Student violence dulls the protective effect of administrator support, new research shows, even as backing remains vital to retention.
A U.S study of early childhood through Year 12 teachers has found that support from school principals reduces stress and helps retain staff. But that protective effect weakens sharply once students direct violence at teachers.
The findings are particularly relevant to Australia, where teacher shortages and workforce pressures remain an ongoing challenge for school leaders.
Support helps, but has limits
The study, “Necessary but Not Sufficient: School Administrator Support and Teacher Safety, Anxiety/Stress, Retention, and Victimization,” was published in Educational Researcher, a journal of the American Educational Research Association. It drew on a nationally representative survey of 5,500 K–12 teachers.
The researchers found that teachers’ perceptions of administrator support were negatively linked to their intentions to transfer or quit. This means that higher perceived support corresponded with lower intent to leave, largely because supported teachers felt safer at work.
Andrew Perry, a senior lecturer in educational studies at Ohio State University who led the project, said the findings confirmed the team’s expectations. “Support is beneficial and necessary, but not sufficient,” he said. “You have to have it, but in the face of victimization, support alone is not enough.”
The research team, which included Ohio State professor Eric Anderman, defined administrator support around transparency and communication, including whether teachers feel comfortable discussing discipline matters with principals and whether they believe administrators will back them during disciplinary incidents.
In the sample studied, 44% of educators reported experiencing student victimisation, and as many as 80% faced verbal or threatening aggression. Among teachers who reported the highest levels of victimisation, high principal support no longer changed their perceptions of safety. Perry described this as the violence “numbing” the benefit of that support.
Primary teachers most exposed
Primary school teachers reported higher rates of victimisation than colleagues at other grade levels. Perry attributed this to younger students’ more limited capacity for self-regulation, making incidents such as hitting, biting, throwing objects, or screaming more likely.
The researchers also examined which school-level strategies actually reduce violence. A 2024 School Psychology paper co-authored by Perry found that zero-tolerance policies and school-hardening measures did not reduce teacher violence. Instead, Perry said, “the most effective strategies are restorative, prevention-based approaches that build a climate of mutual respect, safety and integrity.”
Independent reporting on the study noted restorative discipline policies focused on preventing violence are more effective at reducing teacher victimisation than zero-tolerance, exclusionary approaches. Perry described the findings as an urgent call for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers to better understand and prevent teacher victimisation.
Retention requires more than one fix
The study arrives amid a persistent national teacher shortage, a challenge Australian schools are also facing. The authors noted that about one-third of educators who express intent to leave follow through within a year.
Perry and his colleagues concluded that administrator support needs to work alongside clear, consistent discipline policies and violence-prevention initiatives that involve all school stakeholders, rather than standing alone as a retention strategy.
“Violence against teachers is real, pervasive and impactful,” Perry said. “Teacher attrition leads to cascading consequences: schools lose experienced veteran teachers, and replacing them is expensive and leads to inexperienced instruction.”
The research was conducted with the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on Violence Against Teachers and School Personnel.