Behaviour Pattern and Predisposition toward Bullying among Secondary School Students in Kwara State, Nigeria: Implication for Counselling
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2020
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of Professional Counselling
Abstract
Bullying is a global phenomenon with devastating consequences for the victims, their families, and the societies at large. This study therefore investigated the behaviour patterns and predisposition toward bullying among secondary school students in Kwara State. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised all SS 1 to SS 3 students in private and public schools in Kwara State which was estimated at 100,000 students. A total of 420 students (SS 1 – SS 3) were randomly selected from the population of secondary school students in Kwara State and they constituted the respondents. An instrument entitled “Behaviour Patterns and Predisposition to Bullying Questionnaire (BPPBQ)” was used to obtain relevant data. Content validity was used to ascertain the validity of the instrument while test retest method was used to determine the reliability of the instrument and coefficient value of 0.76 was obtained. Two research questions were raised and four hypotheses were analyzed using t-test. The study revealed that the majority of the respondents indicated Type A behaviour pattern. The behaviour patterns of the respondents include striving to achieve their goals in any situation; performing well in every activity they are involved and always conscious of time among others. The predisposition of the students towards bullying was low. Two hypotheses were not rejected while two others were rejected. Based on the findings, it was recommended that professional counsellors should provide early intervention to bullied and their victims in order to keep bullying behaviour in check; Professional counsellors should train students on the use of Assertive Training to provide assistance to the students, who are predisposed to bullying in the schools. Since students of public schools are more prone to bullying than students of private schools, it was recommended that the Kwara State Government should sensitize the public school teachers on the need to properly identify cases of bullying and make referral to professional counsellors.
Description
Keywords
Behaviour pattern, Bullying, Predisposition, Counselling