Bullying and Harassment of Trainee Teachers

Abstract

The present study describes the prevalence of trainee teachers being victims to bullying and distinguishes between different types of bullying within a cross-sectional design. Moreover it shows interrelations between bullying and outcomes (intention to leave, job satisfaction, general health state, burnout, cognitive stress symptoms and satisfaction with life). The data was collected by means of the Negative Acts Questionnaire R (Einarsen, Hoel & Notelaers 2009), which contains work-related bullying, personal bullying and physically-intimidating bullying. The outcomes are measured by means of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ, Nübling et al., 2012). 342 German women and men (female = 81,9%. male = 18,1%; age: M = 28, SD = 4) in their second phase of the teacher-training participated online. First results show that 37,4% have experienced at least one negative weekly. The most common type of bullying is the work-related type (median: 14) followed by personal bullying (median: 9). The prevalence rates are higher among men (35,5%) than among women (16,8%). Correlations between bullying and worse outcomes on all variables were found. In summary the results are alarming and point out that there should be a greater focus on this topic, especially on prevention and intervention.