Effect of Self-Management Technique on Bullying Tendency Among Public Secondary School Students in Idemili North Local Government Area, Anambra State

Résumé

This study investigated the effect of self-management technique on bullying tendency among public secondary school students in Idemili North Local Government Area, Anambra State, Nigeria. The study adopted a quasi-experimental research design, specifically a non-randomized pretest-posttest control group design with a follow-up retention test. Two research questions guided the study, while two null hypotheses were formulated and tested at the 0.05 level of significance. The population comprised 291 Senior Secondary two (SS2) students identified as having bullying tendency in the 13 public secondary schools in the area. A sample of 52 students identified as having bullying tendency was purposively drawn from two intact school groups, comprising 23 students in the experimental group and 29 in the control group. Data were collected using the Bullying Tendency Scale (BTS), a 20-item instrument adapted from the Illinois Bully Scale (Espelage & Holt, 2001). The instrument was subjected to face and content validation by three experts, and a Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of 0.93 was obtained from a pilot study. Data were collected through direct administration. Mean scores were used to answer the research questions, while the null hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The norm score of 50 served as the decision benchmark for identifying students with bullying tendency. Participants in the experimental group received self-management training, whereas those in the control group received conventional counselling. The findings revealed that self-management technique was effective in reducing bullying tendency, that its effect was significant when compared with conventional counselling, and that the reduction was significantly retained at follow-up. Based on the findings, it was recommended that school counsellors should adopt self-management technique as a regular counselling intervention for students with bullying tendency, that counsellors should be trained in its application, and that schools should incorporate structured counselling programmes into their disciplinary systems rather than relying solely on punishment.