Perception and attitudes of teachers towards Violence against employees in elementary school

Violence in schools is a serious social and health problem that occurs in all forms of modern society. The main objective of the study is to investigate the incidence of violence against teachers in elementary schools in Šumadija district. The research is designed as a cross-sectional epidemiological analytical study. The research was conducted in 5 elementary schools in Kragujevac. After obtaining the approval of the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of Kragujevac No. 01-15927 and the consent of the principal, the data collection was conducted in the second semester of the school year 2016/17. in the period from 01.05.2017 to 31.05.2017, by interviewing teachers and students. The data source was a questionnaire specially designed for this research. The general questionnaire on basic sociodemographic characteristics is part of an analytical epidemiological study entitled "Violence in schools: prevalence, forms and risk factors" and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of Kragujevac (Decision No. 01-15927). One in three teachers (29.1%) reported exposure to some form of violence. Among those exposed to violence, the most common was multiple types of violence (17.3%), followed by physical violence (15.7%) and verbal violence (15%). Future research could examine in more detail the reasons why students use violence.