Teachers’ Attitude towards Bullying among Boarding Secondary School Students in Nsukka Local Government Area, Enugu State

Abstract

Bullying is a social and public health problem in form of anti-social behaviours seen occurring mostly among adolescents, particularly, those in boarding schools. The study investigated attitude of teachers towards bullying among boarding secondary school students in Nsukka Local Government Area (LGA), Enugu State. The population for the study consisted of 385 secondary school teachers in the seven public boarding secondary schools in Nsukka Local Government Area. The population was considered manageable, therefore, there was no sampling done. A valid and reliable structured Teachers’ Attitude towards Adolescent Bullying Questionnaire (TAABQ) was used to collect data. Mean and standard deviations were used to answer the research questions, while a One –way Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and independent samples t-test were used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Results showed that teachers in boarding secondary schools in Nsukka LGA., Enugu State had positive attitude towards bullying ( = 3.54, SD= .544). There was a significant difference in the attitude of teachers towards bullying based on years of teaching experience (p-value = .047 < .05). There was no significant difference in the attitude of teachers towards bullying based on gender (p-value = 0.116 > .05). The authors concluded that in boarding schools in Nuskka LGA, bullying in all its forms receives collective intervention by teachers and recommended that schools should have a clear anti-bullying policy that encourages sustained teachers’ positive attitude towards bullying irrespective of their years of teaching experience and gender.