International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics

Volume 118 No. 5 2018, 587-602

ISSN: 1311-8080 (printed version); ISSN: 1314-3395 (on-line version)
url: http://www.ijpam.eu
Special Issue
ijpam.eu

BULLYING AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG SCHOOL CHILDREN

Revathy Chandran Krishnan Namboodiripad P C Vandana Madhavan

Department of Management,
Kochi
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
India
merevathychandran@gmail.com
Department of Management, Department of Management,
Kochi Kochi
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
India
krishnanchennas@gmail.com India
m_vandana@asb.kochi.amrita.edu

Abstract: Bullying is primarily the use of abuse, blackmail, force or aggressively foreboding
someone by others to harm other individuality by mentally, physically or emotionally. There can
be different kinds of bullying like physical bullying which includes fighting, teasing, pranking,
kicking, headlocks, hazing, pushing and so on, emotional bullying which includes spreading
rumors, ignoring consciously, making fun etc., verbal bullying which includes harassing,
threatening, mocking etc. Bullying is found to be existing among many school students. Bullying
mainly occurs within the school that is, in playground, classroom, between classes, while
commuting to and from school and is specially observed in primary school level. The study was
conducted among school children in Kerala, South India using the Peer Relations Questionnaire
(PRQ). The study came up with the result that aggression, self-esteem and extra-curricular
activities has an influence on bullying behavior and also on the academic performance of the
student.

Keywords- Bullying, school bullying, academic performance, gender, peer relationship, self-
esteem.

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1. Introduction

Despite the fact that bullying is not a contemporary aspect in schooling, only in recent times has it
acquired substantial research and social attention. The main reason for this problem is its
multidimensional character which has actually lifted a variety of constraints in the definition and
measurement. There is no lawful or contractual definition of bullying. Bullying without a
comprehensive definition can include sexual, verbal, physical or emotional in nature. The effects
of bullying may come to depression, anxiousness, anger, stress, helplessness that can result in
committing suicide, poor performance in academic and non- academic field, feeling insecure, lack
of trust and so on. The underlying causes of bullying can consist of social norms, structural factors,
gender etc. There can be different kinds of bullying like physical bullying which includes fighting,
teasing, pranking, kicking, headlocks, hazing, pushing and so on, emotional bullying which
includes spreading rumors, ignoring consciously, making fun etc., verbal bullying which includes
harassing, threatening, mocking etc. The signs that a student is being bullied consist of self-injury,
suicidal tendencies, expressing anxiety, low grades etc. The signs that the student has witnessed
bullying comprises depression, emotional disturbance and poor behavior. Bullying mainly occurs
within the school that is, in playground, classroom, between classes, while commuting to and from
school and is specially observed in primary school level. Bullying happens between large numbers
of children when gathered together and tends to arise mainly when there is least supervision.
Bullying occurs in almost every community and society. As far as bullying among school children
is concerned, the areas that bullying may surface in high risk are spaces where there are large trees,
gardens, boys’ and girls’ lavatory, bike sheds, water tank etc. School bullying could involve
physical or emotional torture to the victim or to the sufferer and this could in turn be connected to
education. It can take place either inside or outside the school. The main focus of bullying is not
only in the form of physical violence but also mainly involves psychological suffering. There are
different forms of bullying in schools like direct bullying, indirect bulling and cyber bullying.
Direct bullying can include physical abuse or verbal attack on the victim whereas indirect bullying
is more in the verbal and may happen in the social circles. Boys are seen to experience more of
physical bullying and girls mostly experiences sexual comments, rumor spreading etc. Intimidation
may be the ultimate objective of such bullying. The act of bullying can lead the victim to think of

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resorting to extreme steps because of the torture and the suffering caused to them. The factors that
influence bullying behavior are attitudes, cultural and environment, family and self-perspective.

Generally, the act of bullying also impacts the academic performance of the students. Students feel
lonely, depressed, and sad, and display a lack of interest in everything. This may have an impact
on the academic performance of the students.

2. Motivation for the study

Bullying is found to be present among many school students. In this age of the internet, when many
children are found to lack open communication with their own families, they are often left to tackle
interferences such as bullying on their own. Often, they are even found to fail miserably. Many
cases of ragging, cyber bullying, physical and mental torture of school and college students and
their unfortunate consequences are being discussed by the media lately. Therefore the researchers
were curious to understand whether bullying surfaces in childhood and whether it affects academic
performance. Thus, this study was conducted among the school going students. The study also
considered the effect of many other factors such as gender, peer relationship and self-esteem
components on bullying to give effective support to the study. Through this study it would help
the schools to counsel their students and also help in assessing the performance of the students.
Beyond the learning disabilities these factors can also be the major reason affecting their
performance. It also helps the school to take corrective actions and improve the performance. The
school authorities can probably take action to reduce the rate of bullying. The study can be used
to make the impact and aftereffects while engaging in bullying and while being victimized.

3. Theoretical background

3.1 Bullying

Bullying is mainly the use of blackmail, abuse, force or aggressively foreboding someone by others
to harm other individuality by mentally, physically or emotionally. Bullying is a case in which one
individual is picked as the target of repeat aggression by one or others. Bullying can also result in
lack of trust, suicidal tendency and stress. It is not necessary that bullying can occur only once, or
likely to happen only for one time. It can happen repeatedly with the same person also. The places
where bullying can develop can be playing field, transport vehicles, lunch counters. It can appear
while the victim happens to travel to school or while coming back. Barboza et al. (2009) examined

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the risk elements and factors combined with bullying behaviors in dispersion through
representative constituents of adolescents aged between11-14. The findings theorized that bullying
develops in those children who are very much addicted to television and watched it very frequently,
lacked teacher support and groundwork. Another study was by Donegan (2012) that tried to throw
some light on bullying and cyberbullying and the measures to prevent it through the study of
distinctive case studies, statistical experimentation, and case laws along with news articles. The
paper touched upon the ongoing legal struggles, clinical hypothesis together with possible
protective and preventive measures for cyber bullying and also bullying.

3.2 Bullying in schools

School bullying is a category that comes under bullying that are specific to educational framework.
Bullying has started with school kids fighting with each other or can be teachers believing that
hurting or shouting their students can make them more disciplined. There have been many reported
cases of bullying in schools which has resulted in many suicides among school children. The
bullying issues taking place in school will not be communicated to their parents which will result
in more issues. Such cases are reported in scenarios where taller & stronger people overpower
weak people who cannot react back. Goodboy, Martin & Goldman (2016) examined if bullying in
high school affected the performance of students in their first semester of college. The study
revealed that there is relation between both. Malik and Mehta (2016) in their research concentrated
mainly on the understanding of bullying in schools and the effect of gender differences. The study
finds out that boys are the ones who involve themselves more in bullying activity.

3.3 Academic performance of students

The academic performance of students is proportionally affected when bullying takes place.
Studies show that bullying affects the bullied person as he does not concentrate in the class and
they also feel afraid to attend classes because of this very same reason. It also affects their
motivation levels and their interest in being attentive in class. Faryadi (2011) investigated the
emotional and physiological effects of cyber bullying on the university students. The investigation
was carried on with the objective of identifying the victims of cyber bullying and analyzing their
state of mind in order to provide them with a feasible intervention to fight bullying. The study was
carried out through a triangulation research method (quantitative, qualitative and descriptive).

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3.4 Gender and bullying

The act of bullying involves a huge mix of responses and behaviors which differs from person to
person. There are many notable distinctness between the bullying of boys and girls. Bullying can
begin about in any time of age and also can extend over senior high grade. Identifying the bullying
between boys and girls are comparatively easy to find out. The act of boys tend to give physical
suffering like kicking, beating, punching the victim and the act of girls bullying mainly involve
emotional torture. Girls mainly take advantage of their prevalence to buck up their teen to bully
the victim. Majority of the girls bully only the female while the boys tend to bully both the male
and the female genders. Wimmer (2009) through his research provided the understanding on the
effect of gender difference in bullying. The study came up with some interesting conclusions. It
found that the females are more bullied than the males; females are bullies and are being bullied
equally by both the genders; males are more bullied than female. It also observed that primarily
the females are being bullied by way of emotional and verbal channels and bullying declines with
age.

3.5 Peer relationship and bullying

School aged children are the most who suffers the act of bullying and they suffer from their own
peer fellow mates. Most of the students who are offensive and aggressive in nature have the major
tendency to bully. The students who are into bullying are mainly low compassionate,
uncooperative, unsociable and unfriendly. The students who are into bullying have high leadership
skills that other students. Bullying usually occur in their adolescence age and they also take
advantage to frame relationship and faith with other peer and make them to follow bullying. The
main aspect of bullying is the factor of sexuality and gender. Dijkstra, Lindenberg and Veenstra in
their 2008 study examined the bullying behavior of adolescents and checked how it affects the
acceptance or rejection by peers associated with this behavior. Their observation was that bullying
has an effect on peer acceptance and peer rejection. Lodge, Frydenberg (2005) examined the
effects of bullying on both the bully and the victim. Their study suggested that teaching peers to
handle situations would somewhat help in countering bullying. Dunne, Sabates, Bosumtwi-Sam

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& Owusu (2013) focused on bullying happening among school students and how that affects their
attendance. They checked how school attendance and bullying are related to each other.

Rigby (2016) undertook an exploratory study of 25 Australian government schools to understand

the strategies being implemented there against bullying of students. The study also looked into the
strengths and limitations of teacher diverted activities and compares it with anti-bullying strategies
implemented in schools.

3.6 Self-esteem and bullying

It is observed that the problems which are caused to the peer relationship is mainly due to the factor
of low-esteem of the children. The children who conduct the act of bullying are mainly who are
very much popular in their society. The main reason why these children do the act of bullying is
to lift up their social dignity and their status. The people who are bold, brave, courageous, positive
and high in their self- esteem are generally fend off. Those people can stand up and has the potential
to protect themselves from bullying and doesn’t require any help from anyone to guide them or to
protect them. They are confident enough to protect and help themselves from any circumstances.
Many studies exhibits that bullies have high self-esteem. (Rigby and Slee, 1991).In the survey
(Olweus, 1991a, 1993, 1994; Rigby and Slee, 1991) elucidated that bullying practices are not a
delayed consequence of low insightful execution among school understudies. Branden (1992) has
described self-see as one's ability to think and to have the quality to defy the principal troubles of
life. Olweus (1993) consider exhibit that harassers have high to the degree self-respect. In the audit
(Camila C. Brito, Marluce T. Oliveira,2013) parts of bothering are connected with self-respect in
association with gender, it was watched that in the social occasion of setbacks/aggressors and
aggressors folks had higher quantifiably important self-respect scores when diverged from
females. Spook setbacks as a rule have a negative character which resembles harassers (Sonia
Raquel Seixas, Joaquim Pinto Coelho and Gustave Nicolas-Fischer, 2013). Weisel (2016)
examined the concept of workplace bullying and how this could be combated. Even though it takes
place quite often in the society, the legal framework played a role in restricting it. Samnani and
Singh (2015) examined workplace bullying and brought forward a conceptual model of workplace
bullying factors at the individual, group and organizational levels. Kyobe, Oosterwyk and Kabiawu
(2016) looked at cyber bullying and its effects. The study talked about the role of mobile phones
in cyberbullying in secondary school. The study found out that the use of digital phones has led to

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more cyber bullying consequences than any other alternative electronic gadgets. Labadie ,
Lieberman, Vargo and Flamion (2012) have articulated on bullying through examination of the
factors that teachers believe would be the reasons for bullying in dispersion through the youth and
their response strategies.

4. The study
The aim of the study is to find out from the sample those students who are being bullied and the
students who are bullies, and to find out the effect of bullying on the academic and non-academic
performance of the students. Peer relationships, aggression, and self-esteem are the indicators of
bullying and here, their influence on academic performance has been studied. Additionally we
have tried to look at the impact of gender on the academic performance. Participation in extra-
curricular activities has been taken as a moderating variable.

4.1 Data collection

Questionnaires were distributed to 300 respondents from which around 200 responses were
received. From that only 161 responses were fit for the analysis because the others were
incomplete. The study was conducted in two schools in Kerala, South India. Students from class
8-9 were considered as the sample group for the study and their age was between 12 and14 years.
The data collection was primarily based on the 12- item Peer Relations Questionnaire-PRQ (Rigby
& Slee, 1993).
Hypothesis 1: Peer relationship has an influence on the academic performance of a student.
Hypothesis 2: Aggression has an influence on the academic performance of a student.
Hypothesis 3: Gender has an influence on the academic performance of a student.
Hypothesis 4: Self-esteem has an influence on the academic performance of a student.
Hypothesis 5: Extra-curricular activities has an influence on the academic performance of a
student.

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Figure 1 Influence on academics (a)

Figure 2 Influnece on academics with the moderation of extra curricular activities.

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Figure 3 Influence on academics (b)

4.2 Data analysis

Regression was used to analyze the interrelationship between the independent variables along with
dependent variable. The results generated from Warp PLS is shown in the table below. Two of the
independent variables, being bullied and self-esteem, with beta values 0.24 and -0.17 have got a
significant relationship with the dependent variable. This shows that these variables can influenced
the academic performance of students (refer Figure 1). Students who have been bullied have less
self-esteem and that has a disallowing impact over the academic fulfillment of the students. In the
model with extra-curricular as the moderating variable then it shows an interesting result (refer
figure 3). The children who are being bullied show a better academic performance when they are
involved in extracurricular activities. It is found that children who involved in extra-curricular
activities can improve up to 20% in their academic performance as in Tables 1 and 2.

Table 1 - Model fit and quality indices

Average path coefficient (APC)=0.129, P=0.024
Average R-squared (ARS)=0.180, P=0.005
Average adjusted R-squared (AARS)=0.153, P=0.012

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Average block VIF (AVIF)=1.464, acceptable if <= 5, ideally <= 3.3

Average full collinearity VIF (AFVIF)=2.786, acceptable if <= 5, ideally <= 3.3
Tenenhaus GoF (GoF)=0.365, small >= 0.1, medium >= 0.25, large >= 0.36
Sympson's paradox ratio (SPR)=1.000, acceptable if >= 0.7, ideally = 1
R-squared contribution ratio (RSCR)=1.000, acceptable if >= 0.9, ideally = 1
Statistical suppression ratio (SSR)=1.000, acceptable if >= 0.7
Nonlinear bivariate causality direction ratio (NLBCDR)=0.400, acceptable if >= 0.7

Table 2 - Model fit and quality indices extra-curricular

Average path coefficient (APC)=0.128, P=0.024

Average R-squared (ARS)=0.211, P=0.001

Average adjusted R-squared (AARS)=0.181, P=0.005

Average block VIF (AVIF)=1.418, acceptable if <= 5, ideally <= 3.3

Average full collinearity VIF (AFVIF)=2.666, acceptable if <= 5, ideally <= 3.3

Tenenhaus GoF (GoF)=0.385, small >= 0.1, medium >= 0.25, large >= 0.36

Sympson's paradox ratio (SPR)=1.000, acceptable if >= 0.7, ideally = 1

R-squared contribution ratio (RSCR)=1.000, acceptable if >= 0.9, ideally = 1

Statistical suppression ratio (SSR)=1.000, acceptable if >= 0.7

Nonlinear bivariate causality direction ratio (NLBCDR)=0.333, acceptable if >= 0.7

Model 2: Academics

The results generated from WarpPLS are shown in the table below. Two of the independent
variables acquire a significant relationship with the dependent variable who bully and aggression
with beta values 0.35 and 0.20, which shows, the amount of variations to these variables can hold
an expressing impact on the academic achievement of the children are shown in table 3. Students
who bully have high aggression. Unlike the victims, bullies have an absolute and positive impact
on the academic achievement of the children (refer figure 2).

Table 3 - Model fit and quality indices

Average path coefficient (APC)=0.136, P=0.019
Average R-squared (ARS)=0.216, P=0.001
Average adjusted R-squared (AARS)=0.191, P=0.003
Average block VIF (AVIF)=1.405, acceptable if <= 5, ideally <= 3.3
Average full collinearity VIF (AFVIF)=1.509, acceptable if <= 5, ideally <= 3.3

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Tenenhaus GoF (GoF)=0.396, small >= 0.1, medium >= 0.25, large >= 0.36
Sympson's paradox ratio (SPR)=0.800, acceptable if >= 0.7, ideally = 1
R-squared contribution ratio (RSCR)=0.953, acceptable if >= 0.9, ideally = 1
Statistical suppression ratio (SSR)=1.000, acceptable if >= 0.7
Nonlinear bivariate causality direction ratio (NLBCDR)=0.600, acceptable if >= 0.7

5. Discussion and conclusion

Based on the results generated from the data collected, it is evident that the academic performance
of a student is influenced by bullying behavior, victim behavior, extracurricular activity,
aggression and self-esteem. The first model shows that the academic performance of the victims
are negatively affected. Those students usually have less self-esteem. When these students are
involved in extracurricular activities, the result shows that this could improve their academic
performance. The result from the second model shows that the students who bully other students
show excellent academic performance. These students are more aggressive compared to other
students as shown in table 4.

Table 4. Hypotheses validation

Hypotheses Results
1 Peer relationship has an influence on the academic performance of a student. Not supported
2 Aggression has an influence on the academic performance of a student. Supported
3 Gender has an influence on the academic performance of a student. Not supported
4 Self-esteem has an influence on the academic performance of a student. Supported
5 Extra-curricular activities has an influence on the academic performance of a supported
student.

Based on the data from table 4, on comparing the victims and the bullies, the victims bear
a negative effect on the academic achievement and the bullies have a positive effect on the
academic achievement. Students who are excellent in their studies are likely to be bullies.
Involvement in the extracurricular activity of the students can improve the academic achievement
of the children by downsizing the negative issue of bulling. Since extra-curricular achievements

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has a positive issue on academic performance, parents and teachers should encourage their wards
to participate more in extra-curricular activities. Schools should also provide ample facilities that
are required for the students to engage in these activities.

6. Limitations
The study had many limitations due to the factors concerning the data collected because of the
study was The study was limited to a particular geographical location in South India, Kerala and
also since the student sample selected were of young age it was very difficult to make them
understand on how to go about responding to the questionnaire. Since this is a sensitive topic, the
subjects need not necessarily answer the questions properly.

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