Individual, Family, Peer, and School Risk Factors for Teacher Victimization

In recent years, bullying and cyberbullying against teachers by students have been recognized as problems affecting educators teaching in different grades. Few studies to date have addressed explanatory risk factors related to the perpetrators (students) rather than the victims (teachers) in a longitudinal design, in order to establish the possible causes of this antisocial behavior to better develop prevention and intervention programs to reduce teacher victimization. The main aim of the present study is to analyze the effect on teacher victimization of individual and interpersonal risk factors, including empathy, moral disengagement, peer and parent support, awareness of online risks, and school climate. A total of 251 Italian students (aged 11-19) participated in a longitudinal study. The results showed that, for girls, high moral disengagement, low awareness of online risks and poor school climate were risk factors for later teacher victimization. For boys, high moral disengagement and low awareness of online risks were also risk factors, in addiction to low parental support and high peer support. The findings are discussed along with possible applications for prevention and intervention.