details about the content of each survey, consult the appropriate cohort User's Guide using the tabs above for more information.