The Relationship between Teacher Self-Efficacy and Violence toward Students as Mediated by Teacher's Attitude

Abstract

School violence is an issue of national and international concern, especially because of its adverse impact on students' physical and emotional well-being (Akiba, LeTendre, Baker, & Goesling, 2002). However, little attention has been paid to victimization of students by their own teachers (Hyman & Perone, 1998). Previous studies that examined this issue found that students are exposed to high levels of corporal punishment by school staff in different countries around the world, such as Australia (Delfabbro et al., 2005), Korea and China (Kim et al., 2000), and the United States (Office for Civil Rights, 2006). Khoury-Kassabri, Astor, and Benbenishty (2008), in a study of 27,316 students in grades 4 through 11 in Israel, found that almost one-third of Israeli students reported emotional maltreatment by a staff member. Close to one-fifth of all students reported being a victim of physical maltreatment. This study examined both physical and emotional maltreatment. Emotional maltreatment may be verbal or nonverbal and includes name calling, mocking the student's appearance and disabilities, humiliating the student in front of classmates, and behaving in blatantly discriminatory ways against certain students (Benbenishty, Zeira, Astor, & Khoury-Kassabri, 2002). Hyman (1990) defined corporal punishment in school as the infliction of pain or confinement as a penalty for an offense committed by a student. Some forms of physical maltreatment may be regarded as intentional and acceptable corporal punishment. In many other instances, physical maltreatment by staff in school is not part of an educational policy advocating corporal punishment. Rather, staff may react to infractions of discipline and provocation by using various degrees of force, such as pushing, shoving, slapping, pinching, punching, or kicking (Hyman & Snook, 2000). Previous studies that attempted to identify the risk factors for staff maltreatment have not examined teachers' characteristics. The aim of the current study was to examine the association between teachers' reports on use of violence toward their students and teachers' characteristics. More specifically, in this study, the contribution of teachers' self-efficacy, attitudes toward violence, and background variables (for example, gender, teaching experience) to the understanding of child maltreatment by teachers is explored. MALTREATMENT WITHIN ARAB SCHOOLS This study focused on Arab homeroom teachers in Israel. In previous works in Israel, it was found that children in Arab schools reported much more staff maltreatment than children in Jewish schools (Khoury-Kassabri, 2006), and a preliminary analysis of this study by the author (Khoury-Kassabri, 2008) found that Jewish teachers reported almost no violence toward their students. Physical violence was reported by 1.9% of teachers, and emotional maltreatment was reported by about 3%. Because of these low numbers, the current work focuses on Arab teachers. It should be noted that Arab students are being maltreated by Arab staff.' There is almost no Jewish staff in Arab schools and vice versa (Benbenishty, Zeira, & Astor, 2002). Some of these differences were attributed to the socioeconomic differences between Arabs and Jews in Israel. Arabs in Israel form a minority that is characterized by higher rates of poverty and unemployment and much lower expenditure of public funds for social services (such as education) compared with the Jewish majority (Hareven, 2002; Kop, 2004). However, previous studies found that, even after controlling for socioeconomic status, there were still clear gaps between Jewish and Arab students in reports of perpetration. The aim of the current study was to examine the contribution of the teachers' characteristics to their reports of violence toward students. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Teachers Self-Efficacy Many studies on teachers' self-efficacy were influenced by Bandura's (1977, 1982) conceptualization of self-efficacy in his cognitive social learning theory. …