Exposure to Aggression in School and Teachers’ Intention to Leave Their Profession—A Brief Report

Abstract

Exposure to violence and aggression in the workplace in general and in school in particular has been associated with teacher attrition. However, the underlying processes accounting for this association have not been systematically investigated. This study proposed a mediation model accounting for the above association through the involvement of stress. One hundred and eighty-eight teachers from schools all over northern Israel (92% women; mean age = 43.64; sd = 9.58) filled out measures of exposure to aggression (physical and verbal), demographics, a stress questionnaire, and a brief questionnaire assessing intentions to leave the teaching profession. Path analysis supported a mediation model in which stress levels mediated the association between exposure to physical aggression, followed by exposure to verbal aggression and age and intentions to leave teaching. The results are discussed in light of the existing empirical evidence and theory.