Investigating Resilience in the Context of Exclusionary Discipline

Abstract

Exclusionary school discipline is widely adopted by American schools. Existing literature documents that school suspension and expulsion are associated with subsequent negative outcomes including antisocial behaviors, substance use, and poor grades. Still, many students who get suspended or expelled do not exhibit these outcomes. Because it is hard to change the discipline structure entirely, it is important to understand why students respond to exclusionary discipline differently. The objective of the current dissertation is to move beyond negative outcomes of school discipline to explore predictors of resilience, that is, good outcomes, among youth who get excluded from school. Drawing on labeling theories, exclusionary discipline may promote negative outcomes by alienating people from conventional institutions. Therefore, the key to why many students demonstrate resilience after experiencing exclusionary discipline may lie in connections to conventional institutions. The current dissertation focuses on connections to two domains of conventional institutions among youth: parents and schools. Using data from the National Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, this dissertation explores whether parental attachment, parental support, school attachment, and school commitment predict resilience, measured as no involvement in delinquency or substance use and obtaining passing grades across all academic core courses. Furthermore, Black students may react to exclusionary discipline differently compared to White because of their overrepresentation in the use of exclusionary discipline and unique broader social environment they live in. As such, this dissertation also explores whether the relationship between the potential predictors and resilience differ by race. Results suggest that being suspended/expelled is associated with a higher likelihood of engaging in delinquency and substance use as well as a lower likelihood of obtaining passing grades across all core courses at a later time. However, the four types of connections to conventional institutions predict good outcomes in general instead of resilience distinctively for those who are suspended/expelled. It also appears that the four factors predict good outcomes better for the students who are not suspended/expelled at Wave I compared to those who are. Finally, race does not moderate the relationships between the four factors and resilience. However, school commitment appears to be a substantively stronger predictor of good outcomes for Black students regardless of discipline status. This dissertation has several important implications. First, it is important to understand the divergent paths that students take after receiving exclusionary discipline, and it is critical to explore the negative cases in criminological research in general in order to complete our understanding about risks and adversities. Second, because connections to conventional institutions appear to be less impactful on the students who have weaker connections to such institutions, it is important to strengthen their connections to these institutions so that parents and school can be more effective in exerting informal social control. Third, nurturing school commitment may be particularly beneficial for racial minorities; schools should pay attention to racial minority students’ race-related experiences. Last but not least, the negative outcomes associated with school suspension and expulsion suggest the importance of reforming the current discipline structure and seeking alternatives to exclusionary discipline. Future research may benefit from exploring heterogeneities in the application of exclusionary discipline and continuing seeking for alternatives to school exclusion. It would also be beneficial for future research to explore other potential factors of resilience in this context such as prosocial peers.