Anti-bullying: Its Affect on the Academic

Performance of Humms 12 Students in Misamis

University

Introduction:

Anti-bullying refers to laws, policies, organizations and movements aimed at stopping

or preventing bullying. Bullying is a situation where a person, called a bully, verbally or

physically threatens or assaults a person, causing the person to feel a real or perceived power

imbalance (Maria, 2014). Bullying is defined as a repeated acts of unprovoked aggression that

are damaging psychologically or physically for the victim, and where the strength of the

aggression in which there is no imbalance of power between the bully and the victim that

occurs mostly in peer group context (Mishna, 2003). It is also an act of mistreatment of

someone vulnerable by someone stronger and more powerful in the definition of (Merriam-

Webster, 2017). Bullying is very rampant in all communities since longtime until now.

Bullying exist either in developed or developing societies. Bullying is considered a common

form of violence in schools. Bullying is considered as a serious problem in academic setting

in all parts of the world (Sharia et al., 2015). They found that bullying has negative impact on

academic performance of the students it is a problem that affects all students, either bullies or

victims and those who attended interpersonal violence. Bullying is a process in which one
person repeatedly uses his superior strength or influence to mistreat, attack or force another

person to do something, is one of the main problems of schools’ environment (Unicef, 2007).

Examples of such behavior include derogatory comments, physical assaults, and social

exclusion, where the key factor is the existence of power imbalance between the perpetrator

and the victim. It is a serious problem of every students’ school experience and one that has

only recently begun to receive attention. It may also involve many sections its either verbal,

physical, assaults, threats, jokes or even language, and criticizing. According to study funded

by the National Institutes of Health, children who are being have “lower academic

achievement”, a greater dislike of school and less confidence in their academic abilities student

who are bullied have increased school avoidance, decreases in grades, and difficulties with

learning. These are also the students who often suffer from sleep difficulties, headaches, and

stomachaches, and mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. Students who are

frequently bullied are two times more likely to have suicidal ideation or attempts (Gini et al.,

2014). When students feel that they are unsafe which reflected on less engaged in school

community. Therefore, they have less motivation to do well at school and also they do not

participate in school activities (Menta et al., 2013). 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. According to (Olweus, 1993), a student is bullied “when he or she is exposed,

repeatedly and over time, to negative action on the part of one or more other students”. Many

studies have also shown that bullying leads to school avoidance and poor attendance, inability

to concentrate, negative attitudes, lack of academic engagement, depression and reduced self-
esteem, and even physical health problems (Barett et al., 2012). The underlying causes of

bullying like physical bullying which includes fighting, teasing, pranking, kicking, headlocks,

hazing, pushing and so on. Emotional bullying which include spreading rumors, ignoring

consciously, making fun etc. verbal bullying which includes harassing, threatening and even

mocking. It also causes a student to feel extreme distressed that may lead to changes in sleep

and dietary habits. It can even put someone at a greater risk for a student to commit suicide.

Bullying has a big impact on the academic performance of a student in a various way.

Victims of bullying are more likely to report feeling unhappy and lonely at schools, and having

fewer good friends (buulton et al., 1992). Cyberbullying is defined as the electronic posting of

mean-spirited messages about a person (such as a student) often done anonymously (Merriam-

Webster, 2017). Due to the prevalence and severity of school bullying observed around the

world, recently there has been a rising academic achievement. Most of the studies claim that

bullying behavior leads to poor behavior academic performance (Le et al., 2005). The child

who conducted the act of bullying are mainly who are very much popular in their society. The

cyberbullying literature suggests that the victims generally manifest psychological problems

such as depression, loneliness, low self-esteem, school phobias and social anxiety (Grene et

al., 2003;). 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 to protect and help themselves from any circumstances. 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, and even

between classes. When students feel that bullying is phenomenon in their school, they feel that

they are unsafe, lonely, depressed, and sad and display a lack of interest in everything which

reflected on less engaged in school community. Brank et al. (2012) indicated that bullying

victims are weak, shy, and anxious. They added that victims’ performance is poor in school

and seek to avoid attending school classes for the purpose of avoiding victimization.

Victimization experiencing can lead to poor academic performance and leading to

absenteeism. Skapinakis et al. (2011) found that victims were more likely to report suicidal

thoughts than were bullies. Juvonen, et al. (2011) said that bullying experiences affect victims’

academic achievement in both direct and indirect ways. So bullied student by his peers may

become worried and afraid of being teased, therefore he may stop participating in class or may

has e trouble in concentrating on class work because of fear. They added that students who are

often subject to be bullied by their peers during school period have less engagement at school

and poor grades. Konishi et al. (2010) confirmed that interpersonal relationships within school

environment influence academic achievement. Roman and Murillo (2011) found

The internet has created a new paradigm shift in communication. Today many students

even teenagers are addicted to using electronic communication tools. It is an undeniable fact

that electronic-based communication has transformed our lives tremendously, but

unfortunately, there is a dark to this technological advancement which is the cyberbullying.

Young internet users, including students, may be at the mercy of cyber bullies. The victims,

under great emotional stress, are unable to concentrate on their studies, and thus their academic

progress is adversely affected (Juliana, 2010). Traditionally, bullying other happens face to
face or through social exclusion. In recent years, bullying has taken a new form. Cyberbullying

which occurs through electronic communications it is one of the major forms of bullying in

which it comes in a whole range of different shape and rates and is something technologies

with intent to offer, humiliate, threaten, harass or abuse somebody. It includes the nasty

messages online or on the phone, comments on your posts or posts about you, being excluded

from online groups or forums, embarrassing photos that was being put online without your

permission, rumors and lies about you on a website, offensive chat on online gaming, fake

online profiles being created with an intent to become you. There are also students who are

found to lack open communication with their own families, they are left to tackle interferences

such as bullying in their own. Often, they are even found to fail miserably. Many cases of

raging, cyberbullying, physical and mental torture of school and students their unfortunate

consequences are being discussed by the media. Bullying in schools and universities are

causing unimaginable problems to students, parents and to educational institutions.

Unfortunately, little has been done to help those victims who are continuously trapped in the

name of modernization and digitalization (Watson, 2010). It also denotes that the harm is done

repeatedly over time and there is a disparity in strength and power between the victims and

cyber criminals. Electronic bullying or cyber bullying, is simply indicates using the internet to

cause psychological and emotional disturbances.

Also students who are repeatedly bullied may experience physical symptoms like

stomach pains, headaches, and trouble sleeping. It can also affect the students’ self-esteem.

Moreover, research has found that self-esteem can be highly influenced by factors such as

family experiences, peer interactions, and life events (Block et al., 1993), making it likely to
be affected by experiences like bullying and victimization. Although change in self-esteem has

been documented from late childhood through early adulthood, research on self-esteem during

the transition to middle school in particular has found that peer strain during this time can

lead to decreased self-esteem (Fenzel et al., 2000). These side effects may pair with anxiety

about going to school or participating in class which only leads to further loss of interest and

reduced academic performance. Students who are bullied often exhibit low self-confidence,

frequently experiencing depression, suicidal thoughts, and even violent outbreaks. Various

studies indicated that bullying makes school to be unsafe place for schools’ students and it

contributes in the belief that some schools are become not safe anymore (Maliki et al., 2009).