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School Violence Exposure as an Adverse Childhood Experience

Teachers College, Columbia University · with Columbia University · NCT06153316

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Opens the official ClinicalTrials.gov record, with the study team’s contacts. Bored Studies doesn’t enroll anyone.

Key facts

Compensation
Not posted. Ask the study team before screening.
Who can join
Ages 11–65 · All sexes
Healthy volunteers
Accepted
Study type
Observational
Target enrollment
2500
US sites recruiting
1
Study start
April 26, 2024
Record last updated
September 16, 2025

Status re-checked against ClinicalTrials.gov within the last 12 hours.

What the study is about

This study hypothesize that school safety strategies may contribute to poor mental health and distress among various school populations and proposes the following research questions to be answered through this study:

  • Is there a significant difference in the prevalence of mental health outcomes, perceived school safety, and academic engagement between early adolescent and adolescent students (grades 6 - 12) at schools that have experienced a school shooting and those that have not?
  • Are existing interventions to promote school safety and security associated with poor mental health outcomes among students and school staff?
  • Does the strength of this association between school safety interventions and mental health outcomes differ among students and teachers in those schools who have experienced a school shooting versus among students and teachers in those schools who never experienced a school shooting? And, among our sample of students, are these associations moderated by their ACE history? Participants will be asked to self-report data on their mental health and wellness, and perceived school safety through a survey.

Researchers will compare the surveys from the participants from exposure schools (those who experienced a gun shooting incident) with surveys from the participants from non-exposure schools (those who have not experienced a gun shooting incident)

Being studied: School shooting incident

Conditions: Mental Health Outcomes; Adverse Childhood Experiences; Perceived School Safety; Educational Outcomes

Eligibility criteria

Copied from the official record. The study team makes the final decision at screening.

Show full criteria

School-level Inclusion criteria

For a school to be considered for participation, it should meet all the following criteria:

  • The school must consent to participate in the study.
  • Gun shooting incident
  • For exposure schools: Must have experienced a gun shooting incident between 1/1/2015-12/31/2022 .
  • For non-exposure schools: there should not have been a gun shooting incident between 1/1/2011-12/31/2022.
  • Must have the student population of interest that is middle through grade 12, and-
  • For exposure schools: At least one grade that experienced the shooting should still be studying at the school.
  • For non-exposure schools: must have the same grade levels as the pair-matched case school and none of them should have been exposed to any gun shooting incident at that school.
  • Must be a public school.
  • All non-public schools (e.g., private, charter, parochial schools) and schools outside of the middle-12 range (e.g. daycares, only elementary, preschools, and universities) are not eligible for the study.

Individual-level Inclusion Criteria

Principals: Must be the current Principal of the participating school. Teachers: Must be a current teacher at the participating school. Students: Must be a current student at the participating school studying in grades 6-12.

Recruiting US locations

  • Teachers College, Columbia University

    New York, NY 10027

    Site contact: Sonali Rajan · 212-678-3458 · sr2345@tc.columbia.edu

Study contacts (from the official record)

  • Sonali Rajan · 212-678-3458 · sr2345@tc.columbia.edu
  • Charles Branas · 212-305-8755 · c.branas@columbia.edu
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School Violence Exposure as an Adverse Childhood Experience (NCT06153316) | Bored Studies