Verbal Aggression Among Students With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders: Teacher Perceptions of Harm, Levels of Concern, and Relationship With Certification Status

Abstract

Students who exhibit emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) typically have high frequencies of disruptive and noncompliant behavior including physical and verbal aggression (VA). Physical aggression attracts great concern from school professionals yet VA is often overlooked, despite being a highly pervasive and harmful social act. We surveyed 279 first to 12th grade teachers of students with EBD to assess their perceptions about the harmfulness of VA, students’ intent to harm, their concern about the frequency and/or intensity of VA, and concern about types of verbally aggressive messages. We investigated if these perceptions differed when teachers considered students with EBD compared with typical peers and if special education certification related to responsiveness to VA. The majority of teachers reported that VA was either somewhat or very harmful and perceived students with EBD to be just kidding around and not intending to hurt others when perpetrating VA. Compared with noncertified colleagues, certified teachers reported more concern about VA, more intent to harm when students with EBD exhibit VA, and they were more likely than their noncertified counterparts to report the use of a structured intervention/curriculum to reduce VA. We discuss implications for special education teacher preparation and offer suggestions for further research.

Students With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders and Verbal Aggression: Why School Professionals Should Care and What They Can Do

“…Only about 3% of the teachers surveyed felt that students with EBD very often used VA with the intent to harm another student. Succinctly, while teachers felt VA was somewhat to very harmful, they also perceived that students with EBD were mostly just kidding around and not intending to hurt others when perpetrating VA. Smith et al (2020) also found that teachers believed comments about student appearance were harmful for students with EBD (60%) and a majority of teachers indicated that insulting names were very harmful (65%). Although this finding is encouraging, teachers must also understand that verbal exchanges that appear to be innocuous may be perceived by the victim as harmful.…”

“…Although recognition of the harmful nature of VA is critical, a more robust and nuanced understanding of the harmfulness of VA is also necessary. For example, in a study of teachers who work with students with EBD, Smith et al (2020) found the large majority of teacher respondents believed VA was somewhat to very harmful, but just under half of teachers indicated that students with EBD never or rarely committed acts of VA with the intent to harm (48%). Only about 3% of the teachers surveyed felt that students with EBD very often used VA with the intent to harm another student.…”

“…or escalate conflict intensity. These issues underscore the important role that teacher training plays in addressing VA (Smith et al, 2020).…”

“…What these behavioral approaches do not do, however, is engender the cognitive self-regulatory processes needed to override the habitual use of VA and the response sequences such as verbal and physical retaliation that frustrate autonomous, sustained, and generalized positive social interactions (Smith et al, 2020). The high likelihood reported by teachers of physical aggression as a response to VA emphasizes the importance of teaching students effective prosocial verbal alternatives along with self-regulatory skills such as controlling strong emotions and effectively solving social conflicts.…”

“…Ultimately, the VA exhibited and experienced by students like Amari and Bradley necessitates the same attention and coordinated responses already afforded to other forms of aggression. Taylor, G. G. (2020). VA among students with emotional and behavioral disorders: Teacher perceptions of harm, levels of concern, and relationship with certification status.…”