Suriya  Pundee.  1993.  The Relationships among Buddhism Socialzation in Schools, Psychological Characteristic
and Aggressive Behavior in Secondary School Students. 
Dissertation, M.S. (Behavioral Science) Behavioral Science Research Institute. 


            The study investigated the relationship between Buddhist socialization in schools and psychological traits and
aggressive behavior in secondary school students. The four purposes were 1) to find out whether the students who had
different Buddhist socialization would differ in Buddhist characteristics, psychological traits and aggressive behavior 2) to
identify the types of students and their family backgrounds which could benefit from the Buddhist socialization in schools
3) to examine the relationship between Buddhist characteristics and some psychological traits of the students from various
types of families and schools 4) to defermine the predictors of aggressive behavior from Buddhist characteristics,
Buddhist socialization in schools and some psychological traits of the students who had different bio-social and
background aspects. 
                    The subject were 540  secondary school students of  M.S 2, 3, 4 and 5 who enrolled in the secod
semester of 2535  academic year. They were sampled from two highly religious schools and two other less religious
school in Chachoengsao province. Their average age was   14.78  years 
                        In this field study, questionaires were administered to assess five groups of veriables. They were
(1) Buddhist socialization in school consisted of 3  factors, the degree of religiousness of the school, self-reported
Buddhist experience in school and perceived teachers as a good Buddhist model. (2) Two Buddhist characteristics of the
students which were Buddhist beliefs and Buddhist practices (3)  Four psychological characteristics of the students which
were religious orientation, future orientation-self control, attitudes towards aggression and attitude towards Buddhist
experience in shcool. (4)  Aggressive behavior assessed by self-reported measure. (5) Bio-social and background
variables. 
                    Three-way  Analysis of Variance, Multiple Regression Analysis were employed to test the hypotheses
and Pearson' s Product Moment Correlation Coefficients were calculated to assess the relationships among variables. 
                  There were 5 major groups of findings. 
                    First, the student who had strong beliefs and practices in Buddhis were the ones who had teachers as a good
Buddhist modle, the ones who received greater amount of Buddhist experience in school and the ones with favourable
attitudes towards Buddhist experience in school. 
                  Secondly, the students with high religious orientation, high future orientation and self-control were the ones
who had teachers as a good Buddhist model, received more Buddhist experience in school these results were found
especially in the following three types of  students, i.e. the older students, the students in higher class levels, and the
students from highly religious schools whose fathers were less educated. 
                  Thirdly, the students with highly unfavorable attitudes towards and reportedly behaving less agressive were
the ones with teacher as a good Buddhist model and the students themselves showed positive attiutdes towards their
Buddhist experiences in school. This result was found in the whole sample, and more specifically, it was found in the
students with less educated fathers. 
                  Fourthly, There were positive interrelationshios between Buddhist beliefs and practices and Buddhist
orientation, future-orientation and self-control and unfovorable attitudes towards aggrssion but negative interrelationships
between Buddhist beliefs and practices and aggresive behavior. In other words, the students who had strong beliefs and
prectices in Buddhism were the ones who had high religious orientation, high future orientation and self-control, high
negative attitudes towards aggression and showing less aggressive behavior. 
                  Finally, the five psychological traits that were unfavorable attitudes towards aggression, future orientation and
self-control and Buddhist orientation were the appararent predictors of aggressive behavior in the whole sample (38%). 
The most important predictors among them was the attitudes towards aggression. All three of these  psychological traits
could predict aggressive behavior the most (48%)  in students of less religiors schools. 
                    This study indicated the importance of Buddhist socialization in shcools, especially, being a good model
in Buddhist of teachers influenced Buddhist characteristics, psychological traits and aggressive behavior of students.
Furthermore, it pinpointed the join roles of families and schools in inducing students to have appropriate Buddhist and
psychological characteristics. 
                        The outcome of this study reinforces the importance of applying  Buddhism in developing psychological
traits and preventing aggressive behavior in adolescent students. 

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