Novice and Veteran Teachers’ Willingness to Seek Help for Dealing with Students’ Violence Against Them

Violence and bullying against teachers in school is an acute worldwide problem that negatively affects teachers and students alike. However, although many previous studies have addressed the way students handle school violence, very little is known about violence against teachers and teachers’ utilization of schools’ support systems for contending with this violence. The main aim of the current study was to investigate students’ violence against teachers and teachers’ willingness to seek help, differentiating between novice and veteran teachers and their willingness to seek help from both school management and teacher colleagues. Based on a sample of 166 (86.7% female) teachers (Mean age = 44.49; SD = 9.92), the findings revealed that novice teachers were at greater risk than were veteran teachers, as they suffered more violence than did their veteran counterparts. However, although there was a generally negative association between the extent of the violence and the willingness to seek help, veteran teachers were less willing than novice teachers to seek help as the level of violence increases. Findings point to the negative psychosocial costs of help-seeking for teachers and the need to provide support for both novice and veteran teachers so that they can better handle violent events.