Nature and consequences of bullying at high schools in Dhaka city

Abstract

The present study was conducted to investigate the nature and consequences of bullying among children at high schools in Dhaka city. Two stage mixed method design was used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data to understand the phenomena. The first stage employed a phenomenological approach to explore the present scenario of bullying among high schools children in Dhaka city. 6 focus group discussions were conducted with 60 participants of parents, teachers and students from both English and Bangla medium high school. Participants were selected from one Bangla medium and one English medium high school through a convenient sampling strategy. The FGD data, analyzed using the qualitative software NVivo, revealed seven forms of bullying, common causes, probable consequences and prevention strategy on bullying were identified. A survey questionnaire was developed through literature review and findings of FGD of study .It demonstrated the phenomena of bullying by describing the nature, consequences and prevention. In 2nd stage a survey questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data on nature and consequences of bullying .Gender, medium and grade were included as study variable.200 high school students of both English and Bangla medium schools of Dhaka city were selected.The result shows that more than 50% reported being bullied by any form & more than 10% were bullied once a week, student of Bangla medium high school were bullied more (6.5%) than English medium (3.9%) high school in once a week and female were bullied more(63.5%) than male(30.5%) in once a week. It is found that student of class7 have been bullied more (2.5%) than other classes in once a week. Boys and girls were also treated in different ways .It is revealed that bullying through rumor (M=2.60, SD=1.33) was the most common form of bullying among other forms of bullying . Bullying by threatened is the most common (53.6%)in Bangla medium school while rumor in English medium school . The result shows that male were bullied physically(33%), while female were bullied by rumor, race and threatened respectively. Chi square analysis was used to gender, medium and grade variance in different forms of bullying .It is found significant gender differences in bullying by mean name (Chi square = 43.685,df=1,p<.05),physical (Chi square = 43.613,df=1, p<.05),race (Chi square = 28 .64,df=1,p<.05).The study also found significant gender differences in how many students bully(Chi square = 35.13,df=3,p<.05).30% female were being bullied by group of two students ,3.5 % are bullied by one student and .5 % are bullied by group of 5-10 students where 12% male are bullied by group of 2-3 students ,11.5 % are bullied by one student and 6.5 % male are bullied by group of 5-10 students. The research also found significant gender differences in consequences of bullying (Chi square = 87.87,df=4,p<.05). The study also found that female and bangla medium students were most bullied at school during class. In terms of consequences of bullying , most common consequences of bullying is fear (43.5%) for male where female were angry (35.5%) , fear is the most common in both Bangla (45.5%) and English medium school(31.5%) and suicidal thought most found in class 10. The study also showed that for prevention of bullying, about 30 - 40% cases teachers do not take any initiative for both gender. However for female students 42% reported they took some time while 21 % of reported often,none of the family contact with school in terms of gender, grade and medium of school .To explore the impact of bullying on attitude towards school i.e liking school. Bivariate correlations were calculated for 10 variables, which comprised of 9 bullying types, and one for liking school. Bullying through mean name, exclusion, rumor, threatened, cyber bullying had the highest positive correlation with liking for school (r > .3, p < .001), sexual bullying had the poorest positive correlation with liking for school. That means higher the liking for school lower the severity of bullying .So severity of bullying has negative impact on attitude towards school . Scenario of bullying in schools is worrying. The findings of this study will provide important insights for educators, teachers, practitioners, and families to develop specific school based intervention program to address this issue.