STUD Y ON PSYCHOLOGICAL VIOLEN CE I N SCHOOLS

1. STUDYONPSYCHOLOGICAL VIOLENCEIN SCHOOLS Ph.D.Sociologist Niță Andreea Mihaela

2. Contextual frame Schoolis an institution that offers educational services, transmits knowledge, develops abilities, forms competencies, values, socially accepted norms. School violenceis an extremely complexphenomenon, with multiple ramifications: in family, society, school, on ourselves and culture. Its different forms are interconnected and have a specific dynamics. In the last years violence has become more and more present in Romanian schools, having as effects school abandonment, decreased interest towards school, but also towards the social environment and increased number of crimes among students.

3. In schools, the most encountered forms ofpsychologicalviolence are the ones regardingthe physical or mental features of colleagues, behavior often determined due to students’ age, who become in adolescence more careful and more critical on these aspects.            Teenagers use psychological violence on colleagues at school or on teachers to get either the attention of others, in order to become popular, or to gain control and authority. Psychologists believe that such behaviors have two causes: • internal causes, like anxiety, depressionor problemsin controlling negative emotions (anger, sorrow, envy); • external causes, like the impossibilityto solve problems, cognitive rigidity, lack of the capacity to understand consequences.

4. Contextual frame Depending on the aggressor’s sex, the purpose of psychological violence on a person are diverse, thus: • ifthe aggressor is a boy, he exertspsychological violence for intimidation, control, domination and feeling of personal security, because he considersthat the torturer cannot be aggressed, thus functioning as a strange defense system. • ifthe aggressoris a girl, she exertspsychological violence for manipulation, hurting feelings, victim’s marginalization/isolation or even cruelty.

5. Research objectives onpsychological violence in schoolsfor students • Learningthe satisfaction degree ofstudents regarding the education unit in which they study; • Investigating the socialphenomena specific to teenagers, which happen in schools; • Learning the frequencywith which conflictsand violent situations appear in the respondents’ schools; • Investigating thephenomenon of psychological violenceand the manners in which it appears; • Investigatingthe manner in whichpsychological and physical violence influence the development of students; • Investigating the students’ opinion regarding the activity of the teaching personnel; • Learning the students’ opinion regarding who cansolve the conflicts appeared in schools; • Investigating the trust that respondent students give parents when it comes to violent conflicts appeared in schools;

6. Research objectives on psychological violence in schoolsfor teachers • Investigating the frequency with whichphysical aggressions appear on teachers; • Investigating the manner in whichpsychological violence is exerted within education institutions; • Investigating the relationship between teachers and students and their parents; • Learning the teachers’ opinion regardingviolence acts (physical and psychologicalof students); • Investigatingthe manner in whichsome teacherscan lose their objectivity ingiving grades or sanctions in class; • Learningthe teachers’ opinionregarding thereasons of the situations of psychological violence between students and teachers; • Investigatingthe teachers’ opinion regardingthe diminishment of psychological violence in Romanian schools.

7. Research methodology • Research method: opinion investigation, based on administered questionnaire • Investigation technique: questionnaire under the form of a Likert sheet (two questionnaires were applied-onefor teachers and the second for students) • Period for data collection: January 15th - 31st 2014 • Volume and structure of sample: 879 respondents, distributed as it follows: • Questionnaire for the students - 582 respondents; • Questionnaire for the teachers - 297 respondents;

8. Resultsof the questionnaire applied to the students onpsychological violence in schools Three quarters of the students included in the sample of this research stated that their expression opportunities are rarely or even never restricted, while 20.1% believe that their expression is sometimes prevented.

9. Yellsare part of the psychological violence cases, pretty frequent in school units in Romania. Asked if they were in the situation of someone yelling at them, 72.7 percent in the total respondentschose the variantsnever andrarely.

10. 71.4% of the interviewedstudents stated thatit rarely or even never happens to be yelled at on a raised tone, while 21.7% indicated that this happens sometimes. At the same time, 6.9 percent in the total respondents stated that they are often or even always yelled at on a raised tone.

11. 88.3% of the respondents stated that they never feel humiliated or mocked at, while 8.4% undergo this rarely and 2.6% sometimes. Only 0.7% of the interviewed students stated that they are often humiliated or mocked at.

12. Each teenager needs a person to go to when in trouble, when he/she is in a situation they consider critical. Thus, each 22.9 percent of the interviewed students go to their parents or one of the teachers when a conflict situation appears.

13. Resultsof the questionnaire applied to the teachers on psychological violence in schools Rumors are spread within an education unit, like a virus, whose carrier can be teachers, students or auxiliary personnel. At the same time, several researches have shown that adultsgossip more and debatethat rumor for a longer period of time.

14. Intimidation means: ”to make becomeor becometimid, to instill someone or feel fear.” 97.6 percent of the total interviewed peoplestated that they have never been submitted to physical aggressions. Thus, only 2.4% of respondentshave admitted that once every few months or few times a month it happens they are mildly aggressed physically to be intimidated.

15. Aggressive, ignorant or careless behaviors of studentsseem to appear more and more in schools in Romania, thus 15.2 percent of the respondents of this research stated that once every few months the class isintrerrupted due to an inappropriate behavior of students, while 7.1% stated that thishappens few times a months, while for2 percent of the teachersquestioned this happens weekly.

16. 86.3% of the interviewedteachersstated thatthey haven’tbeen confronted with the situationin which their decisions might be critized and contested. However, 13.1 percent of the respondentsstated that it happens once every few months that their decisions are critized and contested.

17. Reasons for situations of psychological violence between students and teachersfrom the teachers’ point of view

18. Conclusions Violence ineducation institutions becomesa worrying phenomenon, because it can affect thevery basis of a society, with the prejudicebroughtdirectly to the education process. Physical violence, but also the psychological one creates a harmful environment to the purposes sought by school, creating a climateof insecurity and totally inefficient. The cases of psychological violence from students appear also from their insatisfaction on the studied subjects, their content, didactic materials, material resources, equipment in laboratories and workshops, etc. Within our research, we could notice thatonly 71.9% of the interviewed students are fully satisfied withthe school they study in and 76.1% would rather go to the same education unit.

19. Conclusions According to this study, physical and/or verbal threats arerare in Romanian schools, 96.2% of the respondents stated that they rarely or even never receivethreats of this kind, while 2.6 percent arethreatened sometimesphysically or verbally and only 1.2% repeatedly. Also, threequarters of the respondents say thatpsychological violence between students and teachers appears very rarely or even never, while16% consider this happens sometimes. Regarding teachers, 85.5% of them stated thatthey never lost their objectivity in grading students for fear of conflictswith their parents.

20. Conclusions In the opinion of theinterviewed teachers, the necessary measures to diminish violence in schools are: a stricter education of the child inside the family(17.3%), strictly following the regulations of the education institution(16.4%), partnership with the students’ families and the community(15.6%), but also a better communication with students(15%).