STA, 19 September 2019 - A survey carried out as part of a programme aimed at preventing peer violence and sexual violence at Slovenian schools has shown that 89% of school children encounter verbal, physical or relational violence.
The study was conducted among 4,500 students aged 12 to 14 from 70 primary schools.
While in the past, studies focussed on the perpetrators or victims, or those who are both, recent studies focus on the observers, children who are witnesses to violence, this being the dominant group with immense social power, psychologist Mateja Štirn said at a congress of Slovenian psychologists in Zreče on Thursday.
Results have shown that girls notice relational violence more often, while boys more frequently witness physical and on-line violence.
Older pupils and those who are doing well at school notice verbal and relational violence more frequently than younger pupils and those who are not doing so well at school. But unfortunately, they usually do not report it.
Sonja Pečjak from the psychology department at the Ljubljana Faculty of Arts noted that violence was present at all schools, only that some deal with it openly while others try to cover it up and address it only when it escalates.
As part of a comprehensive programme of violence prevention, workshops and presentations are being organised for children, teenagers, teachers and parents, starting at the kindergarten, to teach the participants how to recognise violence and how to respond to it.
According to Katarina Kocbek, one form of peer violence is on-line violence, as 97% of teenagers in the final three grades of primary school use mobile phones on a daily basis.
Results of surveys conducted in Slovenia and abroad show that as many as 50% of young people have experience with various forms of on-line violence and bullying.
This was confirmed by the study conducted in the 70 Slovenian schools. Some 43% of respondents said they have experienced at least one form of on-line violence at least once in their life, and about a third said they had committed such violence at least once.
Some 25% said they had received insulting texts or that others made insulting statements about them. The share of those whose personal data or photos were abused was the smallest.
Between 4% and 6% of respondents said they were being insulted on a regular basis, that their peers said nasty things about them behind the backs, and that they had faced exclusion.
Experts agreed that the results of the survey point to the need for more preventive programmes, and that such programmes should start as early as possible.
