Background
School violence is of public health importance. One important but often overlooked dimension is student-staff
violence. The aim of the study was to assess the gender differences in the pattern of students-staff violence in urban
and rural areas of Osun state with the hypothesis that male students and staff perpetrate violence more than female
students and staff respectively.
Methodology
A cross sectional study conducted among 800 secondary school students from JSS 2 to SSS 3 (400 in urban and 400 in
rural areas) selected by multi-stage sampling technique.
Results
The mean age for all the respondents was 14.3 years ±2.0, with the mean age for males as 14.2±2.0 and females as
14.3±2.0. Male respondents were 51.5% in urban schools and 51% in rural schools. Males were the main
perpetrators in both urban and rural areas but more females in the rural areas perpetrated violence than their urban
counterparts. Out of those who verbally abused school staff in urban areas, males constituted 61.5% compared to
38.5% of females. Respondents also experienced violence in the hands of academic staff (male and female).
Conclusion
All forms of violence were perpetrated against school staff with prevalence higher in rural than urban areas.
Males perpetrated most forms of violence than females in both urban and rural schools, though this was marked
in urban schools. Female respondents in rural areas experienced significantly higher perpetration of most forms
of school-related violence than urban females.