Abstract

Students' and teachers' mental health is negatively affected by school violence, and positively affected by teachers' social wellbeing in school. We analyzed the mediating effect of teachers' perceived need to receive training in school violence prevention, as well as teachers' perceived magnitude of violence in their schools, on the negative association between the frequency of student maltreatment and teachers' perception of social coherence in their school. 397 elementary school teachers participated in this study. The mediating model theorized proved significant and improved the predictive power of the frequency of student maltreatment on teachers' social coherence in school. However, only teachers' perceptions of the need to receive teacher training on school violence had a mediating effect. Findings are discussed in terms of the need to strengthen and improve teacher training programs in school violence and school wellbeing, both for in-service as well as for teachers in formation.