Project Care (Child-Friendly Actions Towards a Responsive Environment): Addressing the Issues on Child Abuse and Bullying in the New Normal

Diego Froilan  Paril,; Leandro  Matociños,

Project Care (Child-Friendly Actions Towards a Responsive Environment): Addressing the Issues on Child Abuse and Bullying in the New Normal

Discipline: Education

Abstract:

The objective of the study is to determine the sense of safety and security (SSS) of senior high school students at a public senior high school in Region IV-A CALABARZON, Philippines, and to formulate an action plan and interventions based on the findings. Safety referred to the inner feeling of being free from harm while security referred to the personal feeling that concrete measures or efforts are installed to ensure one’s safety. This study utilized the quantitative descriptive method of research using the Sense of Safety and Security Questionnaire (SSSQ) to describe how students feel with regards to their safety and security. There were 3,179 targeted respondents (2029 returned questionnaires) with 1706 questionnaires included for the SSS analysis and 616 questionnaires for the analysis that include the demographic profile. The SSS was generally high in terms of classmates (M=3.52, SD=1.06), home (M=3.98, SD=1.05), school premises (M=3.67, SD=1.00), and teachers (M=3.93, SD=1.01). However, a substantial number of the respondents have a very low to moderate level of SSS which ranges from 20.98% to 63.48% for a specific domain. The senior high school strand has a significant influence on SSS (F(3,162)=14.84, p<.001, η²=.068) same with the general weighted average (GWA) (F(4,611)=5.086, p<.001, η2=.003), and grade level (t(614)=2.832, p=.005, equal variances assumed, t(284.045=2.779, p=.005, unequal variances assumed, d=.053). Based on the findings, it is recommended that Project CARE’s (Child-friendly Actions towards a Responsive Environment) action plan and interventions be adopted to address the issues on safety and security.