Int J Adolesc Med Health 2015; 27(4): 391–396
Balafama Abinye Alex-Hart*, Joyce Okagua and Peace Ibo Opara
Prevalence of bullying in secondary schools in Port Harcourt Abstract Background: School bullying is a global problem involving a high proportion of students worldwide. However, its prevalence and types in secondary schools in Port Harcourt is not yet known. Objective: This study aimed to determine the prevalence and types of bullying in secondary schools in Port Harcourt. Subjects: A total of 1160 students from six secondary schools in Port Harcourt comprised the sample. Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional schoolbased study conducted in Port Harcourt in March 2014. Two mixed schools, two all-boys schools, and two all-girls schools were selected using purposive sampling technique. Stratified random sampling technique, by class strata (senior secondary 1, 2 and 3) was used to select 1160 students from the six schools. A 22-item self-administered questionnaire adapted from a previous study was modified and used in this study. The questions covered the prevalence, type of bullying, and socio-demographic data. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 (IBM SPSS Incorporated, Chicago, IL, USA). Results: About 82.2% reported being victims of bullying, whereas 64.9% reported being bullies. About 9.7% and 11.8% were neither bullies nor bullied, respectively. Bullying was significantly higher in the all-boys (90.8%) and all-girls (82.9%) schools than in the mixed schools (73.5%), p = 0.000. More males were victims (53.4%) and bullies (53.3%) but more females (55.4%) were bullyvictims. The most common (57.5%) type of bullying was physical bullying. Conclusion: The rate of bullying was found to be very high in secondary schools in Port Harcourt. Keywords: bullying; prevalence; secondary schools.
*Corresponding author: Balafama Abinye Alex-Hart, Department of Paediatrics, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, Phone: +2348033091084, E-mail: [email protected] Joyce Okagua and Peace Ibo Opara: Department of Pediatrics, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Rivers State, Nigeria
DOI 10.1515/ijamh-2014-0038 Received June 17, 2014; accepted October 1, 2014; previously published online December 23, 2014
Introduction Bullying in schools is a global problem (1, 2). Worldwide, a high percentage of students are involved in bullying every school day, either as bullies, victims, or both (2). A crossnational survey involving 113, 200 students at average ages of 11.5, 13.5, and 15.5 years from 25 countries showed that bullying rates varied from one country to another. Involvement in bullying as victims, bullies, or both was 9% in Sweden, 30% each in Canada and Hungary, 40% in Belgium, 48% each in Germany and Greenland, and 54% in Lithuania (2). In the US, in 2011, 20.1% of students from the 9th to 12th grades experienced bullying within 12 months of a national survey (3). In another related survey in the US, 40% of learners in the 8th and 9th grades reported experiencing frequent bullying in school (4). In Nigeria, Ehindero (5) reported victimization or bullying rate of more than 50% in a survey involving 1500 students in Junior Secondary School (JSS) 1–3 from 10 secondary schools in Osun State. About 59.7% of the male and 58.8% of the female students reported experiencing one form of victimization or another within 1 year of the survey (5). Similarly, Alagbu et al. found a high prevalence rate of bullying (81.7%) in six secondary schools in Anambra and Enugu States in Southeast Nigeria (6). In another related survey involving 300 JSS3 students from three public and three private secondary schools in Benin City, Edo State, Egbochukwu observed that 78% of the students reported being bullied to some degree, while 85% admitted bullying other students at least once (7). Olweus defined bullying as a situation in which a student is exposed, repeatedly or over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other students. These negative actions take place when an imbalance of power exists between the bully and the victim (8). These actions could be physical or verbal or may come in the form of social manipulation or attack on property (5, 9). Physical bullying could be in the form of kicking, punching, and slapping (5, 10), whereas verbal bullying is any slanderous statement or Brought to you by | Lund University Libraries Authenticated Download Date | 10/12/16 3:53 AM
392 Alex-Hart et al.: Bullying in secondary schools accusation that causes the victim undue emotional distress (10). It includes using foul language on the victim, using derogatory terms, constant teasing, issuing verbal threats, and name calling (5, 10). Social or emotional bullying is any form of bullying that causes damage to a victim’s psychic and emotional well-being (10). This includes spreading malicious rumors about people, keeping certain people out of a group, making fun of someone, ignoring people on purpose, and getting certain people to “gang up” on others (10). A bully is the aggressive student who picks on another student with the intent to inflict harm (11). A victim is the student who is the target of bullying, while a bully-victim is a bully who is also bullied (11). Various studies highlighted the adverse effects of bullying behaviors in school-aged children. Bullying has been associated with psychosomatic symptoms and smoking (12), poor academic achievements, poor school bonding and absenteeism (13), health problems among adolescents, poor emotional adjustment (2), increased tendencies to alcohol abuse (2), and potential suicide risk (14). The US National Threat Assessment Center found that many attackers in more than two thirds of 37 mass school shootings felt bullied, persecuted, threatened, attacked, and injured by others prior to the attack (15). There is, therefore, a need to make the school environment safe for learners by tackling the issue of bullying in secondary schools. There is scarcity of literature on the prevalence and types of bullying in secondary schools in Port Harcourt. Thus, the present study aimed to establish figures on the incidence of bullying and factors associated with bullying in secondary schools in Port Harcourt.
Materials and methods This was a cross-sectional school-based study conducted in six public secondary schools in the Port Harcourt Metropolis. Port Harcourt is the Capital of Rivers State, located in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria (16). It is highly congested as it is the only major city in the state. The 2006 Nigerian census puts its population at 1,382,592 (17). Purposive sampling method was used to select two all-girls, two all-boys, and two mixed secondary schools. The sample population consisted of 1160 students selected by stratified random sampling technique using class strata (Senior Secondary 1, 2, 3) from the selected schools. Permission was obtained from the principals and from the students in the selected schools. A 22-item self-administered questionnaire, adapted from a previous study (5), was modified and used for the current study. Questions covered socio-demographics and three types of bullying, namely, physical and verbal bullying and social manipulation. Questions on bullying included the following: –– Have you been bullied at least once in the past 1 year; if you answered yes to that question, were you punched, slapped, verbally insulted, threatened, kicked, or made fun of?
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What was your reaction when you were bullied? Have you ever bullied anybody at least once in the past 1 year; if you answered yes to that question, what did you do, who did you bully? –– If you have bullied somebody, what were your reasons? –– Was any action taken against you when you bullied somebody, what was the action? –– When you were bullied, did you report to anybody, who did you report to? –– What actions were taken against the bully and where you satisfied with the actions taken against the bully? Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 (IBM SPSS Incorporated, Chicago, IL, USA). Results are presented using descriptive statistics. Chi Square Test was used for test of significance. Only p-value
Balafama Abinye Alex-Hart*, Joyce Okagua and Peace Ibo Opara
Prevalence of bullying in secondary schools in Port Harcourt Abstract Background: School bullying is a global problem involving a high proportion of students worldwide. However, its prevalence and types in secondary schools in Port Harcourt is not yet known. Objective: This study aimed to determine the prevalence and types of bullying in secondary schools in Port Harcourt. Subjects: A total of 1160 students from six secondary schools in Port Harcourt comprised the sample. Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional schoolbased study conducted in Port Harcourt in March 2014. Two mixed schools, two all-boys schools, and two all-girls schools were selected using purposive sampling technique. Stratified random sampling technique, by class strata (senior secondary 1, 2 and 3) was used to select 1160 students from the six schools. A 22-item self-administered questionnaire adapted from a previous study was modified and used in this study. The questions covered the prevalence, type of bullying, and socio-demographic data. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 (IBM SPSS Incorporated, Chicago, IL, USA). Results: About 82.2% reported being victims of bullying, whereas 64.9% reported being bullies. About 9.7% and 11.8% were neither bullies nor bullied, respectively. Bullying was significantly higher in the all-boys (90.8%) and all-girls (82.9%) schools than in the mixed schools (73.5%), p = 0.000. More males were victims (53.4%) and bullies (53.3%) but more females (55.4%) were bullyvictims. The most common (57.5%) type of bullying was physical bullying. Conclusion: The rate of bullying was found to be very high in secondary schools in Port Harcourt. Keywords: bullying; prevalence; secondary schools.
*Corresponding author: Balafama Abinye Alex-Hart, Department of Paediatrics, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, Phone: +2348033091084, E-mail: [email protected] Joyce Okagua and Peace Ibo Opara: Department of Pediatrics, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Rivers State, Nigeria
DOI 10.1515/ijamh-2014-0038 Received June 17, 2014; accepted October 1, 2014; previously published online December 23, 2014
Introduction Bullying in schools is a global problem (1, 2). Worldwide, a high percentage of students are involved in bullying every school day, either as bullies, victims, or both (2). A crossnational survey involving 113, 200 students at average ages of 11.5, 13.5, and 15.5 years from 25 countries showed that bullying rates varied from one country to another. Involvement in bullying as victims, bullies, or both was 9% in Sweden, 30% each in Canada and Hungary, 40% in Belgium, 48% each in Germany and Greenland, and 54% in Lithuania (2). In the US, in 2011, 20.1% of students from the 9th to 12th grades experienced bullying within 12 months of a national survey (3). In another related survey in the US, 40% of learners in the 8th and 9th grades reported experiencing frequent bullying in school (4). In Nigeria, Ehindero (5) reported victimization or bullying rate of more than 50% in a survey involving 1500 students in Junior Secondary School (JSS) 1–3 from 10 secondary schools in Osun State. About 59.7% of the male and 58.8% of the female students reported experiencing one form of victimization or another within 1 year of the survey (5). Similarly, Alagbu et al. found a high prevalence rate of bullying (81.7%) in six secondary schools in Anambra and Enugu States in Southeast Nigeria (6). In another related survey involving 300 JSS3 students from three public and three private secondary schools in Benin City, Edo State, Egbochukwu observed that 78% of the students reported being bullied to some degree, while 85% admitted bullying other students at least once (7). Olweus defined bullying as a situation in which a student is exposed, repeatedly or over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other students. These negative actions take place when an imbalance of power exists between the bully and the victim (8). These actions could be physical or verbal or may come in the form of social manipulation or attack on property (5, 9). Physical bullying could be in the form of kicking, punching, and slapping (5, 10), whereas verbal bullying is any slanderous statement or Brought to you by | Lund University Libraries Authenticated Download Date | 10/12/16 3:53 AM
392 Alex-Hart et al.: Bullying in secondary schools accusation that causes the victim undue emotional distress (10). It includes using foul language on the victim, using derogatory terms, constant teasing, issuing verbal threats, and name calling (5, 10). Social or emotional bullying is any form of bullying that causes damage to a victim’s psychic and emotional well-being (10). This includes spreading malicious rumors about people, keeping certain people out of a group, making fun of someone, ignoring people on purpose, and getting certain people to “gang up” on others (10). A bully is the aggressive student who picks on another student with the intent to inflict harm (11). A victim is the student who is the target of bullying, while a bully-victim is a bully who is also bullied (11). Various studies highlighted the adverse effects of bullying behaviors in school-aged children. Bullying has been associated with psychosomatic symptoms and smoking (12), poor academic achievements, poor school bonding and absenteeism (13), health problems among adolescents, poor emotional adjustment (2), increased tendencies to alcohol abuse (2), and potential suicide risk (14). The US National Threat Assessment Center found that many attackers in more than two thirds of 37 mass school shootings felt bullied, persecuted, threatened, attacked, and injured by others prior to the attack (15). There is, therefore, a need to make the school environment safe for learners by tackling the issue of bullying in secondary schools. There is scarcity of literature on the prevalence and types of bullying in secondary schools in Port Harcourt. Thus, the present study aimed to establish figures on the incidence of bullying and factors associated with bullying in secondary schools in Port Harcourt.
Materials and methods This was a cross-sectional school-based study conducted in six public secondary schools in the Port Harcourt Metropolis. Port Harcourt is the Capital of Rivers State, located in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria (16). It is highly congested as it is the only major city in the state. The 2006 Nigerian census puts its population at 1,382,592 (17). Purposive sampling method was used to select two all-girls, two all-boys, and two mixed secondary schools. The sample population consisted of 1160 students selected by stratified random sampling technique using class strata (Senior Secondary 1, 2, 3) from the selected schools. Permission was obtained from the principals and from the students in the selected schools. A 22-item self-administered questionnaire, adapted from a previous study (5), was modified and used for the current study. Questions covered socio-demographics and three types of bullying, namely, physical and verbal bullying and social manipulation. Questions on bullying included the following: –– Have you been bullied at least once in the past 1 year; if you answered yes to that question, were you punched, slapped, verbally insulted, threatened, kicked, or made fun of?
–– ––
What was your reaction when you were bullied? Have you ever bullied anybody at least once in the past 1 year; if you answered yes to that question, what did you do, who did you bully? –– If you have bullied somebody, what were your reasons? –– Was any action taken against you when you bullied somebody, what was the action? –– When you were bullied, did you report to anybody, who did you report to? –– What actions were taken against the bully and where you satisfied with the actions taken against the bully? Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 (IBM SPSS Incorporated, Chicago, IL, USA). Results are presented using descriptive statistics. Chi Square Test was used for test of significance. Only p-value
