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Causes of Bullying in Elementary Schools

Info: 6998 words (28 pages) Dissertation
Published: 10th Dec 2019

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Tagged: Education

Causes of Bullying in Elementary Schools

Prospectus

Table of Contents

Background

Statement of the Problem

Purpose of the Study

Research Question

Hypotheses (Quantitative Studies Only)

Research Method and Design

Hypotheses (Quantitative Studies Only)

References

Appendix A: Annotated Bibliography, COMPS Assignment #1

Chapter 1: Introduction

Bullying is an everlasting and increasing problem in the lives of school children and it is a problem that affects all students, the person who is bullying, those who are the victims of bullying, and the persons who are witnesses to interpersonal violence.  Bullying has been around for ages, the number of children committing suicide because of being bullied, students going on shooting rampages and being harassed on social media has an increased awareness of this increasing problem.  Bullying is acknowledged as a relationship problem in which power is claimed by using violence and is a reality among school-aged children and adolescents in different cultural contexts and is a severe problem in many countries, not just the United States according to Sawyer, Mishna, Pepler, and Wiener (2011).  This phenomenon may lead students to experience psychological distress, compromise the teaching-learning process and influence how individuals respond to social demands over the course of their lives.

Our nation’s schools should be safe havens for teaching and learning, free of crime and violence.  Any instance of crime or violence at school not only affects the individuals involved, but also may disrupt the educational process and affect bystanders, the school itself, and the surrounding community (Brookmeyer, Fanti, and Henrich 2006; Goldstein, Young, and Boyd 2008).  In the article, (Jan and Husain, 2015) state that bullying among students not only decreases their academic performance but also causes mental health problems and physical injury.  She further states that the bullying may refer to the situation of getting picked on by others and bullying happens to different types of repeatedly occurring threats, harassments, abuse, ill-treatments and victimization.  The phenomenon of “getting picked on” may extend from few pupils in the class, who are chronically and frequently targeted by friends to a wide range of social context.

Bullying is becoming an important problem for students beginning in elementary schools, parents, school administrators and teachers, and it affects our society at large.  Students who are often bullied are usually the small and weak ones who are likely to face difficulties in the future and people of any age or social status may suffer from bullying behavior at any place but more commonly in our public-school systems.  In today’s schools, there are a variety of reasons why people bully that could stem from cultural, institutional, social, family, the bully’s personal history, and bases of power (Jan and Husain, 2015).

Research has identified negative impacts that bullying has not only on the victims of bulling but for those who bully others and those who have witnessed bullying and those negative social and health outcomes that have been observed in children who persistently bully others suggests that those behaviors as warning signs for educators to pay closer attention (Bullying No Way, 2015).  Understanding bullying is a complex issue and it was not until 2005 that the federal government began collecting data on school bullying and knowing exactly what bullying is and what causes a child to bully are critical to finding a positive solution for all those involved.  Intervening appropriately to respond or prevent bullying is important to research and a good starting place for understanding the causes of bullying in elementary school children is to ask students.

The American Psychological Association (2004) state that through systematic international research has shown that bullying is a frequent and serious public health problem and psychologists are using research to develop bullying prevention programs.  The Columbine school shooting tragedy highlights the seriousness and sometimes deadly consequences of bullying today and in response to this, educators and politicians are turning to psychologists such as Dan Olweus, PhD for answers.  Olweus (1978) defines school bullying in a general way as repeated negative, ill-intentioned behavior by one or more students directed against a student who has difficulty defending himself or herself.

Background

Creating a school climate that is less susceptible to harassment, bullying and violence is possible, and we are seeing it happening in socioeconomically and demographically diverse schools across North America every day.  In 2005, the federal government began collecting data on school bullying when the prevalence of bullying was around 28% and the National Center for Educational Statistics (2016) state that more than one out of every five or 20.8% of students have reported being bullied.  Bullying can result in reluctance to go to school and truancy, along with multiple other symptoms that are the frequent result of bullying and is a direct attack on a student’s status, sense of belonging and core identity, and often results in low self-esteem according to the American Society for the Positive Care of Children (2017).  School campuses are becoming a place where many children are marginalized and where they do not feel safe and as these students become alienated from attending school, their academic performance declines.

It was not until 2014, when the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Education released the first uniform definition of bullying for research and surveillance (Gladden, Vivolo-Kantor, Hamburger, & Lumpkin, 2014).  Bullying according to the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Education (2014) that the definition of bullying includes unwanted aggressive behavior, observed or perceived power imbalance, and repetition of behaviors or high likelihood of repetition.  The centers further breakdown the definition into two modes, direct bullying and indirect bullying and in addition to these two modes there are four types of bullying that are categorized as physical, verbal, relational and damage to property.

The National Center for Injury and Prevention (2016) define bullying as the “unwanted aggressive behavior(s) by another youth or group who are not siblings or current dating partners that involves an observed or perceived power imbalance and is repeated multiple times or is highly likely to be repeated” (p. 1).  The center also claims that bullying can result in physical injury, social and emotional distress, and even death and those that are victimized are at an increased risk for depression, anxiety, sleep difficulties, and poor school adjustment (National Center for Injury and Prevention, 2016).  Farrington and Baldry (2010) claim that those students who bully others are at an increased risk for substance abuse, academic problems, and violence later in adolescence and adulthood.

Despite all the efforts put forth by educators, researchers, and clinicians, (Mackay, Carey and Stevens, 2011) believe that bullying in schools continues to be problematic and research has highlighted the increasing patterns of maladjustment associated with being subjected to long-term victimization or being bullied.  In another study conducted the authors agree that victims of bullying are at a higher risk of negative outcomes, that include greater states of depression and sometimes suicidal ideation.  Students with educational disabilities were more likely to be victims of bullying than their counterparts (those without educational disabilities) and that varied on the type of disability that the child had.  All the literature that has been reviewed seem to have a commonality that bullying is a significant health problem that is associated with many short-term and long-term psychological effects on children not only in the United States but other countries.  Espelage and Holt (2013) suggest that bullies, victims, bully-victims that reported being either bullied or the bully showed signs of depression at one end of the spectrum to suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

Although bullying has been examined extensively in the middle and high schools, less is known regarding the characteristics of bullying among young elementary school children.  Although there is some data exploring this phenomenon (Vlachou, Andreou, Botsoglou and Didaskalou, 2011), not enough is known regarding the specific nature of these issues in the lower grade classrooms.  In a study that was conducted by (Kevorkian, Rodriquez, Earnhardt, Kennedy, D’Antona, Russom and Borror, 2016) found that the prevalence of bullying in elementary schools was 40% of third through fifth graders reporting being bullied.  Understanding bullying and the causes of bullying in elementary schools is crucial to students, parents, school administrators and teachers, and it affects our society at large and there is a need to conduct further research to better understand why children bully in elementary schools.

Statement of the Problem

Jan and Husain (2015) conducted a study on bullying and state that “bullying is an everlasting problem in the lives of school kids and is a problem that affects all students, the person who bully, those who are victims, and the persons who witness to interpersonal violence” (p. 43).  Elementary school is a place where children continue to grow and develop their social skills, the essential skills necessary to interact adaptively in cultural environments positively.  Bullying in elementary schools has become an increasingly important problem not just for those affected by bullying but for the parents, school administrators and teachers; a problem that affects our society at large.  Researchers have identified bullies as being more likely than others to be anti-social, lack empathy and be involved in crime (Office for Standards in Education, 2003) but in a study conducted by (Nassem & Harris, 2015) showed the “most common reason children engage in bullying is to be popular with their peers” (p. 70).

Early social and emotional development can be defined as the emerging ability of young children to “form close and secure adult and peer relationships; experience, regulate, and express emotions in socially and culturally appropriate ways; and explore the environment and learn – all in the context of family, community, and culture” (Yates, Ostrosky, Cheatham, Fettig, Schaffer, & Santos, 2008, p. 2).  The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (2011) funded a series of studies in 2007 and the “research focused on the connection between different types and frequencies of bullying” (p. 2).

Bullying in any form can have a long-term negative effect on everyone involved and behaviors that appear like outsiders can have different impacts on different individuals.  It is important to respond to bullying in schools immediately whether the individual shows signs of immediate harm and by responding immediately, schools can stop the bullying from escalating or from happening again (Luxenberg, Limber, & Olweus, 2014).  The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (2016) state that “bullying can result in physical injury, social and emotional distress, and even death and youth are at increased risk for depression, anxiety, sleep difficulties, and poor school adjustment” (p. 1).

This study will address the underlying causes of bullying among third grade students and their perceptions of bullying.  The research questions were developed to allow for all the data sources used to summarize the perceptions of bullying and the causes of bullying in elementary school students.  Understanding how bullying develops in early childhood is an important element in the research to help children develop those social skills necessary for adulthood and to develop an action plan for intervention.  Hence, there is a need to conduct an instrumental case study to better understand why children bully in elementary schools.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the current quantitative, instrumental case study is to examine the causes of bullying in elementary schools, specifically third grade students, to understand why some children turn to bullying.  The four schools that will be used for this study are in the Tucson Unified School District and have pre-K through fifth-grade classrooms and were randomly selected from hierarchical groups from the sampling frame using cluster sampling (Dane, 2011).  The population of interest consists of four third-grade classrooms, one third-grade classroom from each school in the district will be selected to participate in this study.  Structured interviews will be conducted to assess perceptions of bullying with students selected from the four schools in the district, using interview guides that have been created specifically for this study and students will be given the Peer Interactions in Primary School Questionnaire (PIPSQ) designed by (Tarshis & Huffman, 2007).  The rationale for the sample size of 49 participants in this study was that experts on sample sizes in qualitative and quantitative studies have determined that this was within the range of appropriate sample sizes for this study so that the point of saturation is reached (Guest, Bruce, & Johnson, 2006: Niles, 2006).  The general knowledge from this study contributes to current research in the field of education by researchers, school administrators, and teachers with information regarding the causes of bullying.  The specific results from this study contribute to a plan to understand the causes of bullying that could result in changes that ultimately have the effect of intervening those students who are bullying to break the cycle.

Research Question

Two research questions will be used to guide the current study and were developed to examine both how students perceive bullying in elementary schools and what are the main causes of bullying.  One third grade class from each of four elementary schools within the Tucson Unified School District were examined.  In addition to examining the causes of bullying from each of the four schools individually, comparisons were made between the four schools to determine whether there were differences between students’ perceptions on bullying and if so, what were those differences.  Researchers now know that bullying is not part of the natural developmental process, and that it is usually indicative of more negative behavior to come (Loeber & Dishion, 1983).  According to Jan and Husain, (2015) there are many different forms of bullying that are undetectable by teachers because the students’ behavior either verbal or physical aggression appears to upset individuals equally.  The research questions for this study are:

Research question 1. How do elementary school students perceive bullying?

Research question 2. What are the causes of bullying in elementary schools?

Hypotheses (Quantitative Studies Only)

H10. There is no significant difference between students’ perceptions on bullying.

H1a. There are significant differences between students’ perceptions on bullying.

H20. There is no significant difference between the causes of bullying in elementary schools.

H2a. There are significant differences between the causes of bullying in elementary schools.

Research Method and Design

The problem that will be addressed in this quantitative, instrumental case study is to examine the causes of bullying in elementary schools, specifically third grade students, to understand why some children turn to bullying.  Jan and Husain (2015) conducted a study on bullying and state that “bullying is an everlasting problem in the lives of school kids and is a problem that affects all students, the person who bully, those who are victims, and the persons who witness to interpersonal violence” (p. 43).  Chapell, Hasselman, Kitchin, Lomon, Maclver, and Sarullo (2006) state that “one important area of bullying research that has not been well investigated is the stability of being a bully or being bullied from elementary school onward” (p. 634).  The purpose of their study was to investigate the continuity of bullying and victimization from elementary school through college.  Understanding how bullying develops in early childhood is an important element in the research to help children develop those social skills necessary for adulthood and to develop an action plan for intervention.  Hence, there is a need to conduct an instrumental case study to better understand why children bully in elementary schools.

This study will involve a nonexperimental quantitative analysis using IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 25 to analyze the association between categorical variables followed by using Chi-Square text to evaluate whether two categorical variables are related.  This analysis will help in answering the research questions that will be used for this study:

Research question 1. How do elementary school students perceive bullying?

Research question 2. What are the causes of bullying in elementary schools?

Hypotheses (Quantitative Studies Only)

H10. There is no significant difference between students’ perceptions on bullying.

H1a. There are significant differences between students’ perceptions on bullying.

H20. There is no significant difference between the causes of bullying in elementary schools.

H2a. There are significant differences between the causes of bullying in elementary schools.

The survey population will be comprised of 120 third grade students in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) students will be and have pre-K through fifth-grade classrooms that will be randomly selected from hierarchical groups from the sampling frame using cluster sampling (Dane, 2011).  The population of interest consists of four third-grade classrooms, one third-grade classroom from each school in the district will be selected to participate in this study.  Structured interviews will be conducted to assess perceptions of bullying with students selected from the four schools in the district, using interview guides that have been created specifically for this study (Appendix A) and students will be given the Peer Interactions in Primary School Questionnaire (PIPSQ) designed by (Tarshis & Huffman, 2007) (Appendix B).  The rationale for the sample size of 49 participants in this study was that experts on sample sizes in qualitative and quantitative studies have determined that this was within the range of appropriate sample sizes for this study so that the point of saturation is reached (Guest, Bruce, & Johnson, 2006: Niles, 2006).

Participants will be recruited from four campuses in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) and informed consent and confidentiality forms and questionnaires will be administered by the researcher and with assistance from the student’s teachers who are participating in this study and the interviews will be conducted by the researcher solely.  The research community has long recognized the importance of respecting the rights or research participants and to maintain always and guarantee promises of confidentiality made to the research participants and to adhere to the State of Arizona laws governing informed consent.  According to Nijhawan, Janodia, Muddukrishna, Bhat, Bairy, and Musmade (2013) state that informed consent is an “ethical and legal requirement for research involving human participants and is an inevitable requirement prior to every research that involves human participants” (p. 134).

The general knowledge from this study will contribute to current research in the field of education by researchers, school administrators, and teachers with information regarding the causes of bullying.  The specific results from this study contribute to a plan to understand the causes of bullying that could result in changes that ultimately have the effect of intervening those students who are bullying to break the cycle.  Researchers now know that bullying is not part of the natural developmental process, and that it is usually indicative of more negative behavior to come (Loeber & Dishion, 1983).  According to Jan and Husain, (2015) there are many different forms of bullying that are undetectable by teachers because the students’ behavior either verbal or physical aggression appears to upset individuals equally.

References

Abadio de Oliveira, W., Silva, M.A., Malta de Mello, F.C., Porto, D.L., Yoshinga, A.M., & Malta, D.C. (2015). The causes of bullying: Results from the National Survey of School Health (PeNSE). Rev Lat Am Enfermagem, 23(2), 275-282. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/aritcles/PMC4459001/

Chapell, M., Hasselman, S., Kitchin, T., Lomon, S., Maclver, L., & Sarullo, P. (2006). Bullying in elementary school, high school, and college. Adolescence, 41(164), 633-648. Retrieved from https://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy1.ncu.edu/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=7271d131-ac56-4957-bea9-bab5be66aee5%sessionmgr4010

Dane, F.C. (2011). Evaluating Research: Methodology for people who need to read research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Garmy, P., Vilhjalmsson, R., & Kristjansdottir, G. (2017). Bullying in school-aged children in Iceland: A cross-sectional study. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, (2017), 1-5. Retrieved from https://ac-els-cdn-com.proxy1.ncu.edu/S0882596317301689/1-s2.0-S0882596317301689-main.pdf?_tid=2bdcb6976-a6d3-11e7-bcn5-00000aacb35d&acdnat=1506881336_be3a2cb1e2988b81e0be34acfcdb05b5

Guest, G., Bunce, A., & Johnson, L. (2006). How many interviews are enough? An experiment with data saturation and variability. Field Methods, 18, 59-82.

Harme, B.K., & Pianta, R.C. (2001). Early teacher-child relationships and the trajectory of children’s school outcomes through eighth grade. Child Development, 72, 625-638. doi: 10.1111/1467-8624.00301

Harme, B.K., & Pianta, R.C. (2006). Student-teacher relationships. In G.G. Bear & K.M. Minke (Eds.), Children’s needs III: Development, prevention, and intervention (pp. 59-72). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists

Jan, A., & Husain, S. (2015). Bullying in elementary schools: Its causes and effects on students. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(19), 43-46. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.proxy1.ncu.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=7&sid=27d2894e-e0a5-421d-a1af-550aac25705a%40sessionmgr104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=EJ1079521&db=eric

Kevorkian, M., Rodriguez, A., Earnhardt, M.P., Kennedy, T.D., D’Antona, R., Russom, A.G., & Borror, J. (2016). Bullying in elementary schools. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 9(4), 267-276. Retrieved from https://link-springer.com.proxy1.ncu.edu/article/10.1007%Fs40653-016-0085-0

Loeber, R., & Dishion, T. (1983). Early predictors of male delinquencies: A review. Psychological Bulletin, 94, 68-99.

Luxenberg, H., Limber, S.P., & Olweus, D. (2014). Bullying in U.S. schools: 2013 status report. Retrieved from https://file:///C:/Users/johnsponsler/Downloads/obppbullyingtrends_2014_final.pdf

Mundbjerg Eriksen, T.L., Sykt Nielson, H., & Simonsen, M. (2014). Bullying in elementary school. Journal of Human Resources, 49(4), 840-871. Retrieved from https://eds.b.ebscohost.com.proxy1.ncu.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=7bb37f35-89e0-4938-953c-511c43efe990%40sessionmgr120

Nassem, E., & Harris, A. (2015). Why do children bully? School Leadership Today, 6(5), 68-73. Retrieved from https://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/2541/1/NassemBully.pdf

National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. (2016). Understanding bullying. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/bullying_factsheet.pdf

Nijhawan, L.P., Janodia, M.D., Muddukrishna, B.S., Bhat, K.M., Bairy, K.L., & Musmade, P.B. (2013). Informed consent: Issues and challenges. Journal of Advanced Pharmaceutical Technology & Research, 4(3), 134-140. Doi: 10.4103/2231-404.116779

Office for Standards in Education. (2003). Bullying: Effective action in secondary schools. (HMI.465) London: Stationary Office.

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (2011). Bullying in schools: An overview. December 2011, 1-10. Retrieved from https://www.ojjdp.gov/pubs/234205.pdf

Olweus, D. (1993). Bullying at school: What we know and what we can do. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Pianta, R.C., Harme, B.K., & Allen, J.P. (2012). Teacher-student relationships and engagement: Conceptualizing, measuring, and improving the capacity of classroom interactions. In S.L. Christenson, A.L. Reschly, & C. Wylie (Eds.), Handbook of research on student engagement (pp. 365-386). New York, NY: Springer.

Sawyer, J.L, Mishna, F., Pepler, D., & Wiener, J. (2011). The missing voice: Parents’ perspectives of bullying. Children and Youth Services Review, 33(10), pages 1795-1803. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2011.05.010

Tarshis, D.L., & Huffman, L.C. (2007). Psychometric prospective of the peer interactions in primary school (PIPS) questionnaire. Journal of Development & Behavioral Pediatrics, 28(2), 125-132.

Wong, C., Cheng, Y., & Chen, L. (2013). Multiple perspectives on the targets and causes of school bullying. Educational Psychology in Practice, 29(3), 278-292. Retrieved from https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02667363.2013.837030

Yates, T., Ostrosky, M.M., Cheatham, G.A., Fettig, A., Schaffer, L., & Santos, R.M. (2008). Research synthesis on screening and assessing social-emotional competence. Center on the Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learners. Vanderbilt University (2008). Retrieved from https://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/documents/rs_screening_assess,emt.pdf

Appendix A: Annotated Bibliography, COMPS Assignment #1

Afroz, J., Scholar, M.P., Iqbal, A., & Husain, S. (2015). Bullying in elementary schools: Its causes and effects on students. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(19), 43-46.

Bullying is a problem that affects not only the victim but those who witness bullying and the person who bully in schools.  In this article, the researcher’s objectives were to review the nature and causes of bullying from a documentary analysis and to evaluate students’ perceptions about the different types of bullying in elementary schools.  The researchers wanted to determine the causes of bullying in school from review literature and to test whether there was significant difference between male and female perceptions about the different causes of bullying.  The researchers randomly selected all students of elementary schools in the district of Mianwali and after preparing sampling frame, two stage stratified cluster sampling technique was used to select the final sample from four stratified clusters.  They used a self-developed questionnaire that was validated through experts’ opinions and pilot study in the beginning of 2014 and a Cronbach’s Alpha was used to measure the consistency and reliability of the questionnaire.  They administered the questionnaire with the help of four research associates and after the data was collected it was analyzed using SPSS 20.0 independent sample t-test to find out the differences in responses between male and female students about the causes of bullying.  Their research findings suggest that there are different causes of bullying in schools and show that it exists more in boys’ schools than girls.

Garmy, P., Vilhjalmsson, R., & Kristjansdottir, G. (2017). Bullying in school-aged children in Iceland: A cross-sectional study. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, (2017), 1-5.

Bullying has become an important concern in schools and bullying has been identified as a serious peer relationship problem that has psychological, academic, emotional and mental health issues for both the bullies and their victims.  Olweus (1993, 1997) states that bullying is the exposure to repeated negative actions over time on the part of one or more students.  The aim of the researcher’s investigation was to describe the frequency and variations of bullying among school-aged children and whether sociodemographic characteristics were associated with bullying.  The study population included 11,018 students in Iceland from 161 schools that participated in this study that yielded an 84 percent response rate.  The HBSC research network is an international alliance of researchers that collaborate on the cross-national survey of school students and the researchers used the HBSC survey that consists of one standard mandatory questionnaire but they added extra questions regarding bullying.  They used descriptive statistics with frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations to describe the manifestations of bullying and chi-square and multiple logistic regression to determine the associations between bullying and sociodemographic variables.  The results of their study showed that bullying decreased with age and was most common in the younger age group and in addition to grade and age variations, bullying was associated with sociodemographic.  By using the cross-sectional design, it did prevent the researchers from drawing conclusions about causality and recommend using longitudinal studies.

Kevorkian, M., Rodriguez, A., Earnhardt, M.P., Kennedy, T.D., D’Antona, R., Russom, A.G., & Borror, J. (2016). Bullying in elementary schools. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 9(4), 267-276.

Bullying impacts over a third of students in elementary and middle schools and is a significant issue that needs to be addressed.  Bullying has mainly been addressed extensively in middle and high school and less in elementary schools.  The purpose of this study was to examine various aspects of bullying in elementary schools because there is not enough known regarding the specific nature of those issues in elementary school students.  The sample in this study consisted of 1,588 participants/surveys from five elementary schools in Massachusetts.  The researchers used a modified version of the Olweus Bullying Victim Questionnaire (OBVQ) and contained 45 items that assessed student bullying across six factors.  To explore students’ perceptions of bullying the researchers utilized a survey approach with a cross-sectional design.  40 percent of the 1,588 participants reported that they have been bullied with an equal distribution between boys and girls, although girls reported being victims of bullying more than boys.  The study also found that bullying also occurred outside of the school grounds and most of the reported bullying occurred on the playground or in the lunchroom in the presence of an adult.  It was also noted in their study that 32 percent of the students claimed that the school did nothing to reduce the bullying in the school.  The researchers suggest the importance of examining bullying prevention as multi-faceted effort that sends a consistent message.

Mundbjerg Eriksen, T.L., Sykt Nielsen, H., & Simonsen, M. (2014). Bullying in Elementary School. Journal of Human Resources, 48(4), 840-871.

Bullying is a widespread social situation that is thought to have detrimental effects on life outcomes and bullied children suffer academically and effects tend to increase with severity of bullying.  Olweus (1993, 1997) states that bullying is the exposure to repeated negative actions over time on the part of one or more students.  The researchers wanted to determine if there is a link between bullying and long-term economic outcomes and know of no other papers that have studied this.  In Denmark, 87 percent of children attend public elementary school and their data consist of initially 10,907 children, after dropping observations and their final sample consisted of 4,255 children.  The main data used in their analysis stem from the Aarhus Birth Cohort (ABC).  In identifying bullying, the researchers exploited the parent and teacher questionnaires to rate at which extent the child is being bullied or whether child bullies’ other children.  To address measurement concerns in their research they exploit they have bullying information from two sources (parents and teachers).  Their research investigated the determinants and potential effects of bullying in elementary school on academic performance that was measured in the ninth grade using the students’ GPA.  The results of their study showed that the quality of family environment and their children’s characteristics are important drivers of victimization.

Wong, C., Cheng, Y., & Chen, L. (2013). Multiple perspectives on the targets and causes of school bullying. Educational Psychology in Practice, 29(3), 278-292.

In educational research and practice it is important to clarify how students in different roles perceive the victims and the causes of bullying.  Not only in the United States but globally, bullying has attracted the concern that bullying is an international problem and researchers have devoted attention to the various issues that are related to bullying.  This study’s aim was to investigate the opinions of individuals in different roles regarding the targets and causes of bullying.  The sample in this study was selected from 13 counties in north, central, south, and east Taiwan and included 1,558 participants from 77 secondary schools.  The researchers used two types of questionnaires, AB form for bullies and outsiders and the C form for the victims.  The researcher’s qualitative questionnaire consisted of 10 questions which involve definitions and questions regarding targets, causes, location, time, feelings, and intervention suggestions.  They used the grounded-theory method to analyze the qualitative data from their study.  Their analysis showed that there were three types of students who were more likely to be targeted and those were provocative students, vulnerable students and student’s behavior that was considered atypical.  The researchers used an anonymous questionnaire which did not allow them to gain a more in-depth perspective, therefore future studies should utilize interviews to gain a more in-depth perspective.

Part 2:

It is evident that bullying is a problem and one that is increasing and affects all students, the bully and their victims and those who are witnesses to interpersonal violence.  Bullying is not only a problem in the United States but a global problem as well and is becoming an increasingly important problem for students, parents, school administrators and teachers.  Because bullying impacts over a third of students in elementary and middle schools and is a significant issue that needs to be addressed and one that has mainly been addressed extensively in middle and high school and less in elementary schools there is a need for more research in elementary schools.  There are numerous research studies conducted to determine the effects of bullying and again addressed mainly in middle and high schools and we are aware of those findings that children who have been bullied can experience negative physical issues, academic issues and mental health issues.  Problems that can carry over into adulthood.  What there is not enough research conducted on is what causes a child especially in elementary school to become a bully or to bully someone.

With this research it can be used to explore the causes of bullying in elementary school children (more specifically third grade students) and determine what emergent themes can be determined from that research.  There is a  need to find out what provokes a student to become a bullying and then determine what type of interventions can be incorporated into public-school systems to prevent them from becoming a bully into their adulthood.  Studies already show that this is not only a national problem but a global problem and need to find a way to stop bullying in our public schools before it becomes an epidemic.

Appendix B: Interview Questions

Interview Questions

  1. Are you a boy or girl?
  2. What grade were you in when you were first in a bullied situation?
  3. Was the bully a boy or a girl?  What grade was he or she in?
  4. What did the bully say or do to you that got you upset?
  5. Where did the bullying take place?  In the classroom, cafeteria, playground, hallway, bathroom or where?
  6. How did you respond to the bullying situation?  Did you cry, run away, engage in the bullying by calling him or her a name, hit them, tell a teacher, monitor or parent, or what?
  7. Were there any teachers around at the time?  Did they respond to the bullying situation?  Did they help in anyway?
  8. If there were no teachers around to report to, did you report the bullying incident to a teacher?  Did you report the bullying incident to your parent or guardian?  Did either or both do anything to help solve the bullying incident?
  9. Did the bully bother you again or was this just a one-time incident?  If they bothered you again, what did they do this time and all the other times?
  10. How did you respond each time to the bullying incident?

Appendix C: Peer Interactions in Primary School Questionnaire

(9. Peer Interactions in Primary School Questionnaire

Grade Date I am a (circle one) Boy  Girl

Place an X in the box.

A lot V. Sometimes Never

Other students make me cry

  1.                     I tease other students
  2.                     Other students take things from me that I do not want to give them
  3.                     I push or slap other students
  4.                     Other students look at me in a mean way
  5.                     I tell other students I will hit or hurt them
  6.                     At recess, I play by myself
  7.                     I say mean things about a student to make other kids laugh
  8.                     Another student tells me they will hurt me
  9.                  I make other students feel sad on purpose
  1.                            I am hit or kicked by other students
  2.                  I call other students bad names
  3.                  Other students tease me
  4.                  I am mean to other students
  5.                  Other students ignore me on purpose
  6.                  I hit or kick other students
  7.                  Other students make me feel sad
  8.                  I feel bad because I am mean to other students
  9.                  Other students make fun of me
  10.                  I want to stay home from school because students are mean to me
  11.                  I give other students mean or “dirty” looks
  12.                  Other students leave me out of games on purpose

Scoring Instructions

Point values are assigned as follows:

Never = 0 Sometimes = 1  A Lot = 2

Victim subscale: Items 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 20, and 22

Bully subscale: Items 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, and 21

Items on each subscale are summed. The intended range for the Victim subscale is 0—24, with higher scores indicating more victimization. The intended range for the Bully subscale is 0—20, with higher scores indicating more bully perpetration.

References

Tarshis, T. P., & Huffman, L. C. (2007).

Psychometric properties of the Peer Interactions in Primary School (PIPS) questionnaire. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 28, 125-132.

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