Risk of physical assault against school educators with histories of occupational and other violence: A case-control study

Abstract

A case-control study design was used to investigate risks of work-related physical assault (PA) associated with a history of violent victimization among educators. A total of 6,469 state-licensed educators (Kindergarten – Grade 12) worked in the previous 12~months and were eligible to participate. Exposure data were collected from cases (reporting a PA event in previous 12 months, n=290) for the month before PA, and from controls (no work-related PA in previous 12 months; n=867) for a randomly selected working month. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals identified increased risks for educators with any prior history of work-related (17.3, 11.4–26.3) or non-work-related PA (2.0, 1.2–3.5). In addition, PA risk in the previous twelve months increased with the number of previous victimizations, and risk also increased for educators with histories of non-physical violence (work- and non work-related). The results present a compelling case for targeted interventions and further research.