Correlating the Effect of Bullying behavior on Self-Esteem among Higher Secondary School Students in selected school, Salem
Guna Priya. G1, Hemalatha. T2
1M.Sc Nursing, Assistant Professor, Department of Medical-Surgical Nursing,
Dharan Nursing College, Salem, Tamil Nadu.
2M.Sc Nursing, Assistant Professor, Department of Paediatric Nursing,
Dharan Nursing College, Salem, Tamil Nadu.
*Corresponding Author E-mail:
ABSTRACT:
Introduction: Bullying at school is a global issue that impacts a considerable number of children and teenagers. An estimated 246 million of them are victims of bullying and acts of violence in schools each year. Psychiatric nurses are crucial in emphasizing the gravity of bullying actions and how they affect students' self-esteem. Objectives: 1. to assess the bullying behavior among higher secondary school students. 2.to assess the self-esteem among higher secondary school students.3. to assess the correlation between bullying and self-esteem among higher secondary school students. Methods: A descriptive evaluative research technique, correlational research design was used. The number of samples was 250 students had been selected via the use of non-probability purposive sampling method from selected school in Salem. Tools: 1) Socio-demographic variables, 2) Bullying scale, and 3) Self-esteem scale. Results: This study represented that 56% of the studied students had poor knowledge about bullying with 67.2% of all the studied students were exposed to bullying, out of this percentage 97.1%, 91.7%, and 72.1% were exposed to bulling by hitting, calling bad names, and threatening, respectively. As well, the majority of studied groups suffered from effect of bullying; (64.8%, 63.2%, 54.8% and 54%) of them suffered of sleep disturbances, abdominal pain, low self-confidence and aggression, respectively. there was a highly statistical significant relation between prevalence of bullying among the studied group and total level of students’ attitude, along with the total level of their self-esteem. There was a highly statistical significant relation between the students’ socio-demographic characteristics and total level of their self-esteem. Conclusion: Current study concluded that, majority of studied students were exposing to and participating in different types of bulling. The majority of the studied group suffered from low self-confidence and aggression with physical and psychological consequences of bullying. Recommendation: Designate instructional module in Arabic booklet to be readily accessible for nurses, school staff and student with the strongest knowledge base about bullying and the process of dealing with or controlling them.
KEYWORDS: School Students, Bullying, And Self-Esteem.
INTRODUCTION:
“Bullying is a form of aggressive behavior in which someone intentionally and repeatedly causes another person injury or discomfort. Bullying can take the form of physical contact, words, or more subtle actions. The bullied individual typically has trouble defending him or herself and does nothing to “cause” the bullying.” (American psychiatric association)
Bullying is a serious issue in schools. Bullying victims frequently have low self-esteem, yet social skills are favorably correlated with self-esteem. Bullied people are typically seen as weaker and incapable of defending themselves, whereas bullies are typically stronger physically.
Bullying in schools is a problem that has drawn attention from academics, the media, school administrators, and parents who are worried about their children's safety and well-being. Many factors contribute to bullying and being bullied, such as physical appearance, weight, race or ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, religion, and disability. Bullying is also closely related to adolescent depression, anxiety, insomnia, inattention, and other mental problems. Some children can self-adjust. Some require intervention to improve or to prevent complications. The results of bullying, physical and emotional, have a huge impact on children’s self-esteem.
1. To assess the bullying behavior among higher secondary school students.
2. To assess the self-esteem among higher secondary school students.
3. To assess the correlation between bullying and self esteem among higher secondary school students.
HYPOTHESES (Level of significance at p<0.05):
H1: There is a significant association between the bullying behavior and self esteem among higher secondary school students
METHODS:
Research design:
The Research approach applied is the quantitative approach with quasi experimental non-equivalent control group pretest posttest design was used. The number of children was 250; 175 in intervention group and 175 in observation group had been selected via the use of non-probability purposive sampling method.
Inclusion criteria:
This study includes
· Students between 10 to 18 years.
· were available during the collection of data.
· Both males, and females included.
Exclusion Criteria:
study excludes students
· Who were ill.
Tool Description:
Part I: Socio-demographic variables,
Section 2: Bullying scale, and 3) Self-esteem scale.
Part I: Socio-demographic variables: It used to assess school student's socio demographic data such as age, gender, grade, father and mother's education, father & mother's job and family income.
Tool II: Bullying prevalence and effect questionnaire (National Center for Injury, Prevention and Control, 2011). This questionnaire covered with sixteen questions and used to assess exposure of bulling, its types and effect. Types of bullying exposure covered six types as bulling exposure by hitting, frequent steal, calling a bad name, threatening, and spreading lies. While the types of bullying participation covered five types as bulling participant by hitting, frequent steal, calling a bad name, threatening, and spreading lies. Moreover, there were five types of bullying effect such as psychological effect of bullying as (low self-confidence, depression, suicide idea, lonely) and physical effect of bullying as (sleep disturbances, abdominal pain) and social effect of bullying as social withdraw and educational achievement effect as (recurrence of school absent); in addition to behavioral effect which concerned with (smoking & aggression).
Tool III: Student’s knowledge questionnaire regarding bullying (National Center for Injury, Prevention and Control, 2011). This questionnaire covered eight parts with fifty questions concerned with meaning, causes, risk factors, student characteristics, forms, types, intervention & methods for prevention of bullying.
Scoring system:
The total grades of student’s knowledge questionnaire regarding bullying equal (100); two grade was given for each correct& complete answer, one grade given for incorrect answer. The grades for each item were summed up and then converted into a percent score as:
· Poor level of knowledge: <50%
· Average level of knowledge: 50 :74%
· Good level of knowledge ≥ 75%
The scale used to evaluate student attitude toward bulling and covered 29 questions in different three sections.
Section I: Are attitudes of bullies. It covered seven questions concerned with say anything about colleague to make others laugh, call a colleague a bad name, hit or kick colleague, threaten colleague, encourage colleagues to fight, get in a physical battle & bother colleague.
Section II: Are attitudes of victim. It covered sixteen questions concerned with one of colleagues hit you, defend yourself during hit, anyone said you are untidy, anyone said you are fat or thin, threaten by hitting, calling with names that you don’t like, getting bullied by telling rumors, colleagues ignored you, ridiculed by student, students deliberately shocked you, anyone hits strongly, feel angry in bullying situations, feel uncomfortable in situations that remind you with bullying, have memories of bullying, have bullying dreams & bulling lead to leaving activities.
Section III: Are attitudes of bystander. it covered six questions concerned with watching a colleague trying to hit other, watching a colleague stealing other, watching a colleague mock other, watching a colleague threaten other, watching a colleague enter a physical battle & watching a colleague harassing other.
The total grades of students' attitude regarding bullying equal (145); category for 5 Point Likert scale was (1= Never, 2= Rare, 3= Sometimes, 4= Frequently & 5= Always).
The grades for each item were summed up and then converted into a percent score as:
|
≥ 60% (≥ 78 sores) |
Positive attitude |
|
<60% (<78 sores) |
Negative attitude |
Tool V: Self-esteem Scale (El-Desouky, 2016)
This scale was adapted by (El-Desouky, 2016), which used to assess students’ self-esteem level. It consists of 25 statements which divided to positive and negative items.
Positive items: are consisting of 12 items (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 14, 15, 18, 21, 22, 23 and 25) and involve the following: Item (3): Feeling a lovable person. Item (4): Others being happy with me. Item (5): Others want to talk with me. Item (6): Feeling competent person. Item (7): Making a good impression on others. Item (14): Feeling seeing me as a fun person. Item (15): Feeling a high sense of humor. Item (18): I have a good time with others. Item (21): Feeling a nice person. Item (22): Feeling that others love me very much. Item (23): Feeling accepted by others. Item (25): My friends appreciate me well.
Negative items: are consisting of 13 items (1, 2, 8, 9, 10,11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 20 and 24) and involve the following: Item (1): No one like me when knowing me. Item (2): Others interact better than me. Item (8): Needing more self- confidence. Item (9): I get very nervous, with strangers. Item (10): Feeling a boring person. Item (11) Feeling unloved person. Item (12): Others enjoying better than me. Item (13): Feeling bored of others. Item (16): I get very attentive, with strangers. Item (17): My life will be better if I be as others. Item (19): Feeling unwanted with others. Item (20): I suffer psychologically than others. Item (24): Feeling foolish when confronting others Scoring system
For positive items: (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 14, 15, 18, 21, 22, 23 and 25): category for 5 Point Likert scale was (1= Never, 2 = Rare, 3 = Sometimes, 4= Frequently & 5= Always).
For negative items: (1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17,19, 20 & 24): category for 5 Point Likert scale was ((5=Never, 4= Rare, 3= Sometimes, 2= Frequently and 1= Always).
The total score of Self-esteem Scale was (25items =125 score=100%).
|
Low level of knowledge |
< 50%% (<63 scores) |
|
Average level of knowledge |
50 :74%(63: 93 scores) |
|
High level of knowledge |
≥ 75% (≥94 scores) |
RESULTS:
Table 1- Relation between socio-demographic characteristics and total level of satisfactory level of knowledge among the studied group (N=250)
|
Socio-demographic Characteristics |
Satisfactory Level of knowledge |
χ2 |
P-value |
|||||
|
Low |
Average |
High |
||||||
|
NO |
% |
NO |
% |
NO |
% |
|||
|
Age |
|
|
|
|
|
|
281.03 |
<0.01** |
|
< 13 |
0 |
0 |
9 |
3.6 |
51 |
20.4 |
||
|
13 – 15 |
49 |
19.6 |
50 |
20 |
0 |
0 |
||
|
> 15 |
91 |
36.4 |
0 |
|
0 |
0 |
||
|
Gender |
|
|
|
|
|
|
219.73 |
<0.01** |
|
Male |
132 |
52.8 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
||
|
Female |
8 |
3.2 |
59 |
23.6 |
51 |
20.4 |
||
|
Father’s Educational |
356.62 |
<0.01** |
||||||
|
Not read and write |
12 |
4.8 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
||
|
Read and write |
118 |
47.2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
||
|
Basic education |
10 |
4 |
15 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
||
|
Read and write |
118 |
47.2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
||
|
Average qualification |
0 |
0 |
44 |
17.6 |
16 |
6.4 |
||
|
University education |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
35 |
13.8 |
||
|
Mother’s Educational |
333.79 |
<0.01** |
||||||
|
Not read and write |
20 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
||
|
Read and write |
120 |
48 |
3 |
1.2 |
0 |
0 |
||
|
Basic education |
0 |
0 |
19 |
7.6 |
0 |
0 |
||
|
Average qualification |
0 |
0 |
37 |
14.8 |
29 |
11.6 |
||
|
University education |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
18 |
7.2 |
||
|
Postgraduate studies |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
1.6 |
||
|
Family income |
|
|
|
|
|
|
146.33 |
<0.01** |
|
Not enough |
53 |
21.2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
||
|
Only basic needs are sufficient |
87 |
34.8 |
59 |
23.6 |
27 |
10.8 |
||
|
Basic needs and surplus savings |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
24 |
9.6 |
||
Table 2: Correlation between total score of attitudes and total score of knowledge among the studied group (n=250)
|
Variable |
Total Scores of Attitudes |
|
|
Correlation Coefficient (r) |
P- Value |
|
|
Total Score of Knowledge |
- 0.929 |
<0.01** |
Table 3: Correlation between total score of self-esteem and total score of knowledge among the studied group (n=250)
|
Variable |
Total Scores of Self Esteem |
|
|
Correlation Coefficient (r) |
P- Value |
|
|
Total Score of Knowledge |
0.916 |
<0.01** |
Table 4: Correlation between total score of attitudes and total score of self-esteem among studied group (N=250)
|
Variable |
Total Score of Attitude |
|
|
Correlation Coefficient (r) |
P- Value |
|
|
Total Score of Self Esteem |
- 0.985 |
<0.01** |
In the light of the current study results, it can be concluded that, majority of studied students were exposing to and participating in different types of bulling. The majority of the studied group suffered from low self-confidence and aggression with physical and psychological consequences of bullying. Moreover the majority of studied students had a distinguished unsatisfactory level of knowledge regarding bullying with negative attitude and half of them had low self-esteem. Additionally, there was a statistical highly significant relation was found between the students’ socio- demographic characteristics and prevalence of bullying.
As well as, there was a highly statistical significant relation between prevalence of bullying among the studied group and total level of student attitude, along with the total level of their self-esteem. There was a highly statistical significant relation between the students’ socio- demographic characteristics and total level of their self- esteem.
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Received on 10.12.2024 Revised on 06.01.2025 Accepted on 25.01.2025 Published on 28.02.2025 Available online from March 26, 2025 A and V Pub Int. J. of Nursing and Med. Res. 2025; 4(1):50-53. DOI: 10.52711/ijnmr.2025.10 ©A and V Publications All right reserved
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