Tracing silent struggles: Examining the characteristics and correlates of teacher victimization through egocentric network analysis.

Abstract

A growing body of research has focused on teacher victimization, examining its prevalence and effects. However, no study has yet used network theory to examine the impact of teachers' networks with aggressive and violent students on psychological distress, burnout, and turnover intentions. Addressing this gap, we used egocentric network analysis and path analysis to explore (a) the structure (e.g., centrality, density) and characteristics (e.g., racial homophily, severity, frequency) of networks comprising aggressive and violent students and (b) their impacts on teacher psychological distress and burnout, subsequently influencing turnover intention. Five hundred and seven K-12 teachers were recruited from 42 U.S. states using snowball sampling, who collectively reported 1,703 aggressive or violent students. On average, each teacher experienced victimization from three different students. We found no tendency for those students to share racial or ethnic backgrounds with their victimized teachers. The network was also found to be not highly interconnected, pointing to individualized rather than group-based aggression and violence. Path analysis showed that teachers' network centrality with students exhibiting challenging behaviors was associated with increased psychological distress and burnout, which in turn was associated with turnover intention after controlling for demographic factors. Among teachers with aggressive and violent students, aggression frequency was linked to higher distress and burnout, while severity was associated with only burnout. Neither student network density nor racial similarity influenced these outcomes. Both stress and burnout were associated with teachers' turnover intentions. Implications for research, practice, and policy regarding teacher victimization were discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).