Abstract

The study reported in this article is based on a nationally representative sample of 10,400 students in grades 7 through 11 in 162 schools across Israel. The authors used hierarchical linear modeling to examine the differences between Jewish and Arab schools in the relationships between school-level variables-socioeconomic status (SES) of the school's neighborhood and students' families, school size and class size, school level (junior high and high), and school climate-and students' victimization reports (serious physical victimization, threats, moderate physical victimization, and verbal-social victimization). The results show that whereas school climate and school size seem to operate similarly across different cultural contexts, the SES of a school's neighborhood and students' families were associated with victimization for students in Arab schools only. Theoretical implications of these findings for school violence research in other cultures are discussed.