Abstract:

A survey on peer violence was conducted among high school students in three Mostar schools. The aim of this study was to examine the frequency of traditional and electronic violence among high school students. The objectives of the research were to determine the frequency of peer violence among high school students and to determine the frequency of electronic violence, through the identification of senders and recipients of threatening and offensive messages and whether students are sufficiently informed about forms of violence. The most common form of violence is verbal violence, with half of the students surveyed being called derogatory names (49%), while 44% said they called another student derogatory. Significant gender differences were found only in the occurrence of physical violence, boys are more likely to state that they hit another student than girls. Regarding electronic violence, no significant differences were found in the number of male and female students who never received offensive or threatening messages. The paper sought to examine the prevalence of topics of violent behavior at school, and more than a quarter of students stated that they did not learn about them in school, such as equality of persons of different sexual orientations and dispute resolution procedures between students and teachers. Almost half of the students state that they learned a lot in school about the types of violence among people and the consequences of violent behavior. School is an environment where children and young people spend a significant part of their time creating and maintaining most of their relationships with peers and an undeniably important place where students can be informed and influence the prevention of violence in the virtual world.

Keywords:

Cooperative relations, peer relationships, public awareness, right to equality and diversity, tolerance.