Violence in schools : a correlational study into the relationship between an Afrocentric orientation and attitudes towards violence among African secondary school learners in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal.

Abstract

This correlation study investigated the relationship between Africentric values (Collective work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics and Self determination) as measured by the Children’s Africentric Value Scale (CAVS) (Belgrave, Townsend, Cherry, & Cunningham, 1997) and attitudes towards violence reflected by Culture of Violence and Reactive Violence as measured by the Attitudes Towards Violence Scale: A Measure for adolescents (Funk, Elliot, Urman, Flores, & Mock, 1999) with a sample of 200 secondary school learners in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal. There was no statistically significant relationship between the aforementioned Africentric values and attitudes towards violence. Gender was found to be a predictor of Reactive Violence with male participants being more prone to endorse reactive violence. Recommendations for school violence interventions based on Africentric values were also provided and discussed in this study.