School Discipline as a Correlate of Students Violent Behaviours in Government Technical Secondary Schools in Yaounde

Abstract

This study sets out to examine the effects of school discipline on violent behavior. The manner in which discipline is implemented can breed violent behavior among students who are considered victims. This, however, hampers many school processes as the teaching, learning, as well as the administrative environments, are no longer secure. Within the context of this paper, we looked at the effects of teachers’ characteristics, counselor services, students’ characteristics, and parental collaboration with school administration as key variables that determine students’ violent behavior. Within the context of this study, the quantitative research approach was used in data collection and analysis. The main instrument used to collect data was the questionnaire. Using simple random sampling and purposive sampling techniques, a sample size of 193 respondents was obtained. The data collected was analyzed using the Spearman rank correlation, and the following results were obtained: For the first hypothesis, a Spearman correlation index of 0.625 (62.5%) was obtained; for the second hypothesis, a Spearman correlation of 0.537 (53.7%); for the third hypothesis, a Spearman correlation of 0.541 (54.1%) was obtained, and for the fourth hypothesis, we had a Spearman correlation index of 0.632 (63.2%). The level of significance was less than 0.05 for all the hypotheses tested, thus indicating that all variables studied significantly influenced students' violent behavior. Based on these findings, we can conclude that school discipline is one of the determinants of students' violent behavior in GTS in Yaoundé. Recommendations were made to stakeholders concerned.