The influence of parenting styles on bullying behavior among students of secondary age in ikwerre local government area

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate factors influencing bullying behavior among senior students of secondary school age in Ikwerre local government of Rivers State. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. Seven research questions and six hypotheses guided the conduct of the study. The population of this study consists of 2,368 secondary school students from Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State. A sample of 300 secondary school students in SS 2 in the research area was selected for the study through stratified random sampling technique. The instruments for data collection in this study were a self-designed structured questionnaire titled Bullying Risk Factor Questionnaire (BRFQ). Face and content validities of the instrument were determined while test-retest using Pearson product moment correlation method was used to determine the reliability of the instrument. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while AN OVA and independent t-test were used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha levels. All data were subjected to analysis using statistical package for social science. The following results were obtained; watching violent movies is the highest contributor to bullying behaviour among students of secondary school age; bullying behaviour is higher among students of secondary school age that watch violent movies than those that do not watch violent movies; bullying behavior is higher among students from polygamous families than those from monogamous families; bullying behavior is higher among students bullied by siblings than students not bullied by siblings; bullying behavior is higher among students of secondary school age from uneducated parental background than those from educated parental background; bullying behavior is higher among students from authoritarian homes, followed by those from permissive homes, and lastly by those from authoritative homes; bullying behavior is higher among students of secondary school age who experience inter-parental violence than those who do not. Based on the findings, five recommendations were made among which are that; parents should also ensure that the home environment is devoid of aliform ofcumbrances and threats that can impede the good upbringing of children born into it; counseling units should be established in all public secondary schools in Nigeria to enable students seek counseling whenever the need arises; students identified with bullying behaviour should be referred to guidance counselors for professional assistance.