Work-related violence against educators in Minnesota: Rates and risks based on hours exposed Chia Wei ⁎, Susan G. Gerberich, Bruce H. Alexander, Andy D. Ryan, Nancy M. Nachreiner, Steve J. Mongin Regional Injury Prevention Research Center and Center for Violence Prevention and Control, Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, 1260 Mayo Building, Mayo Mail Code 807, 420 Delaware St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States abstract article info Available online 8 January 2013 Keywords: Occupational violence Physical assault Nonphysical violence Risk factors Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAG) Problem: Violence is a major occupational problem; yet, rigorous studies focused on educators to address this problem are limited. The objective was to identify educators' potential risks for physical assault (PA) and nonphysical violence (NPV), based on hours exposed. Methods: A total of 4,731 licensed kindergarten through grade 12 Minnesota educators, identified from the Minnesota Department of Education database, participated. Specially designed mailed questionnaires (12-month recall) enabled data collection. Calculated PA and NPV rates, per 100,000 working hours, used Poisson regression. Directed acyclic graphs identified confounders for multivariable analysis, adjusted for non-response and unknown eligibility. Results: The total PA rate was 5.3; PA risks increased for educators who: were non-married versus married; held master's degrees, or education specialist degrees, versus associate/bachelor's degrees; worked in public alternative and various school types, versus public schools; worked as social workers, in special education or multiple activities, versus standard class- room teaching; worked with b 10, versus 10 to b 25 students in the class. The total NPV rate was 26.4; subcategory rates were: threat (34.8); sexual harassment (7.6); verbal abuse (55.5); bullying (19.6). Increased risks for NPV included: 30–39 and 60–79, versus 50–59 years of age; non-married versus married; working in public alternative versus public schools; working part-time or substitute, versus full-time; teaching in special ed- ucation or multiple activities, versus standard classroom teaching; teaching in class sizes b 10 and ≥25, versus 10–24 students; teaching in grades 3–12 and multiple grades, versus kindergarten to second grade. The investi- gated results for PA and NPV were similar, with a few exceptions. Discussion and Impact on Industry: Results from this study provided information about factors associated with increased and decreased risks for violence against educators, based on hours worked. In addition, they provided a basis for further investigations to reduce violence against educators in the school environment. © 2013 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Problem Physical assault (PA) and non-physical violence (NPV) have been recognized as a major public health issue in the work environment (Rosenberg & Fenley, 1991). According to the 1993–1999 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), there was an average of 1.7 million people who experienced violent crimes while working or on duty in the United States (U.S.) (Duhart, 2001). One commonly overlooked occupa- tion that has a high risk of work-related violence is teaching/education (DeVoe, Peter, Noonan, Snyder, & Baum, 2005; Dinkes, Cataldi, & Lin-Kelly, 2007; Duhart, 2001). In particular, educators reportedly have a higher risk for simple assault (an attack without a weapon) than aggravated assault (an attack with a weapon) (Duhart, 2001). Between 1999 and 2003, it was estimated that 183,000 teachers were victims of non-fatal crimes in schools, accounting for an annual rate of 39 crimes per 1,000 teachers (DeVoe et al., 2005). Furthermore, students play an important role in violence against educators as they have been identified as the primary perpetrators (DeVoe et al., 2005; Fisher & Kettl, 2003; Gerberich et al., 2011; Hashemi & Webster, 1998; Levin et al., 2006; Peek-Asa, Schaffer, Kraus, & Howard, 1998). It has also been reported that risk of school work-related violence varies across geographical locations; teachers working in city versus suburban or rural schools were more likely to have been physically attacked or threatened with injury by students (Dinkes et al., 2007). In addition to location, the grade level may also be associated with violence rates: U.S. junior high school teachers had a higher annual work-related vio- lence rate per 1,000 teachers (54.2) than high school (38.1) and ele- mentary school teachers (16.8); however, special education teachers had the highest rate among all teaching categories (68.4) (Duhart, 2001). It has been reported that violence affects teachers' performance Journal of Safety Research 44 (2013) 73–85 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, 1260 Mayo Building, Mayo Mail Code 807, 420 Delaware St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States. Tel.: + 1 612 625 6904. E-mail addresses: weixx138@umn.edu (C. Wei), gerbe001@umn.edu (S.G. Gerberich), balex@umn.edu (B.H. Alexander), adr@cccs.umn.edu (A.D. Ryan), nachr001@umn.edu (N.M. Nachreiner), sjmongin@umn.edu (S.J. Mongin). 0022-4375/$ – see front matter © 2013 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2012.12.005 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Safety Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jsr