Teacher’s abuse of authority: development of a measuring instrument

Abstract

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on the unfair treatment some teachers have with their students, abusing their authority and consequences on personal and academic welfare. Currently there is no history of robust assessment tools of Teacher’s Abuse of Authority in the Spanish context. The aim of the study is to present the development process of the Scale of Perceived Teacher Abuse of Authority (EAADP) and propose a model to structure theoretically the scale. The scale was applied to a sample of 306 students in Madrid, aged between 14 and 18 years. The results show that the instrument obtains adequate values of internal consistency and factor analysis supports the proposal for the scale multidimensional structure. The final model consists of four first-order factors or styles of abuse (distant, degrading, punitive and arbitrary), and a latent variable named Teacher Abuse of Authority (AAD). In addition, the AAD negatively correlated with personal and academic wellbeing of students. EAADP measures with validity and reliability the teacher abuse of authority perceived by students throughout their schooling.