EFFECT OF BIBLIOTHERAPY ON PEER BULLYING AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE IN ORPHANAGES IN LAGOS STATE,NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated the effect of bibliotherapy on reduction of peer bullying behaviour among young orphans in orphanages in Lagos State, Nigeria. The pretest, posttest, control group, quasi-experimental design was adopted while questionnaire and a bibliotherapy treatment package were used in data collection.The population for the study comprised 525 young orphans spread across the 38orphanages in Lagos State. However, the sample size for the study comprised 20and 10 young orphans for the experimental and control groups respectively. The young orphans included in the study were selected from two orphanages which are Little Saints Orphanage, Palmgroove Estate and Bales of Mercy Orphanage,Gbagada. Findings revealed that bibliotherapy usage had effect on peer bullying behaviour reduction among the young orphans. Also, findings revealed that age and gender had significant influence on peer bullying reduction among the young orphans in favour of young orphans within the age range of 10-12 years and male respectively. On the other hand, the interaction effect of bibliotherapy and age as well as that of bibliotherapy and gender on peer bullying were found not to be significant. The study concluded that bibliotherapy was a potent treatment in reducing and curbing the menaice of peer bullying among young people. The study,therefore, recommended that young orphans in Nigerian orphanages should be exposed to reading of appropriate books that would help manage peer bullying behaviours while authors and publishers should include developing new titles and themes on stories that could help to curb peer bullying among young people in Nigerian society in their publish ing focus.