Abstract

Teachers are legally mandated to report suspected child abuse – a role that positions teachers as crucial figures in the detection and prevention of child abuse. It is, thus, important to explore underlying determinants of teachers’ likelihood to report suspected child abuse. In this research, we explore teachers’ and school administrators’ (N = 299) knowledge of abuse reporting policy and their self-reported intentions to report hypothetical instances of suspected child abuse. We also explore the relationship between compassion fatigue (i.e., job burnout and secondary traumatic stress stemming from vicarious exposure to client trauma) and teachers’ attitudes toward reporting suspected child abuse. A significant minority of teachers indicate that they would not report suspected child abuse – a finding that holds even after eliminating the 10.3% of teachers who were unaware of policy requiring teachers to report suspected child abuse. Supporting hypotheses, as compassion fatigue increased, negative attitudes toward child abuse reporting significantly increased. Additionally, increased compassion fatigue was significantly associated with increased job efficacy cynicism, psychological detachment from students, and diminished knowledge about reporting child abuse – all factors that statistically explained the relationship between compassion fatigue and negative attitudes toward reporting suspected abuse.

摘要

法律规定教师必须报告涉嫌虐待儿童的行为——这一角色使教师成为发现和预防虐待儿童行为的关键人物。因此，重要的是探索教师报告疑似虐待儿童的可能性的潜在决定因素。在这项研究中，我们探讨了教师和学校管理人员 ( N  = 299) 对虐待报告政策的了解以及他们报告疑似虐待儿童的假设事件的自我报告意图。我们还探讨了同情疲劳（即工作倦怠和因间接接触客户创伤而产生的继发性创伤压力）与教师对举报疑似虐待儿童的态度之间的关系。相当一部分教师表示他们不会报告疑似虐待儿童——即使排除了 10.3% 不了解要求教师报告疑似虐待儿童的政策的教师，这一发现仍然成立。支持假设，随着同情疲劳的增加，对虐待儿童报告的消极态度显着增加。此外，同情疲劳的增加与工作效能犬儒主义的增加、与学生的心理疏离以及报告虐待儿童的知识减少显着相关——所有这些因素都从统计学上解释了同情疲劳与报告疑似虐待的消极态度之间的关系。