A qualitative examination of weapon violence against teachers: A theoretical framework and analysis.

Weapon violence in schools is a pressing concern with serious consequences. In this study, we propose and evaluate a theoretical framework of school-based weapon violence comprised of contributors, triggers, and motivation leading to weapon behaviors, taking into account weapon type, origin, and availability. This framework provides a foundation to investigate the multifaceted nature of weapon violence in schools. Specifically, we examine the weapon violence experiences of 417 U.S. teachers based on their reports of their most upsetting experiences with violence in their schools from various aggressors (i.e., students, parents, colleagues). Qualitative open-ended survey data were coded in NVivo after achieving strong interrater reliability (Gwet's agreement coefficient with first-order chance correction, AC1 = .97; κ = .80), and analyses were guided by the proposed theoretical framework. Results indicated that individual, school, peer, family, and community conditions contributed to situational triggers (teacher or other school-stakeholder actions), and aggressor motivation was typically instrumental or expressive. The type and origin of weapons also played a role in weapon behaviors of carrying, threats, and usage. Aggressors often used readily available objects (e.g., chair, pencil) as weapons against teachers in addition to traditional weapons (e.g., knives, guns). Findings suggest that weapon violence in schools requires a broader conceptualization beyond traditional weapons and violence between students. This study advances our understanding of pathways to weapon behaviors for prevention and intervention. Implications of findings for school-stakeholder training and policies are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Violence and aggression against educators and school personnel, retention, stress, and training needs: National survey results.

Aggression and violence against educators and school personnel have raised public health concerns that require attention from researchers, policymakers, and training providers in U.S. schools. School aggression and violence have negative effects on school personnel health and retention and on student achievement and development. In partnership with several national organizations, the American Psychological Association (APA) Task Force on Violence Against Educators and School Personnel administered two national, multi-informant, cross-sectional surveys. Time 1 data were collected in 2020-2021 from 14,966 respondents; participants reflected on their experiences of violence and aggression before COVID-19 and during COVID-19 restrictions in this survey. One year later, in 2022, 11,814 respondents completed the Time 2 survey after COVID-19 restrictions ended. Participants included teachers, school psychologists, social workers, counselors, staff members, and administrators from all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Rates of violence and aggression directed against educators by students, parents, colleagues, and administrators were substantial before COVID-19, were lower during COVID-19 restrictions, and returned to prepandemic levels or higher after COVID-19 restrictions. After COVID-19 restrictions, 22%-80% of respondents reported verbal or threatening aggression, and 2%-56% of respondents reported physical violence at least once during the year, varying by stakeholder role and aggressor. Rates of intentions to quit the profession ranged from 21% to 43% during COVID-19 restrictions (2020-2021) and from 23% to 57% after COVID-19 restrictions (2021-2022), varying by stakeholder role. Participants across roles reported substantial rates of anxiety and stress, especially during and after COVID-19 restrictions, and identified specific training needs. Implications for theory, research, training, and policy are presented. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Black Adolescent Self-Perceptions: The Roles of Ethnic Identity and Stress Exposure.

Ethnic identity is associated with various positive outcomes for Black adolescents, but more information is needed about its potential to protect adolescents exposed to stress. Stressful life events predict a range of health outcomes, yet few studies have examined their association with adolescent self-perception. Ethnic identity may serve as protection from stress. This study examines longitudinal data to understand relationships between ethnic identity, stressful life events, and self-perception (i.e., social competence, behavioral conduct, and global self-worth). The sample included 140 adolescents (65% female; 93% Black) with an average age of 12.55 (SD = 0.85). Results indicate stressful life events are associated with behavioral conduct self-perception, and ethnic identity is associated with global self-worth. Ethnic identity behavior and other group orientation are associated with self-perception. Ethnic identity and ethnic identity behavior moderate the relationship between stressful life events and behavioral conduct self-perception. Understanding the connections between adolescent stressors and strengths provides insight into research, practice, and policy directions to promote positive outcomes.

How school policies, strategies, and relational factors contribute to teacher victimization and school safety.

In this study, we examined how school policies and strategies (i.e., positive discipline, hardening strategies, and positive behavioral strategies) affect teacher relational factors and teacher reports of victimization and safety. Specifically, we examined the mediational roles of teacher support of student learning, maltreatment of students by teachers, and teachers' differential treatment of students in schools. Using a sample of 6643 pre-K-12th-grade teachers, path analysis results revealed that positive behavior strategies, hardening strategies, and positive discipline were indirectly associated with teacher victimization and sense of safety. Additionally, teachers' perceptions of other teachers maltreating students had the greatest contributions to their sense of safety and victimization by students. Positive discipline was directly and indirectly associated with teacher victimization and safety. Implications and directions for future studies are discussed.

Teacher-directed violence and anxiety and stress: Predicting intentions to transfer and quit.

Teacher well-being and experiences of violence have become issues of national concern, and teacher shortages have increased since the onset of COVID-19. In this national study, we examined verbal and physical violence against teachers from multiple aggressors and the role of anxiety and stress in predicting intentions to transfer positions or quit the profession. The majority of the sample of 9,370 pre-Kindergarten-12th grade teachers was White (79%) and female (79%). Descriptive analyses revealed that 25% of teachers reported intentions to transfer schools and 43% of teachers reported intentions to quit teaching. Structural equation model results indicated pre-COVID-19 verbal and threatening violence from students, parents, colleagues, and administrators predicted teacher anxiety and stress and intentions to transfer schools (R² ranged from .18 to .23) and quit the profession during COVID-19 (R² ranged from .34 to .36). Anxiety and stress significantly mediated the relation between verbal and threatening violence across all aggressors and teacher intentions to transfer schools and quit the profession. Physical violence from certain aggressors predicted anxiety and stress and intention to transfer schools (R² ranged from .15 to .18) and quit the profession (R² ranged from .32 to .34). Further, teacher and school characteristics, such as identifying as a person of color and teaching at the middle and high school levels, were associated with greater intentions to transfer schools and quit the profession. Implications for school-based research, practice, and policy are discussed to address violence and promote positive work and learning environments for all school stakeholders. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Addressing violence against educators: What do teachers say works?

School personnel safety and well-being have received increased attention via national outlets; however, research is limited. The current investigation is the first to examine the reported use and perceived effectiveness of commonly used school-based intervention approaches for addressing school violence, specifically violence against teachers in U.S. schools. A sample of 4,471 prekindergarten-12th grade teachers was asked to rate the use and perceived effectiveness of common school-based approaches, namely exclusionary discipline (e.g., suspensions), school hardening (e.g., metal detectors, school police), prevention (e.g., school climate improvement, social-emotional learning, classroom management), and crisis intervention practices (e.g., de-escalation, physical restraint) to address verbal/threatening, physical, and property violence against teachers. Findings revealed that teachers rated prevention practices as most effective in reducing violence against teachers. The use of exclusionary discipline and crisis intervention practices at school was positively associated with all three forms of violence. Ratings of the effectiveness of specific practices were associated with lower likelihoods of verbal/threatening (i.e., hardening, prevention), physical (i.e., exclusionary discipline, hardening, prevention), and property (i.e., hardening) violence. Implications for school practice, research, and policy are presented. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Violence directed against teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A social-ecological analysis of safety and well-being.

Violence against teachers is a public health crisis that has devastating effects on school personnel well-being, health, and retention, as well as students' educational outcomes. In collaboration with national organizations, the American Psychological Association Task Force on Violence against Educators conducted the first national survey on educator victimization that included 4,136 pre-K through 12th-grade teachers from all 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico during the pandemic. In the current study, 43.7% of teachers reported experiencing at least one verbal threat, physical assault, and/or property damage, with verbal threats being the most prevalent form of victimization during the pandemic. Using a social-ecological framework and logistic regression analyses, characteristics of teachers, school climate, and school organizational and community factors were examined as predictors of teacher victimization (i.e., verbal threats, physical, property violence) during the pandemic. Findings revealed that teacher role (i.e., special educators), negative and positive dimensions of school climate, as well as school organizational and community factors (i.e., percent of students receiving free and reduced lunch, instructional modality, school level, and urbanicity) significantly predicted greater teacher victimization. While findings revealed that in-person instruction significantly predicted teacher violence across aggressors, teacher victimization was reported across instructional modality (in-person, hybrid, remote). Results offer insights into possible contextual antecedents to teacher victimization, sense of safety, and well-being in schools. Implications for research and school practice are presented. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Natural mentoring among college students of color: Considerations for their ethnic-racial identity and psychological well-being.

This study examined: (a) the roles of ethnic-racial similarity between mentors and mentees and mentors' support for ethnic-racial identity (ERI) in mentees' ERI private regard, (b) the roles of ethnic-racial similarity and ERI support in mentees' psychological well-being, and (c) the indirect effects of ethnic-racial similarity and ERI support on psychological well-being via private regard. Participants were 231 college students of color who completed a survey and reported having a natural mentor. Path analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized model. More support for ERI was significantly associated with higher private regard and higher self-esteem. Higher ethnic-racial similarity was significantly related to higher psychological distress and higher self-esteem. An indirect effect was found between ERI support and ethnic-racial similarity and psychological well-being via private regard. The findings fill a gap in the literature on ethnic-racial processes in mentoring critical to the development of college students of color.

Meta-analyses of teacher-delivered trauma-based and trauma-informed care interventions.

OBJECTIVE: Children impacted by adversity and trauma often experience psychological, emotional, behavioral, and academic difficulties. To address these concerns, there is a growing call for trauma-informed school systems to better support students with trauma histories. Teacher involvement in trauma-informed approaches is vital but understudied. METHOD: We conducted a meta-analytic review of the literature published between 1990 and 2019 to evaluate outcomes for teachers and students involved in teacher-delivered trauma interventions. Inclusion criteria specified peer-reviewed studies, dissertations, and nonacademic reports that used randomized controlled and nonrandomized pre-post intervention designs. RESULTS: We found 20 articles, of which, 12 were pre-post and eight were randomized designs. Seven articles specifically incorporated trauma-informed care (TIC), whereas the other 13 were traditional trauma-based mental health interventions. We conducted meta-analyses to assess student trauma symptom severity and teacher knowledge of trauma-informed practices. Results revealed that after participating in teacher-delivered trauma interventions, students reported significantly reduced trauma symptom severity postintervention and less severity of symptoms than students in the control conditions. There were no differences between trauma-based and TIC intervention student outcomes. Teachers exhibited greater knowledge acquisition after participating in TIC interventions. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that trauma interventions, both with and without explicitly referencing TIC principles, are evidence-based in the context of teacher-facilitated school interventions. Additional research is needed to evaluate the organizational benefits of TIC, particularly to determine if the benefits of trauma-informed schools extend beyond students. We conclude with research, policy, and practice recommendations for transformative change to create trauma-informed schools. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Prevalence of Parental Violence Toward Teachers: A Meta-Analysis.

A growing literature on parental violence toward teachers has examined the prevalence of these incidents, yet there is considerable variation across studies. There is a need for a systematic and comprehensive review to assess the extent of parent-perpetrated violence toward teachers. Using a meta-analytic approach, we examined the prevalence of violence directed against teachers by parents and how these rates vary by reporting timeframe and type of violence. We identified 5,340 articles through our initial screening process, and our final analysis included 8 studies that met criteria for this meta-analysis. Our findings show that teachers are more likely to experience non-physical forms of violence as compared to physical violence and that rates are lower as the severity and intrusiveness of the violent act increases. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Organizational empowerment: A framework examining historical and systemic domains in school settings.

Organizational empowerment (OE) is a key construct in community psychology. We build on current understandings of OE by exploring history and systemic relationships as important aspects of OE. We conducted interviews with 20 school leaders from 16 schools that went through a district-wide transition of students with disabilities into general education schools and asked these leaders about their preparation and service provision during this transition. We utilized a grounded theory approach to analyze the data, and two domains of OE emerged: historical and systemic, each with multiple dimensions. The historical domain refers to schools' functioning before the transition, and the systemic domain reflects interactions between schools and the School District Office for Students with Disabilities during the transition. We provide a nuanced understanding of these domains of organizational empowerment and their interaction, as well as implications for empowerment theory and practice.

Physical aggression toward teachers: Antecedents, behaviors, and consequences.

School violence is a significant public health concern that occurs in many forms. Physical aggression can cause serious bodily injury and long-term negative effects, and both teachers and students experience significant rates of physical aggression. There are few studies examining teachers' experiences of physical aggression. Studies that go beyond prevalence are limited, and we know little about the triggers and consequences that surround these incidents. This qualitative investigation used an antecedent-behavior-consequence (A-B-C) framework to understand how incidents of physical aggression directed toward teachers unfold. The sample included 193 elementary and secondary teachers who completed an anonymous, online survey and described events leading up to and following their experiences with physical aggression. Using conventional content analysis, we identified common antecedents, such as breaking up fights, discipline, and directives, and common consequences, such as student removal, school staff involvement, positive outcomes, and inaction. Further analyses revealed seven common A-B-C patterns among physical aggression incidents that are highlighted and discussed. Utility of the A-B-C framework for teacher-directed violence is described, along with implications for research, practice, and policy. Exploring the context surrounding incidents of physical aggression directed against teachers provides useful information for violence prevention and interventions.

Gang-Related Attitudes and Affiliations Among African American Youth: An Ecological Model.

An array of individual and ecological factors promotes and detracts from gang involvement. Using a transactional-ecological framework, we test a theoretical model in which ecological and individual factors influence gang-related attitudes and affiliations. African American adolescents (N = 174), in 5th-8th grades, from two schools in a disadvantaged community, participated. Path analysis demonstrated the proposed model produced good fit with the data. Significant pathways suggest poverty is associated with less parental support, exposure to violence is associated with more gang-related attitudes and affiliations, and religiosity is associated with fewer gang-related attitudes and affiliations. These findings illustrate the importance of models including ecological and individual factors related to gang involvement and suggest ways to reduce societal problems associated with gangs.

Natural Mentoring, Academic Motivation, and Values Toward Education Among Latinx Adolescents.

We examined the roles of relational and instrumental relationship quality with natural mentors and academic intrinsic motivation on Latinx adolescents' perceived economic values of education. Participants were 256 Latinx youth (M = 15.07 years old; 116 boys, 140 girls) who completed surveys in 9th and 10th grades. Path analyses indicated significant cross-sectional effects in 9th grade such that instrumental quality was associated with more perceived benefits of education, and relational quality was associated with fewer perceived limitations of education. Neither instrumental nor relational quality in 9th grade was associated with either benefits or limitations of education in 10th grade. Instrumental relationship quality in 9th grade, however, did have an indirect effect on perceived benefits of education in 10th grade through intrinsic motivation. Implications for research on natural mentoring with Latinx adolescents are discussed.

The Role of Neighborhood Context and School Climate in School-Level Academic Achievement.

In recent years, the quality of education available to children has become increasingly dependent on the social and economic demographics of neighborhoods in which the children live. This study assesses the role of community violence in explaining the relation between socio-economic status (SES) and academic outcomes and the potential of positive school climate to promote academic achievement. With a sample of 297 Chicago public elementary schools, we examine community-level and school-level data and use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping to illustrate how school academic achievement coincides with neighborhood economics and crime statistics. Results support the hypothesized mediation, such that lower SES was associated with lower academic achievement, and violent crime partially mediated this relation. School climate was positively associated with academic achievement, and student safety significantly moderated the relation between SES and academic achievement. Implications for theory, research, and intervention are discussed.

The Ecology of Teachers' Experiences with Violence and Lack of Administrative Support.

Teacher-directed violence is a common, yet understudied, phenomenon. Perpetrators of violence against teachers include not just students, but also administrators, parents, and colleagues. Administrators are key stakeholders when it comes to shaping school climate and safety that can reduce or increase the negative impact of violence against teachers. In this study, 237 teachers' qualitative responses from a larger sample of 2,431 anonymous, online survey responses were examined to better understand their experiences with incidents of violence and how administrators played a role in these experiences. Results reveal that lack of administrator support negatively impacts teachers at multiple levels, including teachers' feelings (individual); challenges associated with addressing issues related to students, parents, and other perpetrators (interpersonal); and school systems and policies (organizational). This study highlights the importance of administrative support and illustrates how administrators' actions and inactions can have ripple effects at each level of the school microcosm. Implications for research, practice, and policy are discussed.

A Vision for the Future of Community Psychology Education and Training.

As we reflect on the founding vision of the field of community psychology in the United States, we assess our progress toward achieving, building upon, and refining this vision. We review early literature regarding the US vision of the field, provide a historical overview of education and training within the field, and provide recommendations to guide and strengthen our approach to education. Our recommendations include the following: 1) serve as a resource to communities, 2) promote a sense of community within our field, 3) diversify students, faculty, and leadership, 4) evaluate our efforts, 5) be current and relevant, 6) enhance the visibility and growth of our field, and 7) create globally minded and innovative CPists. We provide strategies for programs, faculty, linkages between researchers and practitioners, and the Society for Community Research and Action. We conclude that community psychology education and training continues to reflect the early vision; however, we believe we must make more intentional efforts to align with the mission and values of the field, and to engage in a critical analysis of our pedagogy. Enhancing and growing undergraduate and graduate education can facilitate the achievement of our goals to promote social justice, prevent and address social problems, and build community connections to become more effective, impactful, and global social change agents.

Thriving Among African-American Adolescents: Religiosity, Religious Support, and Communalism.

While research has identified some positive factors in the lives of African-American adolescents, there is limited, yet growing, empirical research examining how positive factors foster thriving for these youth. Using a positive youth development framework, we examined naturally occurring factors that promote thriving among African-American adolescents. This cross-sectional study included 152 youth who were surveyed at five Black churches in a large Midwestern city. Using MPlus, the structural regression model results revealed support for a model that demonstrated religiosity, religious support, and communalism are significantly and directly related to thriving among African-American adolescents. Implications for theory, research and practice are discussed. Moving from a deficit lens to a strengths-based approach can facilitate understanding of developmental processes and provide a foundation for supporting and enhancing positive outcomes among African-American adolescents.

Two ecological models of academic achievement among diverse students with and without disabilities in transition.

School experiences can have positive effects on student academic achievement, yet less is known about intermediary processes that contribute to these positive effects. We examined pathways between school experiences and academic achievement among 117 low-income urban students of color, many with disabilities, who transitioned to other schools following a school closure. Using structural equation modeling, we tested two ecological models that examined the relationships among self-reported school experiences, school support, academic self-efficacy, and school-reported academic achievement. The model in which the relationship between school experiences and academic achievement is mediated by both school support and academic self-efficacy, and that takes previous academic achievement into account, was an excellent fit with the data. The roles of contextual and individual factors as they relate to academic achievement, and the implications of these findings, are discussed.