BULLYING AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ALIMOSHO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, LAGOS STATE: IMPLICATIONS FOR COUNSELLING INTERVENTIONS

The study investigated bullying among secondary school students in Alimosho Local Government Area, Lagos State and its implications for counselling interventions. A total number of Two hundred and one students participated in the study. The participants were drawn from two public and two private secondary schools in Alimosho Local Government Area, Lagos State. Two research instruments were adopted for the study and they are Olweus bully/victim questionnaire and Rosenberg self-esteem scale. Independent t-test and analysis of variance were used to analyse the data at 0.05 level of significance. Result showed that there was no significant difference in bullying between the private and public school students. The result also showed that bullying among male students is not significantly different from bullying among female secondary school students. It was shown that there was a positive relationship between bullying and self-esteem. Family structure was found to have no significant influence on bullying behaviour of students. It was recommended that Government should make the provision of school counsellors in both private and public schools compulsory and the school counsellors should plan intervention programmes that will both prevent and manage bullying in secondary schools.