Student Victimization By Teachers in South Korea: Prevalence and Influence Factors

Purpose:The current study investigated the prevalence of psychological and physical victimization by teachers of South Korean middle school students and identified factors that influence student victimization. Based on the ecological perspective, this study inclusively analyzed the influence of student demographic characteristics (gender, grade level), their families(economic status, child abuse), and school experiences(academic performance, student-teacher relationship) on student victimization by teachers. The ultimate goal of this study was to obtain data that would be sufficient for proposing practical and policy changes to prevent student victimization by teachers.

Methods: Samples:Data were obtained from a large sample of 1,812 students (grades 7-9) in 50 middle schools in Seoul, and its surrounding province, Gyeonggi-Do. All of the students surveyed gave informed, voluntary consent and all information was collected ananymously.

Measures: Student reports of psychological and physical victimization by teachers were adopted from the Korean Institute of Criminology's (1996) "Study on violence around school." Gender was a dichotomous variable with males(1) and females(0). Grade levels ranged from grades 7 to 9. Family economic status was divided into five parts: very rich (1), somewhat rich (2), middle (3), somewhat poor (4), and very poor (5). Child abuse was measured by using thirteen items from The Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales (Straus et al., 1998). Academic performance variable, students were questioned about their examination performances across all subject areas in the last semester. Responses were 1=very good (average marks upper 20%); 2 = good (average marks 20~40%); 3 = moderate (average marks 40~60%); 4 = not so good (average marks 60~80%); and 5 = bad (average marks below 80%). Student-teacher relationship was measured by using five items from the school climate measure of Zullig et al.(2010). Data were analyzed using PASW Statistics 18.0 software for Windows. Descriptive statistics explored the frequency of each item of student victimization by teachers. Pearson correlations between all predictors were calculated. Finally, to determine the association of the relationships between study variables and student victimization by teachers, multiple regression analysis was employed.

Results: More than 18% reported psychological victimization by teachers and even more said they were physically abused (24.4%). Overall, 30.8% reported they were subjected to either psychological or physical victimization by teachers at least once in the previous semester. Regression model results indicate that male students (p<.001) were more likely to report victimization by teachers. Students from families of low economic status were more likely to report victimization by teachers (p<.05). Positive association with student victimization by teachers was noted for child abuse by parents at home (p<.001). Significant positive associations were also noted between student victimization by teachers and poor academic performance (p<.05). Significant negative associations were noted between student victimization by teachers and student-teacher relationships (p<.001). Among the variable in this model, student-teacher relationship (β=-.16), Gender (β=.15), and child abuse by parents (β=.15) were identified as the best predictors of student victimization by teachers in Korea.

Implications: We propose changes in education practices and in national policies to prevent student victimization.