Teacher Perpetrated Violence in Liberia and Its Association with Experiences of Gender Based Violence

Background:  There are a number of factors contributing to the problem of teacher perpetrated gender based violence (GBV) in schools globally, including uneven power relations which can lead to transactional sex in exchange for goods or grades.   The effects of GBV are particularly harmful, including academic challenges, low self-esteem, health issues, and social shame. Using a study of schoolchildren in four counties in Liberia, the purpose of this analysis is to examine if teacher perpetrated violence is associated with the number of experiences of GBV experienced by students.

Methods: Secondary analysis was conducted on data collected from 1,797 female and male students who answered yes to any of twelve questions related to experiences of GBV.  This included a range of experiences from peeping, threatening participants with a weapon to force sex, and forcing participant to have sex when they did not want to.  The independent dichotomous variable, teacher perpetrating GBV, included response options of 0 no or 1 yes. First, using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression, the number of GBV experiences was regressed on teacher perpetrated violence, controlling for gender, myths related to GBV, the county participant attends school, experiences with GBV with non-teacher perpetrators, and telling someone about the abuse. Bivariate and full model multivariate regressions were conducted. Additionally, the dependent variable was dichotomized, with 7-12 violations representing increased incidences of GBV experiences. A full Linear Probability Model (LPM) of increased incidences was regressed on teacher perpetrated violence with this binary variable, holding all mentioned covariates constant.

 Results: Approximately 11% of both male and female students, responded affirmatively to teacher perpetration. Forty percent of the participants were female. Using OLS, among those reporting any GBV experiences, reporting that the violence was perpetrated by a teacher was associated with reporting 2.28 times more GBV experiences, compared to those who did not report a teacher (p <0.001.). However, in the full model, controlling for all covariates, teacher perpetrated violence was associated with reporting 1.12 times more GBV experiences compared to those who did not (p <0.001). Additionally, reporting a teacher as a perpetrator had a much higher association with number of experiences of gender based violence than any other perpetrator. Finally, males experienced a higher number of GBV experiences than females in the case of teacher perpetration in the OLS regression; however in the LPM model, the probability of increased incidences of GBV experiences was 4 percentage points higher for female students than for male students, holding all else constant. 

Implications:  Understanding the dynamic of teacher-student relations, as well as characteristics and frequency of sexually violent teacher behavior against both male and female students, is important to consider when preventing and responding to GBV in the community, and particularly the school environment.