Volume 13, Issue 5 (May 2026), Pages: 43-51

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 Original Research Paper

Understanding student coping with school violence: A comparative study of primary and secondary education in Vietnam

 Author(s): 

Hanh Thi Hoang, Hien Thu Le *, Thuy Thi Thanh Le

 Affiliation(s):

Social Work Department, Vietnam Youth Academy, Hanoi, Vietnam

 Full text

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 * Corresponding Author. 

   Corresponding author's ORCID profile:  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7873-9962

 Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

 
https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2026.05.005

 Abstract

This study examined how primary and secondary school students in Vietnam respond to witnessing or experiencing school violence, with a focus on developmental differences. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 690 students (300 primary and 390 secondary) from Bac Kan, An Giang, and Quang Binh provinces. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire with a 4-point Likert scale and analyzed using descriptive statistics in SPSS. The findings showed that primary school students tended to use more passive strategies; although most reported not remaining idle (70.3%) or walking away (66.6%), only 33.5% reported incidents to teachers. Among victims, most stated they did not cry or plead (92.6%) and did not suffer in silence (81.1%). In contrast, secondary school students demonstrated more proactive responses: 54.4% often tried to prevent violence, 66.2% informed a teacher or adult, and 61.8% sought help from a homeroom teacher or Youth Union leader, although use of formal support services remained limited (49.5%). Overall, clear developmental differences were identified, with primary students relying more on passive strategies and secondary students engaging more in help-seeking and preventive actions, highlighting the need for age-appropriate and culturally sensitive interventions.

 © 2026 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords

School violence, Coping behaviors, Primary and secondary students, Help-seeking behavior, Vietnam

 Article history

Received 3 December 2025, Received in revised form 15 April 2026, Accepted 4 May 2026

 Funding

The study was supported and approved by the Scientific Committee of the Youth Research Institute (Code: ĐT.KXĐTN 25-07). 

 Acknowledgment

No Acknowledgment. 

 Compliance with ethical standards

 Ethical considerations

Although the participating institutions do not maintain a formal institutional review board, all procedures performed in studies involving human participants were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki and its subsequent amendments. Participation was strictly voluntary, informed consent was obtained from all respondents and/or their guardians, and no personally identifiable information was collected at any stage of the research. 

 Citation:

Hoang HT, Le HT, and Le TTT (2026). Understanding student coping with school violence: A comparative study of primary and secondary education in Vietnam. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 13(5): 43-51

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