The relationship between family conflict and bullying among school students who have a tendency to bully

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the relationship between family conflict and the level of bullying behaviour among male students in secondary school since bullying has become a very critical issue in schools. A survey was conducted in Malaysia that involved 480 male students, who were purposely selected through The Level Bullying Behaviour (TTLB) questionnaire instrument. The Family Conflict Frequency Questionnaire (KKK) was used to measure the level of student’s family conflict. KKK used the Likert scale which applied a scale of 1–5 to identify the level of family conflict for students. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics i.e., Pearson correlation coefficient test were used to analyse the data that indicated ‘low moderate’ level of bullying behaviour among male students. The study also found that there was a significant relationship between family conflict variables with levels of bullying behaviour among the sample. One of the significant implications of this study is that family conflict factors should be given serious attention and considered in planning intervention programs to curb and prevent the bullying phenomena from escalating into other serious problems in schools. IT is suggested that this study should be expanded to other states in a nationwide study and should include both female and male students in order to understand and grasp the seriousness and extent of bullying problems among secondary school students.