Association between Prevalence of Social Media Usage and Violent Behavior among Secondary School Students in Langata Sub-County, Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

There is evidence that the emergence of the social media and associated proliferation within the country has posed some influence on negative behavioral changes among the youths. The ability of social media to offer discretion and a seamless sharing tool has led to the increase in deviant behavior among secondary school students. The research sought to examine the association between prevalence of social media and deviant behavior among secondary school students in Langata Sub-County in Nairobi. The total sample size for the research was 48 teachers. Data for the research was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. The collected data was edited and coded into SPSS 22 for descriptive analysis in the form of frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations. Findings from the research showed an increasing proliferation of social media usage among secondary school students mostly Facebook and WhatsApp. The results of the research indicated that there is an increasing trend of violent acts within the schools which spread has been supported by the availability of social media sites. Findings of the study also indicated that lack of sufficient monitoring of social media usages promotes molesting and cyber bullying among users. The findings of the research will be of great significance to school management in designing policies that will curb over usage of social media sites and guiding on the content that is permissible to be shared among students. More so the findings can be of importance to policymakers in designing regulations on accessibility of smart gadgets within the school and monitoring their usage among students.