School-based Violent Behaviors among Secondary School Students in Katsina State, Nigeria: Causes and Origins

Abstract

The study looked into the possible causes and origins of violent behaviour among secondary school students in Katsina state by focusing on learner related, school and home based factors. Objectives of the study were to determine the learner related, school and home based factors that lead to violent behaviour in students, based on which questions were raised that guided the conduct of the study. With a population of 102, 778 and using a multistage judgmental sample of 500 respondents, the study utilizes the survey approach. A validated researcher developed instrument tagged “Student Violent Behaviour Inventory” with a reliability index of 0.73 was used in gathering the required data which was analyzed by Spearman Rank Order procedure based on the mean average. Results indicated that all the main factors related to learner, school based and home based proved significant to resulting in violent behaviour in students. Some suggestion made include that love, care and supervision of children is given the required attention, teachers should serve as positive role models to their students, it is also of utmost importance if drug and alcohol usage among parents and students are stopped and rehabilitation process engaged and finally it is strongly advised that parents and teachers should stop putting undue pressure on children to excel beyond their capabilities.