PONE-D-25-68551Subject: Submission of Original Research: "Individual, Community, and Societal Drivers of Adolescent Peer Violence in Asella, Ethiopia: A School-Based Cross-Sectional Study Utilizing the Socio-Ecological Model."

PLOS One

Dear Dr. Demissie,

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Ilse Bloom

Staff Editor

PLOS One

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Dear Authors,

I have read your manuscript with great interest. I want to congratulate the authors on a well-conducted study. The study can constitute an important contribution to the empirical evidence on peer violence following the Socio-Ecological Model and the need for school and community-level initiatives to mitigate adolescent violence. However, I would like to draw the authors' attention to aspects of their manuscript that would need more detailed elaboration and consideration. Please refer to the attached document.

Reviewer #2: 1. In the abstract section, please include arguments that demonstrate the urgency and novelty of the study. The abstract is too dense with technical terms such as "Socio-Ecological Model (SEM)," "General Self-Efficacy (GSE)," and "bully-victims" without brief explanations, which can confuse the general reader.

2. The introduction presents issues that are too general and lack specificity regarding peer violence in urban settings like Asella. For example, there is no clear distinction between peer violence and other forms of violence, such as gender-based violence (GBV). Furthermore, there is no clear emphasis on urgency: no real-time data are available in Ethiopia, which would strengthen its relevance. The introduction may also be enhanced with clearer contextualization within secondary school education. The explanation of the underlying theory (socio-ecological model) could be more systematic, and the articulation of research gaps could be made more explicit.

3. In the methods section, the validity and reliability of the research instrument are not described in sufficient detail. In addition, the data collection procedures require further clarification. Inclusion criteria remain unclear; specify the exact age range and grade for participants to avoid selection bias, as older adolescents may have increased exposure to violence. Prevalence assumptions for sample size calculations are drawn from non-specific peer violence studies.

4. In the results section, please add narrative explanations for each table. The presentation of the results remains largely descriptive and lacks sufficient interpretive depth. The results do not display crude OR for comparison with adjusted OR (AOR), making it difficult to assess confounding factors.

5. The discussion section is too concise and normative, more like an extension of the conclusion than an in-depth analysis. The lack of exploration of causal mechanisms (e.g., how low self-efficacy mediates the effects of witnessing violence) makes it less compelling. Besides that, the linkage to the socio-ecological model needs to be strengthened. In addition, comparisons with previous studies are limited, and the implications for school health education are not discussed in sufficient depth.

6. In the conclusion section, please add research limitations.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Review_PONE-D-25-68551.pdf

Attachment

Submitted filename: REVIEWERS COMMENT.pdf

Individual, Community, and Societal Drivers of Adolescent Peer Violence in Asella, Ethiopia: A School-Based Cross-Sectional Study Utilizing the Socio-Ecological Model

PONE-D-25-68551R1

Dear Dr. Demissie,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Vincenzo De Luca

Academic Editor

PLOS One

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: This manuscript addresses an interesting and relevant topic, and the research question is generally clear. The authors have addressed all of the reviewers' feedback. These improvements make this study potentially useful to readers in this field, particularly as it seeks to provide evidence on an issue of practical and scientific importance.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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