Educational Sequelae of High School Misbehavior

Despite the fact that misbehavior in school is a pervasive problem to educators and despite its adverse consequences, few researchers have examined the range of misbehaviors by students, their antecedents, or their consequences. The authors used data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988 (NELS:88) conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to examine immediate and long-term educational sequelae of misbehavior in high school. The authors constructed an extent of serious misconduct (ESM) measure based on classroom and school misbehaviors, ranging from classroom disruption to fighting and gang membership. The authors first examined relationships among specific misbehaviors and the relationship of ESM to student and school demographic characteristics. Second, the authors studied relationships of ESM with high school and post-high school academic outcomes. Misbehavior was related to high school grades, test scores, and graduation and dropout rates. Misbehavior also was related to entering a postsecondary program of study and completing a postsecondary program. In both cases, well-behaved students were more likely to participate in postsecondary education than were moderately misbehaving students, but moderately mis-behaving students did not participate more than did seriously misbehaving students. The authors discussed results in terms of the need to understand more about the structure of school-related misbehavior and the antecedents of misbehavior, including characteristics of classrooms and schools that may exacerbate student misconduct.