How School Climate Mediates between Parental and Community Variables on Social Worker, Psychologist, and Counselor Victimization By Students

Abstract

Background/Purpose: Violence against school personnel has been a significant social problem globally. Even though a few studies identified parental, school, and community factors as significant contributors to school violence, the mechanisms explaining how these factors interactively influence victimization remain underexplored. In addition, previous studies largely focused on victimization against students and teachers, while research on victimization against pupil personnel workers is lacking. School pupil personnel workers refer to a diverse group of professionals, including school social workers, psychologists, and counselors. Compared to teachers, they are more vulnerable to victimization in school due to hierarchy, role definition, educational background, and discrimination. In addition, school social workers, psychologists, and counselors have seldom been discussed together in the existing literature, even though all of them play essential roles in providing school safety and mental health services.

Drawing on Astor and Benbenishty's heuristic social-ecological framework, this study aims to explore how school climate factors (e.g.,pupil personnel workers and student relationships, positive school culture, and student behavioral problems) mediate the relationship between parental and community variables and school social worker, psychologist, and counselor victimization by students

Methods: The sample of this study is from the second wave data of a national online survey designed by the American Psychological Association (APA) Task Force on Violence Against Educators and School Personnel. The survey was conducted from 2021 to 2022 and was open to relevant pre-K-12 school personnel. Participants were from all 50 states and Puerto Rico, yielding a large convenience sample. The final sample includes 1713 school pupil personnel workers.

Results: The structural equation modeling results indicate that the proposed model fits the data well (X² = 934.541(df=168, p< 0.001) CFI=0.945 TLI=0.931 RMSEA=0.055 SRMR=0.042). Parental support for pupil personnel workers was associated with both verbal and physical victimization directly but perceived neighborhood danger was only directly associated with verbal victimization. In terms of the indirect effects, results showed that both parental support for pupil personnel workers and perceived neighborhood danger had significant indirect impacts on verbal victimization through pupil personnel workers and student relationship problems and student behavioral problems, and on physical victimization through pupil personnel workers and student relationship problems and positive school culture.

Conclusions and Implications: The findings illuminate how parental and community factors, through school climate dimensions such as pupil personnel worker and student relationship problems, positive school culture, and student behavioral problems, contribute to both verbal and physical victimization of school social workers, psychologists, and counselors. It underscores the importance of fostering positive relationships between pupil personnel and students as a buffer against victimization. Schools also should prioritize building a positive school culture and effectively managing student behavioral problems to create a safer environment for school social workers, psychologists, and counselors. Initiatives to enhance parental support for pupil personnel and strategies to mitigate the perceived dangers of the surrounding community are also essential.