RAJIV GANDHI UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH SCIENCES

BANGALORE, KARNATAKA.

PROFORMA FOR REGISTRATION OF SUBJECT FOR DISSERTION

1 / NAME OF THE CANDIDATE AND ADDRESS / : / Mrs.Anitha.K.Philip,
1st Year MSc Nursing
RajaRajeswari College of Nursing
Mysore road, Kambipura.
Bangalore 560074.
2 / NAME OF THE INSTITUTION / : / RajaRajeswari College of Nursing
3 / COURSE OF THE STUDY AND
SUBJECT / : / M.Sc. Nursing
Psychiatric Nursing
4 / DATE OF ADMISSION TO
THE COURSE / : / 1/7/2012
5 / TITLE OF THE STUDY / : / “A Comparative Study to assess the bully behaviour and academic performance among male and female adolescents in selected high school at Bangalore”

6. BRIEF RESUME OF INTENDED WORK:

6.1. Introduction

“Life is a fight, but not everyone’s a fighter. Otherwise, bullies would be an endangered species.”

―Andrew Vachss,Terminal

Bully behavior is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Bully behavior includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.1

Bully behavior is the use of force or coercion to abuse or intimidate others. The behavior can be habitual and involve an imbalance of social or physical power. It can include verbal harassment or threat, physical assault or coercion and may be directed repeatedly towards particular victims, perhaps on grounds of race, religion, gender, sexuality, or ability. The victim of bully behavior is sometimes referred to as a "target". The word "bully" was first used in the 1530s meaning "sweetheart", applied to either sex, from the Dutch boel "lover, brother", probably diminutive of Middle High German buole "brother", of uncertain origin (compare with the German buhle "lover"). The meaning deteriorated through the 17th century through "fine fellow", "blusterer", to "harasser of the weak". 2

U.S. National Center for Education Statistics suggests that bully behavior can be classified into two categories: direct bully behavior and indirect bully behavior, which is also known as social aggression. Different kinds of bully behavior among children are physical bully behavior, verbal bully behavior, indirect bully behavior, social alienation, intimidation, cyber bullying. Bully behavior among children often leads to greater and prolonged violence. Not only does bully behavior harm the targets, it also negatively affects students’ ability to learn and achieve in school. As many as 30% of school-aged children are bullied. Boys are generally more likely to both bully and be bullied. Boys typically use physical measures in bully behavior such as punching or kicking. Girls, on the other hand, use more psychosocial tactics such as spreading rumors or excluding other girls from social events.3

There are different types of bullies: the sadistic, narcissistic bully, the imitative bully, the impulsive bully, and the accidental bully. Each type of bully has a similar impact on its victim. Sadistic, narcissistic bully has lack of empathy for others and low degree of anxiety about consequences. Narcissistic need to feel omnipotent and may appear to have a high self esteem but it is actually a brittle narcissism. Imitative bully have low self esteem or be depressed, influenced by the surrounding social climate and may use whining or tattling or be manipulative. Often responds well to a change in the culture of the classroom or social setting. Impulsive bully is less likely to be part of a gang. Their bullying is more spontaneous and may appear more random. They have difficulty restraining himself from the behaviour even when authorities are likely to impose consequences. Accidental Bully does not realize that his actions are upsetting the victim. If someone patiently and compassionately explains the situation, the individual will change the behaviour. Sometimes social skills need to be taught. There is some overlap with the impulsive bully.4

According to the study, the bullied child shows the symptoms like comes home with torn clothing or missing belongings, appears sad, moody, depressed or anxious especially on returning home from school, prefers to be alone, Is afraid of going to school, sleep disturbances including insomnia and nightmares, frequently falling sick, headaches, body ache is the next most common symptom in female victims. Whereas the common traits of bullies are become violent with others, gets into physical or verbal fights, get sent to the principal’s office often, has extra money or new belongings which cannot be explained, will not accept responsibility for their actions, need to win and be best at everything. 5

The study conducted by the Singapore Children's Society focused on different types of bully behavior, including physical violence, verbal abuse, use of vulgar language, name-calling and spreading hurtful rumors. According to the study, about one in five primary school students and one in four secondary school students surveyed were bullied by their peers. Among primary school students, most bully behavior occurs in cafeterias. The survey found that 46% of the incidents took place there. More than 40% of the incidents took place in play grounds. In secondary schools, most bully behavior occurred in the classroom 38% of incidents, in cafeterias 35%, and in rest rooms 23%.6

Carmen Russell

Carmen Russell is a career journalist who began writing in 1995. His articles have appeared in the "Chicago Tribune," "Orlando Sentinel," "Washington Times" and "asia! Magazine." His video work has been featured on "20/20," PBS and MSNBC.com. Russell has a Master of Studies in law from Georgetown University and a Master of Science in journalism from Columbia University.

6.2. NEED FOR THE STUDY

Adolescents spend a large proportion of their day in school or pursuing school-related activities. While the primary purpose of school is the academic development of students, its effects on adolescents are far broader, also encompassing their physical and mental health, safety, civic engagement, and social development. 7

A safe environment is a prerequisite for effective learning, so much so that the country’s major education reform initiative, "no child left behind", requires school systems to have programs in place to reduce levels of violence as part of its larger plan to improve academic performance.8

Bullying is a serious issue that will impact the school experience of all children involved. Bullying doesn’t involve only those doing the bullying and those being bullied. Bullying involves and affects the entire school community. dents who bully do not fare much better. Research shows that these students are more likely to get into frequent fights, steal and vandalize property, drink alcohol and smoke, report poor grades, perceive a negative climate at school, and carry a weapon. According to the study, about one in five primary school students and one in four secondary school students surveyed were bullied by their peers. Among primary school students Long-term research has also shown that these students are at increased risk to commit crimes later in life. It’s important to note, however, that not all students who bully others have obvious behavior problems or are engaged in rule-breaking activities. Some of them are highly skilled socially and good at ingratiating themselves with their teachers and other adults. For this reason it is often difficult for adults to discover, or even imagine that these students engage in bullying behavior.9

Kids bully for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they pick on kids because they need a victim - someone who seems emotionally or physically weaker, or just acts or appears different in some way - to feel more important, popular, or in control. Although some bullies are bigger or stronger than their victims, that's not always the case. Sometimes kids torment others because that's the way they’ve been treated. They may think their behavior is normal because they come from families or other settings where everyone regularly gets angry, shouts, or calls names.10

The extent and nature of bully behavior among South Australian primary school children and their self appraisals of peer relations were investigated in a survey of 412 primary school children between the ages of 7 to 13 years. It was found that 10% of boys and 6% of girls were subject to peer group bully behavior and for 8% of such children the bully behavior episodes lasted 6 months or more. Factor analysis of styles of interpersonal relating amongst children identified three independent factors including a tendency to bully, to be victimized and to act in a pro-social manner. The tendency to be victimized correlated negatively with self appraisals of the number of friends, popularity, happiness at school and feelings of safety at school. The findings are discussed in relation to research linking negative self appraisals of interpersonal competence with isolation and proneness to depression in later years. 11

Bully behavior occurs in a variety of settings that are an extension of your child's school life. .Bully behavior can cause lasting harm to the victim, the bully and the bully-victim (children who are bullied and also bully other children).Bully behavior in children cultivate violence nature lack of empathy and psychological and social adjustment problems. 12

A study conducted on using data from the first three waves (Grades 5, 6, and 7) of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development. This study assessed if being a bully or being a victim accounts for an adolescent's academic competence, if selected contextual and individual variables impact an adolescent's academic competence, and if such impact differs in relation to an adolescent's bullying status. The results of random coefficient hierarchical regression analyses indicated that being a bully predicted lower grades across time, and that being a bully was more detrimental for girls than for boys. Being a bully and being a victim negatively predicted self-perceived academic competence, but these predictive effects did not change over time or differ by sex. Teacher support positively predicted grades and greater parent support and teacher support independently predicted higher self-perceive academic competence. Greater educational expectations and school engagement independently predicted higher self-reported grades, while these two predictors positively interacted in explaining self-perceived academic competence. Unexpectedly, peer support negatively predicted self-reported grades for victims, and negatively predicted self-perceived academic competence for bullies. We discuss the importance of addressing the issue of academic competence in bullying interventions, as well as the utility of capitalizing on developmental assets in promoting academic competence among adolescents who bully and who are bullied. 13

Bully behavior is the most prevalent form of school violence in the United States. According to statistics 2.1 million children who bully and 2.7 million targets in US schools 3/4th of students have been bullied 160,000 miss school every day due to fear of attack moderate or frequent bullying. Study revealed that 10% bullied, 13% bullies, 6.3% bully/victims. 14

Cross-sectional self-report surveys were obtained from nationally representative samples of students in 25 countries showed involvement in bully behavior varied dramatically across countries, ranging from 9% to 54% of youth. However, across all countries, involvement in bully behavior was associated with poorer psychosocial adjustment (P<.05). In all or nearly all countries, bullies, victims, and bully-victims reported greater health problems and poorer emotional and social adjustment. Victims and bully-victims consistently reported poorer relationships with classmates, whereas bullies and bully-victims reported greater alcohol use and weapon carrying. 15

To identify an association between involvement in bully behavior and problems in school a cross-sectional survey carried out in 5391 children showed that 26% were involved in bullying either as victim, bully or both (bully-victim). All 3 groups were significantly more likely than bystanders to feel unsafe at school and sad most days. Victims and bully-victims were more likely to say they are “no good.” Victims were more likely to feel that they “do not belong” in their school. The odds of being a victim (vs a bystander) were 10% lower for every 1 point increase in grade point average. Bully-victims were more likely to say that it is “not wrong” to take a gun to school. 16

A study conducted on 344, 5 to 7 year-old children to assess social behavior and peer relationships of victims bully-victims and bullies in kindergarten children were categorized as victims, bully-victims, bullies, and non-involved by means of teacher ratings and peer nominations. Teachers completed questionnaires on children's social behavior patterns. Peer relationships were assessed by means of peer nominations and social cluster mapping. Study showed that compared to non-involved children, victims were more submissive, had fewer leadership skills, were more withdrawn, more isolated, less cooperative, less sociable, and frequently had no playmates. As expected, bullies and bully-victims were generally more aggressive than their peers. In addition, bully-victims were less cooperative, less sociable, and more frequently had no playmates than non-involved children. Bullies were less pro-social, and had more leadership skills than non-involved children. Study showed that bullies belonged to larger social clusters and were frequently affiliated with other bullies or bully-victims and also bullies seemed to be preferred playmates, particularly for other aggressive boys. This affiliation of aggressive children might lead to an increase in bullying behavior. 17

A study conducted to assess the prevalence of bullying among students in grades 7 and 8, showed that 24% of students reported either bullying or being bullied. Males were involved in bullying (as bullies and victims) significantly more often than females, and significantly more 7th grade students than 8th grade students were involved as well .The study included 454 participating students represented urban, suburban, and rural school districts, and most were African American and White. 18

A prevalence study of bully behavior in school children and to examine its association with common symptoms in childhood a study conducted in 8-12 years students in 3 school and their parents by prospective survey reported that bully behavior was found in 157 (31.4%) of the 500 children interviewed. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of bullying amongst boys and girls in co-education schools. However, it was significantly low in schools enrolling girls alone. Teasing and keeping names were the commonest forms noticed. Causing physical hurt was reported by 25 (16%) students. Only 24 (24%) parents were aware that their children were being abused. Feeling sad, preferring to stay alone and frequent tearing of clothes were almost exclusively noted in bullied children and bullied children were more likely to report symptoms such as school phobia, vomiting and sleep disturbances. 19