Description
ABSTRACT
There is a growing concern on the increasing students’ deviant behavior which could be attributed to bullying in Kenyan secondary schools, thus posing a great danger to our nation. This presents a knowledge gap concerning the psychosocial consequences of this phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between issues of bulling and suicidal ideation among Secondary School Students in Bungoma County, Kenya. The research population was 29,040 Form Three students. Deputy Principals and Guidance and Counseling teachers from 360 secondary schools participated in the study. A sample size of 399 students was drawn from boys, girls and co-education schools. Form Three Students were randomly selected from the sampled schools. The study adopted a cross-sectional and correlational research design. Both qualitative and quantitative data was collected concurrently. A pilot study was conducted on the 30 Form Three students selected from three categories of secondary schools in Bungoma County. Test retest reliability test was carried out to ascertain the reliability coefficient of instrument which was above 0.7. The Pearson’s correlation coefficient of(r= 0.59, p=0.00) obtained indicate a moderate positive statistically significant correlation between the forms of correlation and levels of suicidal ideation amongst the secondary school students in Bungoma County. The coefficient of determination (R2=0.358, p<0.05) indicate that the four predictors can jointly explain up to 35.8% of the levels of suicidal ideation amongst the secondary school students. The study concludes that increased levels of sexual bullying and social exclusion significantly increase the levels of suicidal ideation of the secondary school students. Hence efforts should be made to lower their prevalence in the secondary schools so as to reduce the levels of suicidal ideation of the students. The findings have policy implication for schools in understanding, prevention, and intervention in bullying to limit suicidal ideation.
