Perceived Parenting, Altruism and Bullying Involvement among Senior Secondary School Students in Owerri, Nigeria

Abstract

School bullying is common in Nigerian secondary schools, yet little is known about how home and personal fac-tors relate to it in the South-East of the country. This study examined whether perceived parenting and self-reported altruism predict bullying involvement among senior secondary school students in Owerri, Imo State. In a cross-sectional survey, 201 students (128 girls and 73 boys, aged 14 to 17 years, M = 15.29, SD = 1.22) from three public secondary schools completed a parental attitude index, the Self-Report Altruism Scale and a 14-item adaptation of the Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire. In a multiple regression, the two predic-tors together explained less than 1% of the variance in bullying involvement, R² = .003, F(2, 198) = 0.29, p = .749. Neither perceived parenting (β = −.05, p = .512) nor altruism (β = .02, p = .738) made a significant contri-bution. The 95% confidence intervals for the standardised effects (−.20 to .10 for parenting and −.12 to .17 for altruism) exclude moderate and large associations but not small ones, and a sensitivity analysis showed that the sample could reliably detect only effects of about R² = .05 or larger. The findings do not support the view that a general measure of parental attitudes or global altruism is a strong, direct correlate of bullying in this population. Future work in Nigerian schools should measure parenting dimensions and bullying roles separately, use larger multi-school samples, and test peer and school factors alongside family ones.