School violence: gender differences in secondary students

Abstract

Gender is an essential aspect of school violence in students of compulsory secondary education (CSE). The objective of this study was to analyze, using a cross-sectional design, gender differences in perceptions of school violence measures through the questionnaire of perceived school violence (CUVE-R-ESO). The questionnaire was administered to 4467 students (50.3% female) of 1 ° to 4 ° of that with a range of age between 12 and 16 years (M = 13.81; DT = 1.38). The results show a slight prevalence of women over men in actions that make up the different types of school violence. They also revealed significant differences between the two, attributing the guys are more related to violence perpetrated by teachers to students, physical violence indirect, direct physical violence or social exclusion, and the girls with the verbal violence, students to teachers and classroom disruption. Finally, the contribution of gender as a predictor variable in school violence is significant but scarce. In conclusion, it reveals the need of devising programmes of prevention or intervention that take into account the variable gender.