School violence: Population-based study of magnitude and risks for educators

Currently, limited data are available pertinent to violence against educators. A two-phase study was implemented to determine magnitude and consequences of physical assault (PA) and non-physical violence (NPV) and risk factors for PA among sampled Minnesota state-licensed, working kindergarten-grade 12 educators (n = 6,180). Phase-1 (mailed 12-month retrospective survey) collected demographics, personal characteristics, exposures, and violent occurrences and consequences; Phase-2 (mailed case-control survey) collected exposure data: activities; others in environment; school infrastructure and administration; assault deterrents; policies; and community socioeconomic status. Potentially confounding variables were selected for multiple logistic regression from directed acyclic graphs and re-weighting adjusted for potential non-response and unknown eligibility biases. Of the verified eligible (83% response), rates per 100 persons per year were: PA, 8.2; NPV, 38.3. Subcategory NPV rates included: threat, 20.5; verbal abuse, 32.9; sexual harassment, 4.5; bullying, 11.6. Perpetrators were primarily students, colleagues, and parents. Consequences included treatment required: PA, 22%, NPV, 16-27%; restricted activity: PA, 4%, NPV, 4-8%; change in work status: PA, 8%, NPV, 13%-25% -- bullying involved the most severe consequences. Multivariate modeling identified PA and NPV increased risks (ORs): working in a public alternative (1.6;3.9) or multiple schools (3.9;2.3) versus a public school; special education (4.7;1.6) versus classroom teacher; not married (1.4;1.4) versus married. Respective decreased risks (ORs) were: males (0.7;0.9) versus females; years worked in current school, >20 (0.4;0.7) versus >0-<5 years; part- (0.4;0.6) versus full-time. This unique study provides knowledge identifying the magnitude, consequences, and risk factors of violence experienced by educators – information necessary for intervention development.