The Effect of School Violence on Psychological Status of Intermediate Schools’ Students in Baghdad City

Abstract

Objectives: to assess school violence patterns toward the intermediate schools‟ students and to determine the effect of school violence on the psychological status of the students.

Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at intermediate schools in Baghdad. A self-administered questionnaire was used as a mean for data collection. It composed of three parts: part 1 represented the sample characteristics; part 2 concerned with the violence behavior, it was constructed by the researchers to achieve the study objectives; and part 3 included 2 scales (GHQ-12 and self-esteem scales), it concerned with the psychological status of the students. A random sample of 600 intermediate school’s students was selected of different Baghdad districts‟ schools through a formal steps of administrative arrangements. The researcher visited and interviewed the sample at their schools to distribute the questionnaire for them to collect the required data. Data was analyzed by using the descriptive statistics like frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations and inferential statistics like Pearson correlation coefficient.

Results: Results revealed that there were a significant negative relationship between violence of teachers toward school students and the psychological wellbeing and self-esteem levels of the students (r= - 0.194, r= - 0.291 respectively) at p <0.01.

Conclusions: The study concluded that intermediate schools‟ students (males and females) face different types of physical and psychological violence of their teachers that have a significant effect on their psychological status.

Recommendations: The study recommended that antiviolence awareness workshops should be implemented to stop and prevent violence behaviors by teachers toward student and further similar studies on a nationwide should be carried out to assess the prevalence of school violence behavior and its effects on the student's psychological wellbeing.