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Effects of Bullying in Schools: The Teachers’ Perspectives

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ISSN 2200-6591

Journal of Society and

Communication

VOL 2012

PISC
 Journal of Society and Communication 161

Volume 2012, 161-179

http://journalofsocietyandcommunication.com

Effects of Bullying in Schools: The Teachers’ Perspectives

Clifford Gomba

University of the Incarnate Word

Kuan Chen Tsai

University of the Incarnate Word

 162

Effects of Bullying in Schools: The Teachers’ Perspectives

Abstract:

Bullying occurs largely at a school. A relationship exists

between student bullying and school issues such as academic

achievement, school bonding, and absenteeism. School bullying is

also associated with numerous physical, mental and social

problems. Prevention of school bullying should become a priority

issue for schools, and many strategies can be employed to solve

bullying behavior. The purpose of this study is to investigate

the bullying in the classroom from teachers’ views. Results

showed that bullying is still a serious issue. Teachers believed

guidance and counseling would help reduce bullying behaviors in

schools.

Keywords: Bullying, academic achievement, counseling

 163

Introduction

Bullying is an act of repeated aggressive behavior in order

to intentionally hurt another person, physically or mentally

(Beran, 2009; Olweus, 1995). Olweus (1999) defined bullying as

when a person is bullied when he or she is exposed, repeatedly

and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more

other persons, and he or she has difficulty defending himself or

herself. Bullying behavior may include direct forms such as

slapping, pushing, name calling or swearing or as indirect forms

such as gossiping with peers about the targeted individual

(Beran & Lupart, 2009). School bullying, sometimes referred to

as peer victimization or peer harassment consists of a subset of

aggressive behaviors among school children and adolescents

(Carlyle & Steinman, 2007; Ma, Phelps, Lerner & Lerner, 2009).

Advancement in technology has also led to the development of

another type of bullying called cyber bullying which happens via

electronic gadgets such as cell phones and the internet

(Anderson, 2010; Patchin & Hinduja, 2010; Twyman, Saylor, Taylor,

& Comeaux, 2010). School bullying is now recognized as a concern

in schools worldwide and hence has to be addressed before the

situation gets out of hand (Beran, Hughes, & Lupart, 2008;

Glasner, 2010).

There has been growing interest in the area of bullying

focusing on its effects on academic achievement (Boulton, 2008;

Mavroveli & Sánchez-Ruiz, 2011; Özer, Totan, & Atik, 2011;

Townsend, Flisher, Chikobvu, Lombard, & King, 2008). The
 164

majority of foci is on the center of students (Brown, Birch, &

Kancherla, 2005; Smith, 2004), but the area has not investigated

educators’ views (e.g., Flynt & Morton, 2008). Most research

does not focus how on teachers view bullying or how they react

to issues of bullying. Teachers are always in contact with their

students, so they should be in a position to answer questions

about bullying. The main focus of this study is to explore

teachers' perceptions of bullying. It is hope to provide some

insights for training teachers about bullying and for school

district’s bullying policy.

Bullying in Schools

Bullying is a common occurrence in most schools and varies

greatly between schools and school districts (Bauman, 2008;

Blosnich & Bossarte, 2011). Regardless of the grade level,

socioeconomic environment, gender, religion, or sexual

orientation, bullying can happen to anyone especially at school

(Olweus, 1995). According to the American Psychological

Association (2011), 70 percent of middle and high school

students have experienced bullying at some point, 20-40

percent report having bullied or been part of bullying during

the school year, 5-15 percent of youth are chronic victims, and

7-12 percent are chronic bullies. Further, 8-15 year olds rank

bullying as more of a problem in their lives than violence,

while 5th-12th graders are more concerned about emotional

maltreatment and social cruelty from peers than anything else

 165

(American Psychological Association, 2011). These statistics

show how prevalent bullying is in most schools.

Bullying at school tends to occur in secluded places such

as locker rooms and playgrounds especially when there are no

teachers to monitor students. Teachers, as adults who are

responsible in ensuring the school environment is conducive to

learning, should be involved in reducing bullying behavior at

their schools. The best way to reduce bullying is to recognize

that bullying can occur at all levels within the hierarchy of

the school that is from kindergarten through high school. Most

schools have adopted anti-bullying policies and made it clear

that bullying is never acceptable (Thijs, & Verkuyten, 2008).

Teachers should ensure there are adult supervisors in the yard,

halls, and washrooms and encourage positive peer relations and

cooperative learning activities. In addition, teachers may

emphasize the aspect of caring, respect, safety and consequences

of hurting others (Thijs, & Verkuyten, 2008).

Observers of bullying may also be affected by bullying

behavior as they may feel unsafe in the school environment or

where bullying takes place. Bystanders to bullying may tend to

dissociate themselves with the victim for fear of being the next

target and they feel powerless to act, guilty of not acting and

are tempted to participate (Beran & Lupart, 2008; Olweus

Bullying Prevention Program, 2011). Therefore, in order to stop

bullying in the school, it is beneficial to offer a variety of

extracurricular activities which appeal to a range of interests
 166

to engage students and keep them occupied. Holding a school

conference day or forum devoted to bully/victim problems and

enforcing consistent and immediate consequences for aggressive

behaviors can also be done by teachers to reduce bullying

behaviors at school (Olweus, 1999).

The Detrimental Effects of Bullying

Victims who have been the targets of bullying can suffer

from long term emotional and behavioral problems which can lead

to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Carney, 2008), the

inability to form relationships, even leading to celibacy

(Bauman, 2008). Bullying can also affect bullies, victims and

those who witness bullying. Victims of bullying have a higher

risk of depression and anxiety which may continue into adulthood

(Dake, Price, & Telljohann, 2003; O'Brennan, Bradshaw, & Sawyer,

2009). People who are bullied have increased suicidal thoughts

that may persist into adulthood. Studies have shown that between
15 and 25 children every year in the United Kingdom commit

suicide because they are being bullied (Wallace, 2003). In the

U.S. suicide cases because of bullying have received public

attention and awareness (Dervin, 2011; Green, 2007). According

to the website of Stop Bulling (n. d.), adults who recalled

being bullied in youth were 3 times more likely to have suicidal

thoughts or inclinations. Moreover, victims have been found

likely to retaliate through extremely violent measures. In 12 of
 167

15 schools shooting cases in the 1990s, the shooters had a

history of being bullied (U.S. Department of Health & Human

Services, n. d.).

Bullies tend to have a higher risk of abusing drugs as

adults and are likely to have criminal convictions. The research

showed a significant association between bullying and lifetime

disorder behaviors (Vaughn, et al, 2010). Research has shown

that 60% of boys who bullied others in middle school had a

criminal conviction by the age of 24 (Stop Bulling, n. d.).

Those who bully their peers are also likely than those students

who do not bully others to carry a weapon, report poor grades,

and get into frequent fights. Be that as it may, not all

students who bully others have obvious behavior problems or are

engaged in rule-breaking activities. A Study conducted by Woods

and Wolke (2004) showed that bullies are children with high

academic abilities and have social skills available to carry out

relational manipulations. They tend to be highly skilled

socially and good at ‘ingratiating’ themselves with teachers and

it is often difficult for teachers to discover or even imagine

that these students engage in bullying behavior (Olweus Bullying

Prevention Program, 2011).

Research has shown that bullying is now a serious problem

in the education sector and if it continues unchecked, the whole

school environment can be affected in many ways (Bauman, 2008;

Glasner, 2010). The school develops an environment of fear and

disrespect with students having difficulty in learning, feeling
 168

insecure, disliking school and perceiving teachers and staff as

having little control and not caring about them (Carran &

Kellner, 2009; Gastic; 2008; Olweus Bullying Prevention Program,

2011). Bullying at school results in lower academic achievement

as victims tend to be absent more often, spend less time and

energy on their school work and do not concentrate at school

(Kochenderfes & Ladd, 1996, as cited by Beran, 2009). Victims of

bullying may feel hurt, embarrassed, insecure, low self-esteem

and self-blame (Patchin & Hinduja, 2010), have greater rates of

absenteeism, have problems with school adjustment (doing school

work, following rules) and have problems with school bonding

(desire to do well at school, take school work seriously)

resulting in lower achievement (Beran et al., 2008; Beran &

Lupart, 2009; Dake, et al., 2003). Likewise, bullies who tend

to have a lower school adjustment, lower school bonding and tend

to engage in criminal (vandalism, stealing) and academic

(cheating, skipping school) misconduct and all these were found

to contribute to lower academic achievement (Woods & Wolke,

2004).

Method

Participants and Setting

A total of twenty teachers were used as participants for

this study. Participants were selected from two classes of

Educational Research Seminar (EDT 667) and Planning and

Assessing Technology-enhanced Learning (EDT 631). Of the 20
 169

teachers, 11 were females and 9 were males. All 20 teachers were

eligible for the study as most of them were either practicing

teachers or had taught in the immediate past. A total of 11

participants are teaching at primary level, 3 teachers teach at

Middle School and 4 teachers are teaching at High School. The

remaining 2 teachers were not currently teaching, but had taught

at primary level where they dealt with cases of bullying.

Data Collection

The researcher obtained permission to collect data by

providing the participants a letter and the participants’ school

principal a letter explaining the study’s objectives. This study

sought to establish how bullying is reported in schools and any

other negative effects of bullying behavior at school especially

in the academic and social lives of students. The researcher

collected teacher checklists on bullying and also carried out a

survey in order to address and answer the research questions.

The teacher groups were given the survey through email to

complete. The survey consisted of open-ended questions and also

closed-response questions. The survey consisted of 15 questions

on bullying, some of which could be answered as either Yes/No or

by fill in. At the completion of the survey, participants were

asked to email back the completed survey for the further

analysis of the data.

Major Findings
 170

All the teachers who responded to the survey said that

they had dealt with a case of bullying this year. Of the 55

cases of bullying behavior, the majority of them were verbal

which accounted for 73%, while physical accounted for 18%, while

the remainder 9% of the cases was not specified. On average,

name calling accounted for a higher percentage (47.5%) as

compared to other forms of bullying. Of the 73% of verbal

bullying, 27.5% were for spreading rumors, 15% for teasing, and

10% for insults.

With regard to gender difference, the major cause of

bullying incidents among girls included possessiveness of

friends, seclusion from group, dating the same boyfriend and

others just didn’t like each other. Among boys some of the cause

of bullying behavior included bigger boys bullying smaller ones,

language disability, homosexuality, seclusion from group and

others just didn’t like each other.

Concerning the bullying place in a school, teachers

believed that bullying in schools occurred in many areas where

adult supervision or presence was at a minimum or non-existent.

Some of the places identified where bullying takes place

included hallways, playground, cafeteria, on bus and in the

classroom.

The majority of the participants, 80% believed that victims

of bullying did not fail to do homework, or experienced a lower

academic achievement as a result of bullying, while the
 171

remaining 20% believed that they did. All teachers said that

none of the victims of bullying skipped school because of the

act. However, they still believed bullying might affect academic

and social development.

Discussion and Conclusion

Previous research focused on particular grades, especially

those of middle and high schools (Beran, 2009). In this regard,

including teachers of nearly all grades made it necessary to

find out the extent of bullying in all grade levels. Based on

the teachers’ report, bullying has been found to be prevalent in

schools. On average, each teacher dealt with 2 cases of bullying.

The results also show that bullying occurs at nearly every grade

level and that verbal bullying was the most common form of

bullying behavior. Bullying is a problem in schools for it

disrupts a good learning environment for students and may lead

to lower academic achievement. For the small percentage of

teachers who felt that bullying is not a problem; it might be

due to the fact that they have not dealt with serious cases of

bullying or they believe it is not a problem at all.

Bullying has also been found to be dominant in places that

are mostly secluded or without any adult supervision. Most of

the bullying cases took place at the playground. This may be

that the playground is a conducive place for bullying because of

minimum adult supervision. The study also found that there is a

relationship between bullying and lower academic achievement.
 172

Based on the results, most teachers believed that bullying not

only contribute to lower academic achievement, but also affect

students socially. Finally, most teachers proposed that it is

imperative to educate people about bullying especially students

and parents with appropriate approaches to address it.

Research on the effects of bullying on academic achievement

has shown that bullying contributes to lower academic

achievement (Bauman, 2008; Beran, 2009). Following this line,

this study confirmed that teachers believed that bullying does

contribute to lower academic achievement. In this study,

bullying was found to take many forms like verbal and physical,

leading to discomfort for victims at school (c.f. Carran &

Kellner, 2009), thus leading to lower academic achievement, and

also affecting the social lives of the victims even after the

school.

Teachers suggested that the first action is to educate

students and parents on the effects of bullying and how best to

handle it. There is also need to discuss bullying in class,

encourage open communication and victims to be told to stand up

for themselves, and speak out for help. According to the

teachers, bullying can also be addressed by putting emphasis on

being kind and good to one another, and teachers should model

appropriate behaviors.

In closing, it is imperative to address bullying at school

through setting up a school bullying policy with clear rules and
 173

code of conduct (Edmondson & Zeman, 2011). Anti- bullying rules

(Raskauskas & Modell, 2011) and standing up against bullying are

two ways of stamping out bullying in the classroom and helping

students learn without problems (Jaffe & D'Agostino, 2011). Most

important, all stakeholders should take active roles to stop

this malicious behavior and harassment, which in turn provide an

appealing learning environment for students and safer education

for all (Carter, 2011).

 174

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