About 3 in 10 students who had experienced school violence said they had assaulted their parents, according to a recent study published Thursday by the National Youth Policy Institute.
The findings, published in the journal Studies on Korean Youth, suggest that school violence may spill over into the home, affecting both victims and perpetrators, the researchers said.
The survey covered 1,552 students aged 13-18. Among them, 495, or 31.9 percent, reported some form of involvement in school violence. Of those respondents, 151 said they were victims, 79 said they were perpetrators, and 265 said they had been both victims and perpetrators.
Among students who experienced school violence, 30.1 percent said they had assaulted their parents, compared with 9.4 percent among those with no experience of school violence.
The share was highest among students who reported being both victims and perpetrators, at 38.9 percent. The rate was also higher among victims of school violence (21.9 percent) than among those who said they had only inflicted violence on other students.
“Adolescents with overlapping experiences of being victimized and committing violence have difficulty processing the frustration and pain they receive from others,” the researchers wrote.
"There is a possibility that these emotions are redirected toward parents, who are perceived as close and safe targets.”
The researchers said students with such overlapping experiences should be closely monitored as a high-risk group for potential violence, calling for targeted intervention systems. Support, they added, should extend beyond the individual student to the family level.
A separate survey of parents of the students found that 16 percent said they had been assaulted by their children. The reported behavior ranged from verbal abuse and damage to property to physical acts such as pushing, punching and kicking.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
