Background

The association between children's exposure to family violence and poor academic outcomes is well-established. Less is known about how exposure to violence in the school context, i.e., by teachers and by peers, affects academic functioning. Moreover, the role of children's mental health problems in this link has hardly been examined.

Objectives

We examined direct and indirect associations between children's experiences of violence by teachers and peers and children's mental health and school functioning while controlling for children's experiences of parental violence.

Participants

Using a multistage random sampling approach, we obtained a representative sample of 914 students (50.5 % girls, M_age = 12.58 years) from 12 primary schools in Tanzania.

Methods

In structured interviews, students' experiences of violence and mental health problems were assessed. Students' academic performance and absenteeism were documented using school records. Associations were examined using structural equation modeling.

Results

Experiences of more teacher and peer violence were each significantly associated with higher externalizing problems (teachers: β = 0.27 [95 %-CI: 0.12, 0.47]; peers: β = 0.17, [95 %-CI: 0.07, 0.32]). Higher externalizing problems were significantly associated with poorer academic performance (β = −0.13, [95 %-CI: −0.23, −0.02]), implying significant indirect associations between students' experiences of teacher violence (β = −0.04, [95 %-CI: −0.08, −0.01]) and peer violence (β = −0.02, [95 %-CI: −0.05, −0.01]) and their academic performance via externalizing problems.

Conclusion

Exposure to violence at school may impair children's academic performance indirectly by increasing attention and behaviour problems. Further investigations in longitudinal studies and implementation of interventions to reduce violence in schools are indicated.

中文翻译：

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外化问题调解了教师和同伴暴力与较差学校表现之间的关系

背景

儿童遭受家庭暴力与学业成绩差之间的关联是公认的。人们对在学校环境中（即教师和同龄人）接触暴力如何影响学业机能知之甚少。此外，儿童心理健康问题在这一环节中的作用几乎没有得到检验。

目标

我们检查了儿童遭受教师和同伴暴力的经历与儿童的心理健康和学校运作之间的直接和间接关联，同时控制了儿童遭受父母暴力的经历。

参加者

我们使用多阶段随机抽样方法， 从坦桑尼亚的 12 所小学获得了 914 名学生的代表性样本（50.5% 是女孩，M_{年龄= 12.58 岁）。}

方法

在结构化访谈中，评估了学生的暴力经历和心理健康问题。学生的学业成绩和旷课情况使用学校记录进行记录。使用结构方程模型检查关联。

结果

更多的教师和同伴暴力经历均与更高的外化问题显着相关（教师：β = 0.27 [95 %-CI：0.12，0.47]；同伴：β = 0.17，[95 %-CI：0.07，0.32]）。较高的外化问题与较差的学业成绩显着相​​关（β = -0.13，[95 %-CI：-0.23，-0.02]），这意味着学生遭受教师暴力的经历之间存在显着的间接关联（β = -0.04，[95 % -CI: −0.08, −0.01]) 和同伴暴力 (β = −0.02, [95 %-CI: −0.05, −0.01]) 以及他们通过外化问题的学业成绩。

结论

在学校接触暴力可能会增加注意力和行为问题，从而间接损害儿童的学业成绩。指出了纵向研究的进一步调查和干预措施的实施，以减少学校的暴力行为。