Violence against teachers in South Korea: negative consequences and factors leading to emotional distress.

Empirical studies indicate that violence against teachers is a globally prevalent phenomenon and has damaging negative effects on victimized teachers' physical and emotional well-being and teaching effectiveness. Nevertheless, limited empirical research has been conducted to identify factors affecting emotional distress among victimized teachers. This research contributes to the literature by exploring negative consequence of victimization and factors associated with victimized teachers' emotional distress in a South Korean context. The results indicate that students' verbal and noncontact physical aggression are highly correlated with teachers' emotional distress. Teachers' gender, student-oriented approach, and several incident characteristics (number of offending students, direct settlement with offending students) are significant predictors of emotional distress caused by either students' verbal threat or noncontact aggressive behaviors. Directions for future research and policy implications are discussed.