Bullying Among Early Adolescent Egyptian School Students

Abstract

Background: Bullying among school students is defined as a type of violence that has increased nowadays. It is a very serious problem that can affect children and adolescents with multiple negative impacts e.g. poor school achievement and mental health problems. Objective(s): To assess the frequency of bullying, determine gender differences as regards different bullying behaviors among early adolescent school students. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional study. It was conducted on 350 primary and preparatory school students in Tanta district, Gharbia Governorate, Egypt. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to the students asking about their socio-economic standards, experiencing different bullying behaviors, their types, and their psychological effects on the affected students. Results: The studied students experienced bullying in the form of bullies (6%), victims (22%), bully-victims (7%), and witnesses (55%). About 56% of students who experienced bullying were males and 44% were females. About 60% of female students were victims versus 39% in males, while males experienced other bullying behaviors (bully, bully-victim, witness). Physical and verbal bullying reached 53.1% & 49.8% respectively, while cyberbullying was 23.2% and sexual bullying 12.1%. Physical bullying was significantly more frequent among male students (p-value = 0.003). However, female students were significantly more experiencing verbal and cyberbullying (p-value = 0.002 & 0.001 respectively). Conclusion: The frequency of bullying experience among early adolescent school students was high. Female students were experiencing bullying behaviors less than male students. Screening for bullying behavior during the routine visits of the adolescents in primary health care facilities is recommended.

Keywords

• bullying; gender difference; adolescence