Verbal abuse among boy students in the Secondary Schools of Najaf, Iraq

الملخص EN

The aim of the current research is to determine the degree of prevalence of verbal abuse among secondary school students in Najaf governorate, Iraq, explaining the causes of this phenomenon from the point of view of the researcher, and presenting a set of proposals to confront this phenomenon and reduce it.

The researcher used the descriptive and analytical method for its relevance to this type of studies.

A questionnaire was designed by the help of educational counselors.

The questionnaire was distributed to 100 students from different secondary schools aged from 12 to 14 yrs.

Data for the questionnaire were analyzed using statistical methods and frequencies.

The study reached results, the most important of which are: That the phenomenon of verbal bullying is widespread in secondary schools to a large extent, and that the most vital reason behind its spread is family interruption, the parent's cultural level, and the socialization style of the bullying student as for ways to confront this phenomenon, it is necessary to prepare a training and qualification program for students who are bullying and their participation in extra-curricular activities, and the need for continuous follow-up by the school administration, teachers, the educational counselor and the family to improve student performance and eliminate this phenomenon.

The study recommended the necessity for the Ministry of Education to generalize the student mediation program and apply it on a wider scale in all academic levels up to universities, and to build educational programs to help students face the behavioral problems they live in.

The data analyses show that 79.5 % of the boy students demonstrated that their colleagues never abused them verbally.

9.75 % of them showed that sometimes they are exposed to verbal attack by some boys.

8.3 % stated that they are often exposed to verbal abuse while 2.35 % showed that they are very often attacked verbally by their mates.