Affiliations: Center for Violence Prevention and Control and Midwest
Center for Occupational Health and Safety Education and Research Center,
Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University
of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA | Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, Faculty of
Economics and Administrative Sciences, University of Hacettepe, Ankara,
Turkey | Division of Behavioral Medicine, State University of
New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Nancy Nachreiner, PhD, Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of
Public Health, University of Minnesota, 420 Delaware St. SE, MMC 807,
Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. Tel.: +1 612 625 2487; Fax: +1 612 626 4837;
E-mail: nachr001@umn.edu
Abstract: A case-control study design was used to investigate risks of
work-related physical assault (PA) associated with a history of violent
victimization among educators. A total of 6,469 state-licensed educators
(Kindergarten – Grade 12) worked in the previous 12~months and were
eligible to participate. Exposure data were collected from cases (reporting a
PA event in previous 12 months, n=290) for the month before PA, and from
controls (no work-related PA in previous 12 months; n=867) for a randomly
selected working month. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals identified
increased risks for educators with any prior history of work-related (17.3,
11.4–26.3) or non-work-related PA (2.0, 1.2–3.5). In addition, PA
risk in the previous twelve months increased with the number of previous
victimizations, and risk also increased for educators with histories of
non-physical violence (work- and non work-related). The results present a
compelling case for targeted interventions and further research.
