Greek teachers’ experience and perceptions of child abuse/neglect

Abstract

The present paper focuses on teachers’ experiences of child abuse/neglect cases, teachers’ awareness of reporting or discounting, and their ways of responding to a hypothetical disclosure of abuse/neglect. A total of 1877 teachers in Greek public schools participated from a national teacher in-service training across the country; of them, 306 (16.3%) reported that they had experiences with children exposed to forms of abuse in their professional career. The higher level of perceived awareness of reporting responsibility was significantly associated with a lower level of discounting and with more appropriate ways of teachers responding to a child’s disclosure. The findings are discussed within the Greek context, highly characterized by its lack of institutional arrangements and adequate child protection services that could facilitate schools to document, examine and share helpful practices for child abuse and neglect.

Keywords:

• Teachers’ role in child abuse/neglect
• awareness of reporting
• discounting