Effects of Bullying on the Academic Performance of the Elementary Students and Ways of Reducing Such Bullying

Effects of Bullying on the Academic Performance of the Elementary Students and Ways of Reducing Such Bullying

Abstract

This study critically analyzes the impact of bullying on the academic performance of the elementary students and examines some of the most effective ways to reduce this social problem facing most of the elementary students in the United States. The history of bullying dates back to the 1990s when cases of bullying become most prevalent. The existing literature shows that violence between peers, particularly elementary students, has become a widespread phenomenon whose effects on the academic performance of the victims has proven to be very detrimental. Some of the detrimental effects of bullying amongst elementary students include low self-esteem, self-harm, suicidal intention, depression, loneliness, and physical ill-health. Several prevention strategies can be implemented to reduce elementary student bullying within the school setting. Some of the possible bullying intervention strategies that can be used include multidisciplinary whole-school interventions, the whole school approach, and the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program. Methodologically, self-administered questionnaires were administered to collect data from the 220 elementary male and female students present in Boston. Both primary and secondary data are used to complete this study. Results from the study indicate that a lot of bullying is taking place within the school setting with the effects of this social problem has a significant impact on the academic level of both the perpetrators and victims of bullying.

Introduction and Background

Bullying is a significant public health issue, affecting 10% to 30% of children worldwide. Substantial media attention has been drawn to bullying in recent years across the United States, primarily because of suicides associated with bullying. The issue of bullying has, in recent years, received a lot of public concerns in America. Studies show that rates of bullying have decreased steadily since the 1990s, but they seem to have plateaued in the past few years. According to Shetgiri, (2017), there has been no significant change in the period from 2013 to 2015 in self-reported victimization from traditional and electronic bullying among US high school students (Shetgiri, 2017). Most of such recent declines in rates of bullying are being attributed to greater recognition of the negative short- and long-term consequences of victimization from and perpetration of bullying, and implementation of programs and policies to combat bullying. Locally, most of the district schools in the country have formulated and implemented anti-bullying policies. In contrast, nationally, Congress has enacted new laws that address the issue of bullying not only in the school setting but also in the entire American society.

Over the past two decades, educators and policymakers have increasingly acknowledged that

a safe school environment is an essential aspect of promoting students’ academic

performance. According to Ponzo, (2013), despite the attention devoted by the economics of education to the determinants of student performance, little is known about the consequences of standard forms of everyday violence at school (Ponzo, 2013). Examples of bullying within the school setting include being verbally and physically harassed, excluded from social groups,

and being stolen from by the classmates. Most of the cases of bullying within the school setting across the United States are based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, or religion (Ponzo, 2013). The US Department of Health and Human Services has partnered with several other governmental agencies to develop and maintain stopbullying.gov, which is a valuable resource for information regarding bullying for parents, teens, children, educators, and community-based organizations.

According to Twemlow, et al. (2006), bullying against children is one of the top ten health concerns for a majority of the parents in the United States with parents of elementary and early middle school children most likely to be concerned about bullying (Twemlow et al., 2006).  The significant impact that bullying has on the academic performance of students has prompted different education stakeholders to establish effective measures to reduce the prevalence of bullying as a social problem affecting school students. For instance, The American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement on youth violence prevention recommends that pediatricians address bullying through clinical practice, advocacy, education, and research (Twemlow et al., 2006). In the effort of support the bullying prevention measures that have been established by the pediatricians given the significant psychological and mental health issues that bullying may have on students, both the Connected Kids program and American Academy of Pediatrics Bright Futures guidelines collaborate to provide resources for pediatricians to inquire about and provide counseling for bullying (Twemlow et al., 2006). October has been designated as National Bullying Prevention Awareness month and is the focus of many anti-bullying efforts by advocacy organizations.

Literature Review

Impacts of Bullying on the Academic Performance of the Students

Violence between peers in schools is a widespread phenomenon that worries psychologists, teachers, and families in many countries around the world. Studies reveal that recent years have witnessed a rapid increase in reported cases of bullying behaviors among peers in schools across the globe (Ponzo, 2013). For instance, in Italy, two out of every eight students in the country are likely to experience bullying at a particular point in their lifetimes. The Third Italian Report on the Condition of Childhood and Adolescence (2000) indicates that over 40% of all children and adolescents have threatened or hit a peer; over 30% say they have witnessed threats or acts of force at their school; 15.5% of the younger children and 10.8% of adolescents say there are continuing acts of physical violence (Ponzo, 2013). Ponzo (2013) further argues that about 40% of elementary school students and 28% of middle school students say they have been the victims of bullying “sometimes or quite frequently”; 20% say that they have inflicted physical violence on their schoolmates sometimes or quite frequently (Ponzo, 2013).

Most of the studies about bullying are from the psychological literature. They typically aim at evaluating the causes of violent behavior of peers and the consequences on the psychological traits of victims rather than the degree to which the different forms of small-scale violence at school affect students’ performance (Ponzo, 2013). Most of these studies point out that students who are victimized by peers are likely to demonstrate low self-esteem, self-harm, suicidal intention, depression, loneliness, and physical ill-health. Another recent study that was conducted in the United Kingdom in the attempt of exploring the existing relationship between bullying behavior at primary school and the performance of pupils in the class discovered that there exists little evidence of a direct link between being a victim of school bullying and scholastic achievement (Ponzo, 2013). Although the problem of bullying within the school settings is a global issue, it is increasingly prevalent in the United States where reported cases of child bullying have become more rampant than in other countries.

According to Juvonen, Wang, and Espinoza (2011), although rates of bullying do not appear to be increasing, there are still a substantial number of children victimized by bullying annually, with 1 in 5 high school students bullied at school and 1 in 6 students cyberbullied. Approximately 15% to 20% of US elementary students report victimization from bullying (Juvonen, Wang & Espinoza, 2011). Victimization from bullying leads to mental health problems, school absenteeism, and low self-esteem, thus resulting in a general decline in the academic performance of the victims of such circumstances. There is an increased need for continued research on bullying, given the high rates of bullying and its negative consequences. Studies on bullying provide essential information to guide future prevention and intervention strategies (Shetgiri, 2017). Most bullying still consists of traditional forms of bullying, such as physical, verbal, and relational bullying, rather than cyberbullying.

Most bullying research focuses on school-based bullying, and victimization from bullying is associated with decreased school engagement and academic performance (Shetgiri, 2017). A longitudinal study in the United States showed that victimization from bullying is associated with lower math grades across three years of middle school. It is assumed that a student who is victimized by peers becomes worried about getting ridiculed or beaten up and therefore stops participating in in-class activities or has trouble concentrating on the academic tasks because of compromised self-regulation. Experimental data on

college students support this assumption. According to Juvonen, Wang, and Espinoza, (2011), a brief manipulation of social exclusion adversely affects college students’ performance on a challenging test (Juvonen, Wang & Espinoza, 2011). The emotional distress that is elicited by bullying encounters likely impedes students’ ability to concentrate and do well in exams that largely determine their academic grades in school.

Longitudinal studies are crucial to determine the direction of the association between victimization and adverse outcomes. Brunstein et al. (2019) argue that most longitudinal studies have examined the impact of victimization on depression, while others have examined the effects of depression on becoming victimized (Brunstein et al., 2019).  A few longitudinal studies have examined the bidirectional association between victimization and depression, generally indicating that there is a bidirectional association between the two. From their point of view, Brunstein et al. (2019) assert that depression both precedes and follows victimization. It has also been found that there is a dose-effect in which the more frequent the victimization, the higher the risk for depression (Brunstein et al., 2019). Longitudinal studies examining the association

between victimization and suicidality within the school setting, however, have mainly been in a single directional pathway that is, how they lead to suicidal ideation and behavior.

A recent study by the U. S Department of Education discovered that school violence has become significantly widespread across most of the district schools in the country, with children being considered as either perpetrator of victims of school violence. Berkowitz and Benbenishty (2012) have discovered that a significant number of students are bullies and victims, whereby being a bully-victim is associated with negative relations with teachers and with a higher risk of maltreatment by staff (Berkowitz and Benbenishty, 2012). Such students experience adjustment problems, are disliked by their peers, have lower grades, and present various symptoms of depression and anxiety. These signs all appear more frequently than in victim-only, bully-only, and students not involved in violence. Bullying is generally more likely to take place in the early

grades and tends to decrease at higher grades. According to Crothers and Kolbert, (2008), the nature of bullying appears to change with age, with the use of physical aggression decreasing in higher grades and improving from aggressive to more passive, verbal forms of violence (Crothers & Kolbert, 2008). The few studies that examined the prevalence of bully-victims in different age groups found a higher frequency of aggressive victims among younger than among older students.

Currently, there is little theoretical work that helps generate hypotheses as to which groups of students are more vulnerable to belonging to the bully-victim group. Through employing a personality and developmental conceptual framework, Crothers and Kolbert, (2008) have shown the readers of their work that children’s characteristics, such as impulsiveness, that result in conflictual relationships with peers, over time can develop into the combination of bullying and victimization (Crothers & Kolbert, (2008). The present study relies on the lifestyle exposure theory and routine activity theory to provide a useful theoretical framework for understanding why certain groups of students may be more vulnerable to being bully-victims. Berkowitz and Benbenishty, (2012) argue that these theories suggest that a student is more likely to be victimized the more he or she interacts with members of demographic groups with high rates of aggressors (Berkowitz & Benbenishty, (2012). Therefore, aggressors have a higher probability of becoming victims, compared to non-aggressors, because of their frequent encounters with other aggressors.

Consequently, because boys are more involved in physical violence than girls and they, therefore, interact with other male aggressors, we hypothesize that, of all those involved in violence, boys will be more prone than girls to becoming bully-victims. School violence reduces the feeling of safety at school for all students. Victims feel more stressed in school and have a greater desire to stay away from school to avoid being picked on by their peers. Moreover, Al-Raqqad et al., (2017) argue that since bully-victims suffer more severe and harsh violence, both as perpetrators and as victims, there are high expectations that they are more prone to feeling insecure at school and to avoiding school because of fear of being physically or mentally harassed by their bully-perpetrators (Al-Raqqad et al., 2017). Such incidents ultimately result in the bully-victims reporting significantly low grades since their overall academic performance is significantly affected. In their study, Al-Raqqad et al., (2017) hypothesis that bully-victims will report higher levels of insecurity at school and more absences from school because of fear, compared to the

other subgroups of children (Al-Raqqad et al., 2017).

The present study examines the prevalence of the combined pattern of bullying and victimization among students. The relative incidence of bully-only, victim-only, bully-victim, and not involved students can also be examined according to gender, age, and ethnicity. Al-Raqqad et al., (2017) have tried to explore the extent to which being a bully-victim extensively are associated with perceptions of school climate such as teachers’ support, feelings of insecurity, and absences from school because of fear (Al-Raqqad et al., 2017). However, it is essential to note that the role of race and ethnicity in bullying has not received the same degree of attention, and, to date, findings are significantly inconsistent. Bullying experiences affect victims’ academic achievement in both direct and indirect ways (Al-Raqqad et al., 2017). So bullied student by his peers may become worried and afraid of being teased. Therefore he or she may stop participating in class or may have e trouble concentrating on classwork because of fear. They added that students who are often subject to be bullied by their peers during the school period have less engagement at school and poor grades (Al-Raqqad et al., 2017). Interpersonal relationships within a school environment influence academic achievement. Recent research shows that aggression in schools has a negative effect on academic achievement in Latin America, with most of the students who have been physically or verbally abused tend to perform less within the class setting. For instance, students who suffer from their peers’ aggression have lower performance in reading and math than those who do not. Moreover, students who are in classrooms with more physical or verbal violence perform worse than those in less violent classroom settings.

Bullying Prevention Strategies

Practically, it is important to identify students more exposed to violence, both as victims and as perpetrators, to design and direct intervention and prevention programs for the most vulnerable groups. Some several interventions or strategies can be used to effectively reduce or eradicate the problem of bullying within the school setting. Firstly, evidence suggests that multidisciplinary whole-school interventions are the most effective, non-stigmatizing means to prevent and manage bullying behavior (Pearce et al. 2011). Consistent with an ecological framework, a whole-school approach to reducing bullying usually targets the school-level policy, that is, the classroom and school climate, behavior support, peer support, and schoolyard improvements (Pearce et al. 2011). It also targets the class-room level curriculum, the home level that is, engaging and involving parents, and lastly, the individual level that is working with higher risk students.

Secondly, it is widely accepted that countering bullying requires a ‘whole school approach’ in which the elements and initiatives in a program are carefully coordinated. Coordinated action, it is often said, is needed at different levels: namely, the school, the classroom, and the individual student (Rigby, Smith & Pepler, 2004). How this is to be done is typically incorporated in a school anti-bullying policy that describes the stand that is being taken against bullying and the procedures and actions that are to be taken in its implementation. Thirdly, the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is another strategy to eradicate bullying within the school setting. The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is a comprehensive intervention and is probably the most widely recognized program for addressing bullying (Smokowski & Kopasz, 2005). The program targets students in elementary and middle school and relies on teachers and school staff for implementation (Smokowski & Kopasz, 2005). The program prompts school personnel to create a school environment that is characterized by warmth and involvement, has firm limits on unacceptable behavior, consistently applies non-hostile consequences to violations of rules, and allows adults to act as both authority figures and role models.

Methodology

The below methodology was used to complete this study.

Target Population

The target population for this study consisted of all males and female elementary students in the private and public schools within Boston. This target population was chosen since it was composed of the intended subjects who are supposed to help reveal incidents of bullying within the school setting.

Sampling

In the effort of collecting the accurate data, a convenient sample was selected totaling 220 elementary students for two classes from different schools located with Boston. The elementary students for this study were chosen randomly from both the private and public schools located in Boston. Random selection of these elementary students was aimed at eradicating or reducing the chances of biased findings.

Study Instrument

In an attempt to collect reliable and high-quality data, the researcher used a self-administered questionnaire which was distributed to the intended respondents. The questions present in the questionnaires that were designed according to research objectives and hypotheses. The university instructors and expert’s opinions were used to validating the questionnaires. Based on the feedback provided by the instructors and experts regarding these questionnaires, the questionnaires were improved in terms of content, format, style, and language before being administered to the 220 male and female respondents selected for this study. The researcher measured the internal consistency and reliability of the questionnaires using Cronbach’s Alpha as the instrument method.

Data Collection and Analysis

To collect primary data, the researcher used self-administered questionnaires that were distributed to the research sample. On the other hand, the researcher used journals, periodicals, books, and the internet to collect secondary data. The collected primary and secondary data was then analyzed by the researcher in the effort of trying to establish a pattern as well as prove the hypothesis.

Research Validity and Reliability

University instructors examined the questionnaire; their comments and amendments were taken into consideration. Some items were canceled or added to form the final copy of the questionnaire. The research study used Cronbach alpha to find out the results consistency. It was found, the questionnaire’s reliability level was equal to (0.91) which is acceptable.

Results of the Study

The study was very pivotal in demonstrating the effects of bullying on the academic achievement level of the elementary students in both private and public schools in Boston. The below table 1 shows the mean and standard deviation of bullying existence in the sample schools.

Table I: Mean and Standard Deviation of Bullying Existence in the Sample School

Based on the findings provided in the above table, the means of the sample’s responses ranged between 3.39 and 4.30. All responses provided by the respondents indicated that their agreement was high level. The first statement in the questionnaire ranked first, while the seventh statement ranked last. A critical analysis of the above means shows that bullying exists in the school setting across Boston.

Moreover, the researcher aimed at discovering the mean and standards deviation of the sample’s responses regarding school bullying impact on Victim academic achievement.  The below table two below illustrates some of the findings that the researcher obtained from the responses provided by the selected subjects.

Table 2: Means and Standard Deviation of Sample’s Responses Regarding School Bullying Impact on Victim Academic Achievement

The above table 2 shows that the impact of bullying on victim academic achievement for the means of the sample’s responses ranged between 2.40 and 4.00. The responses that were provided by all the subjects confirm that the subject’s agreement was medium and high level. The statement number eleven, that is, “School bullying creates a negative environment in the school,” ranked the first.” In contrast, statement number eight, that is, “Students suffer only from their

peers’ bullying,” ranked the last. Critical analysis of the sample’s responses indicates that bullying affects bullied academic achievement since they do not concentrate in the classroom, and they feel afraid of being bullied and attempt to avoid being in school, which negatively reduce their academic achievement.

Table 3: Means and Standards Deviations for Sample’s Responses Regarding School Bullying Impact on Bully’s Academic Achievement

From the above analysis of the impacts of bullying on victim academic achievements in table 3 above, the responses ranged between 3.63 and 3.99. All subjects’ responses indicate subjects’ agreement was between medium and high levels. The statement number 21 that is, ‘Disengaged from his school community’ ranked first while statement number 18, that is, ‘Don’t obey school norms’ ranked the last. Although bullying affects the academic achievement level of the victims of bullying, at the same time, it also affects bullies’ academic achievement since it reduces their interest in the school and has no motivation to learn in addition to other factors.

Discussion

This study examined the distribution of bullies, victims, bully-victims, and students who were neither bullied nor victimized among a nationally representative sample of elementary students in both private and public school schools in Boston. The study has also investigated whether the type of involvement in violence is associated with perceptions of school climate (feelings of insecurity, teachers’ support) and absence from school because of fear. Another significant finding from this study shows that boys are likely to be more bullies than girls. That

is, being both a bully and a victim is more characteristic of males than of females, and this trend also exists within the group of students involved in violence. Thus, there may be a difference in the interaction between victims and perpetrators in the two genders. Lifestyle exposure theory and routine activity theory, correctly predict that the proportion of bully-victims is higher among males than among females.

From the study, the presence of bullying from the sample selected showed that the prevalence of bullying within the school setting had increased over time. As indicated in table 1 of this study, cases of bullying amongst elementary students in the private and public schools existing in Boston showed that this social issue was part of the emerging trends in the contemporary school setting in Boston. These findings can be used to conclude that incidents of bullying amongst elementary students across the United States are increasing at an alarming rate. Some of the sample subjects in the study claimed that the failure of teachers to put into place enough measures that can help reduce bullying might have significantly facilitated the rapid increase in cases of bullying within the school settings.

As documented in table 2, student bullying tends to create a negative environment in the school setting, thus significantly affecting the academic performance level of students who fall victim to this social issue. It is essential to note that students tend to act as guardians to elementary students as well as other pupils regardless of their grades. Therefore they must ensure that they have put into place enough measures that help in protecting the children within the school setting to help eradicate the problem of childhood bullying as well as increase the level of academic performance of students, especially those who are vulnerable to getting this social issue. Interesting findings in this study are that the social problem of bullying affects not only the bullying-victims but also the bullies themselves.

As widely demonstrated by the findings indicated in table 3 of this research study, bullying tends to reduce the interests of those being bullied to the extent that they lack enough motivation to learn in the school’s settings. Some of the reasons as to why the academic achievement level of the bullies is also negatively affected include lack of concentration in class due to the fear of being reported by the victims of bullying to the school authorities such as teachers. Secondly, the bullies may become absent from class on several occasions, whereby they may opt to spend more time planning on how to bully their peers.

The bully-victims, the smallest group, showed the worst outcomes for all measures, reporting the most feelings of insecurity, the lowest teachers’ support, and the highest level of missing school because of fear. Victims usually showed slightly better outcomes than the bullies, reporting a slightly higher level of receiving support from teachers than bullies (Berkowitz & Benbenishty, 2012). The best outcome reports were those of the uninvolved students. The most significant differences for all measures were between noninvolved and bully-victims (Berkowitz & Benbenishty, 2012). The results obtained from this study thus confirmed the hypotheses that bully-victims report worse perceptions of school climate than the other bully or victim categories. As mechanisms of bullying and victimization also appear to show gender differences, the findings of this study indicate the need for new methods sensitive to gender dynamics to examine the connections between being a perpetrator and a victim. A qualitative study focusing on this issue may yield further insights.

Conclusion

The research concludes that bullying exists in almost every school, either governmental or private one but with different levels. The search found that school bullying affects academic achievement either for the victims who suffer from these phenomena, and at the same time, it affects the bullies themselves. The research suggested that teachers and the school management have to take different measures to reduce the bullying volume. This study is based on a large representative sample and, as such, provides a reasonable basis for generalization, at least in the United States context. Still, its limitations should not be overlooked. The reliance on self-reports may be a limitation, as perhaps some of the findings may be because of differences in reporting styles among gender, age, and ethnic groups. Further, this study has investigated the interpersonal dynamics that explain why certain students and groups of students that are victimized also victimize others and how perpetrators become victims as well.

A mixed-method study that quantitatively identifies students involved in violence and qualitatively explores the dynamics allowing perpetration and victimization could make an essential contribution to people’s understanding of the bully-victim phenomenon. Moreover, teachers should coordinate with bully students. Teachers and school management have to set some programs for bullies to mitigate school bullying. The clinical implications of the study are significant. The findings highlight that professionals and policy decision-makers should focus on victimization as a cause of distress but also should be aware that vulnerable children and young people are likely to be the targets of victimization. Clinicians working with youth affected by victimization and depression should asses the underlying dynamics between the two, so the therapeutic intervention can focus on it to prevent future involvement.