Abstract

• The prime purpose of this study was to explore the types, causes and actions of disciplinary problems among high school students. The survey research design was used. A total of 1099 students from eleven high schools and their teachers (N=152) was selected by using stratified sampling technique. Among the types of school disciplinary problems, ‘talking without permission’ stood first and the second one is ‘teasing others’ and the third rank is ‘laziness’. The results revealed that male students’ disciplinary problems were significantly higher than that of female students. In addition, the results indicated that there was no significant difference in students’ disciplinary problem by age, while there was significant difference in students’ disciplinary problem by district. Regarding the causes of disciplinary problems, peer-related factors rank as the main causes of school disciplinary problems. The findings revealed that male students were higher in school-related, peer-related and self-related factors than female in the causes of disciplinary problems. The results indicated that there was a significant difference in school-related factors by age, whereas there were significant differences in school-related factors and self-related factors by districts. Regarding the actions of school disciplinary problems, the actions such as sweeping the classroom and collecting rubbish in school compound rank as first and second. Moreover, the results indicated that male students were higher than female students in the actions of disciplinary problems. Furthermore, the results indicated that there were significant differences in the actions of high school students’ disciplinary problems by age and district. The results suggest that actions of disciplinary problems in high schools are not uniform but differ among students and as perceived by teachers across districts. Finally, the results of this study offered important implications for school counselling for students with disciplinary problems.