New Study Looks At Parental Verbal Aggression Against School Personnel

A new study published in the Psychology of Violence looked at parental verbal and threatening aggression against administrators, teachers, and school mental health personnel.

“Our study is about parental aggression against school personnel,” study author Eric Anderman told us. “We were hoping to find out the prevalence and types of verbal aggression against school personnel. We expected to find that when verbal aggression did occur, it would primarily be directed against teachers.”

This study is part of the work of the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on Violence Against Teachers and School Personnel. Anderman, of the Ohio State University, is a member of the task force.

Surveys were administered to large samples of school personnel at two time points. The first survey assessed parental verbal aggression prior to the onset of COVID and during the height of the pandemic. The second survey assessed parental violence after COVID restrictions had been lifted.

Study results showed verbal aggression occurred at all time points and that school administrators were the group that was most likely to experience parental verbal aggression.

“We expected to find that teachers would experience the most verbal aggression,” Anderman told us. “We were quite surprised that school administrators experience it the most. We also were very surprised to see that all school personnel continued to experience verbal aggression from parents even during the height of pandemic restrictions, when most schools in the US were online.”

Anderman hopes the study brings greater awareness to the prevalence of verbal aggression that school personnel experience.

“Our results suggest that school leaders may be able to diminish parental aggression if schools utilize strategies to engage parents and welcome them into the school,” Anderman told us, “and if schools maintain positive communications and interactions with parents at all times.”

Categories: Anger , Anxiety , Family & Parenting | Tags: schools, mental health, aggression