Citation

Gerberich SG, Nachreiner NM, Ryan AD, Church TR, McGovern PM, Geisser MS, Mongin SJ, Watt GD, Feda DM, Sage SK, Pinder ED. Ann. Epidemiol. 2014; 24(5): 325-332.

Affiliation

Midwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety Education and Research Center, Regional Injury Prevention Research Center and Center for Violence Prevention and Control, Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, American College of Epidemiology, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.annepidem.2014.02.006

PMID

24636615

Abstract

PURPOSE: Although prior research focused primarily on student-on-student school violence, educators are also at risk. This study was designed to identify risk factors for assaults against educators.

METHODS: Kindergarten-grade 12 educators (n = 26,000), randomly selected from a state license database, were screened for eligibility (6,469, eligible) by mailed questionnaire. Phase 1 (12-month recall) identified eligible assault cases (n = 372) and controls (n = 1,116), June 2004 to December 2005; phase 2 (case-control study; response, 78%) enabled identification of exposures through 1-month recall before student-perpetrated assaults (cases) and randomly selected months (controls). Directed acyclic graphs enabled confounder selection for multivariable logistic regression analyses; reweighting adjusted for potential biases.

RESULTS: Risks (odds ratios, 95% confidence intervals) increased for working in: Special Education (5.84; 4.07-8.39) and School Social Work (7.18; 2.72-18.91); kindergarten to second grade (1.81; 1.18-2.77); urban (1.95; 1.38-2.76) schools; schools with less than 50 (8.40; 3.12-22.63), 50-200 (3.67; 1.84-7.34), 201-500 (2.09; 1.32-3.29), and 501-1000 (1.94; 1.25-3.01) students versus more than 1000; schools with inadequate resources always/frequently (1.62; 1.05-2.48) versus infrequently/never; inadequate building safety always/frequently (4.48; 2.54-7.90) versus infrequently/never; and environments with physical barriers (1.50; 1.07-2.10). Risks decreased with routine locker searches (0.49; 0.29-0.85) and accessible exits (0.36; 0.17-0.74).

CONCLUSIONS: Identification of assault risk factors provides a basis for further investigation and interventions.

Language: en