| dc.description.abstract | Research on Gender Based Violence (GBV) in Kenya among school-going students has
mainly dwelt on the negative consequences of violence as opposed to the effects on internal
test scores. This research aimed at investigating the relationship between gender-based
violence and the test scores of students in public secondary schools in Bungoma County. The
objectives were; to establish the relationship between physical forms of gender-based
violence and students’ test scores in public secondary schools in Bungoma County; to
determine the relationship between sexual forms of gender-based violence and students’ test
scores in public secondary schools in Bungoma County; to examine the relationship between
psychological forms of gender-based violence and students’ test scores in public secondary
schools in Bungoma County and to assess the effectiveness of the policy frameworks on
gender-based violence in public secondary schools in Bungoma County. The research was
grounded on Social Feminism theory and Resilience theory.The research design used was
correlational, and the sampling was stratified random, where 184 secondary schools were
chosen out of 342. A sample of 1,104 students was determined in the target population of
250,000 through a simple random sampling to be involved in the study. Purposive sampling
was utilized to select 184 heads of Guidance and Counseling teachers, 3 Sub-County
Directors of Education,13 GBV survivors and one County Woman Representative.
Information gathering was done through questionnaires, interviews, and analysis of
documents. The students were offered questionnaires face-to-face, thus the researcher could
make the instructions understandable and answer any questions or concerns that arose. The
pilot study was conducted in one of the sub-county mixed day secondary schools in
Bungoma County, which was not included in the main study.Reliability of the research
instruments was checked using the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. Qualitative and quantitative
research methods were employed, and quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive and
inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics involved bar charts and pie charts, whereas
inferential statistics involved Pearson Product-Moment Correlation and analysis of variance
(ANOVA).Interviews and document reviews were used as qualitative data collection
methods; therefore, the data were discussed with the help of the theme and discourse analysis
and presented in the form of narratives and quotations. Data analysis was done using SPSS
version 26. A statistically significant but weak negative correlation was observed between
physical assault and academic performance (r = –.074, p = .043). This suggests that increased
experiences of physical assault are modestly associated with lower academic outcomes. The
Pearson correlation coefficient for sexual GBV was -0.45, which showed a moderate
negative correlation between test scores and sexual violence. This implied that the more the
frequency of sexual violence, the lower the test scores.The Pearson correlation coefficient
between psychological violence and academic outcomes was -0.076 with a significance level
of 0.037, implying a weak adverse effect which meant that students who were victims of
psychological violence were likely to record low scores in tests. The research concluded that
GBV in Bungoma County in the public secondary schools has a negative impact on the
performance of the students. Based on these results, it is further suggested that the schools
and policymakers need to intensify their efforts to prevent and report gender-based violence,
improve counseling and psychosocial assistance to victims, and fully implement the national
policies on gender-based violence to enable the learners to have a safer and more conducive
learning environment. | en_US |
