Abstract :
Background: Bullying at schools is a known but neglected phenomenon. The study of its prevalence and correlates are essential to curb this aberrant behavior for building a healthy society.
Aim and Objective: This cross-sectional evaluation was carried out to study the pattern through which bully activities manifests in students from 6th to 10th standards and find its positive and negative correlates.
Materials and Methods: Candidates selection was done through simple random technique and proportionate sampling was adopted to ensure equal presentation across the board i.e., urban vs rural, types of schools, gender and class(standard).
Results: 480 participants were studied both from rural and urban high schools (6th – 10th standard) in equal proportion. An equal portion (33.3%) of participants were ensured from the three groups of schools studied i.e., Girls, Co-education, and Boys, across gender (50%) and class(standard) 20% from each of them. Their age ranged from 10 years to 18 years with the mean age at 13.9 years and a standard deviation of 1.66. Of them 52% were bystanders, and 48% were engaged in some form of bully activities (20% victim, 16% bully victim, and 13% bully). While both bully and victim scores showed a strong positive correlation (r - 0.259**, p - 0.000) their relation with prosocial and self-esteem scores were strongly negative (p –
0.001). GHQ (General Health Questionnaire) score was not related to any of the above ones.
Conclusion: Bully related behavior was predominant in the studied population. From the results, it appears that measures directed at improving prosocial behaviors and self-esteem of pupils can act as effective counters to the empathetic school bully activities.
Keyword :
School bully, Prosocial, Self-esteem, GHQ.