Some occupations expose more than others to violence. Teachers are in that way frequently exposed to aggressions, whose repercussions are not properly known. Psychological stress and trauma are the reference framework of this study of teachers’ experience who had suffered aggressions from students.
Some non-directive clinical interviews have been made to twenty-one secondary teachers in order to identify and to comprehend the impact specificities of such aggressions. This investigation has been completed by self-questionnaires (self-esteem, locus of control, assumptive worlds, social support, coping strategies, anxiety, depression, impact of event, post-traumatic stress disorder). Clinical cases study shows the peculiarity of each traumatic experience. Content analysis of interviews and psychometrical results show that the subsequent distress of such aggresssions is not really different from other victims’. The subjective experience of the event seems to play a greater part in the development of psychotraumatic symptomatology. Traumatized teachers have lost their identity references, their believes and their moral values. To give sense to the aggression and to restore moral order, they do their best to cope with it, focusing their efforts on seeking social support and problem solving. Psychotraumatic disorders were found to be mediated by availability of functional social support, specially occupational support. A feeling of disavowal may arise if headmasters undervalue the victims’ mental distress. In this case, secondary victimization and destruction of belonging ties should be feared. From a strictly theoretical point of view, this twofold approach of psychological stress and psychic traumatism has allowed to develop a model integrating these two concepts.
Key words : Victimology, teacher, violence, stress, (second) traumatism.