The Effects of Student Violence Against School Employees on Employee Burnout and Work Engagement: The Roles of Perceived School Unsafety and Transformational Leadership

Victimization of school staff by students is a serious topic that receives scant attention. In this study, we quantified acts of student violence against school staff in one large school district in the Northeastern U.S. and examined the extent to which this type of victimization is associated with burnout and work engagement. We also examined a potential mediator (staff members' perceptions of safety at school) and moderator (staff member's perceptions of school leadership) of the relationship between victimization and both burnout and work engagement. These research questions were considered using cross-sectional, self-report data from 728 employees who responded to an anonymous, online survey. Consistent with our hypotheses, victimization was positively associated with burnout and negatively associated with work engagement. In addition, staff perceptions of school unsafety partially mediated the relationship between victimization and both burnout and work engagement, whereas transformational leadership buffered the effect of student violence against school employees on perceived school unsafety and work engagement. These results support the notion that student violence against school employees can be considered a job demand, whereas transformational leadership may act as a job resource. Moreover, our findings suggest that workplace safety perceptions can be a mediating mechanism between job demands and well-being outcomes.