The purpose of this study was to examine the state of increasingly aggravated school violence and the mental health of school violence victims and injurers in an attempt to pave the way for the development of programs geared toward promoting the menta...
The purpose of this study was to examine the state of increasingly aggravated school violence and the mental health of school violence victims and injurers in an attempt to pave the way for the development of programs geared toward promoting the mental health of injurers and victims and stepping up their problem solving.
The subjects in this study were students from nine selected secondary schools in Daejeon and south Chungcheong province. After a survey was conducted, the answer sheets from 249 respondents were analyzed. The instrument used to assess the mental health state of the school violence victims and injurers was SCL-90-R.
The major findings of the study were as follows:
First, concerning the relationship of general characteristics to the reality of school violence, the girls who had ever used violence(65.7%) a little outnumbered the boys who had(61.8%), and the high schoolers who had the same experience(64.3%) outnumbered the middle schoolers who had. By academic standing and social class, those who were in the upper tiers and who were from the high class had more experiences to employ violence. In the event of victim experience, the boys who had ever been injured(38.2%) a little outnumbered the girls who had(34.3%), and the rate of the middle schoolers who had ever been injured(40.6%) was larger than that of the high schoolers with the same experience (35.7%). By school grades and social class, the students in the lower tiers and those from the high class had been more injured.
Second, as to the reality of school violence by type, verbal and physical violence was more common among the boys, no matter whether they used violence or were injured. And more than half the girls resorted to verbal violence or got hurt due to verbal violence. By the grade of school, verbal violence was prevalent in both of the middle and high schoolers.
Third, regarding connections between general characteristics and mental health among the injurers, the girls suffered from significantly more depression, hostility and psychosis than the boys, and the middle schoolers suffered from significantly more somatic obsessive- compulsive disorder, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety and hostility than the high schoolers. But living standard made no differences to their mental health. In the case of the victims, the girls suffered from significantly more fear, anxiety, paranoia and psychosis than the boys. The living standard made a significant difference to their somatic, obsessive-compulsive disorder, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety and hostility, but there was no significant gap between the middle and high schoolers.
Fourth, as for the mental health status of the injurers and victims, depression was most common among the injurers, followed by hostility, obsessive-compulsive disorder, interpersonal sensitivity, anxiety, somatic, psychosis, paranoia, fear and anxiety. And depression was most rampant among the victims as well, followed by obsessive- compulsive disorder, interpersonal sensitivity, anxiety, paranoia, hostility, somatic, psychosis, fear and anxiety. There were significant disparity between the injurers and victims in all the obsessive- compulsive disorder, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, fear, anxiety, paranoia and psychosis except somatic and hostility.