Bullying Behaviour: Experience in Secondary Schools in Obio Akpor Local Government Area in Rivers State, Nigeria

Aims: To determine the bullying experience among secondary school students in Obio Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria.

Study Design: A cross sectional study was conducted among 1860 participants aged 10-19 years.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in nine co-educational secondary schools in Obio Akpor Local Government Area (LGA) of Rivers State, Nigeria over a six month period (January 2021 – June 2021)

Materials and Method: Bullying behavior was assessed using a questionnaire designed by the researchers. Descriptive and inferential statistics were carried out. Statistical significance was set at a p-value <0 .05.

Results: The mean age of the study participants was 14.25±1.85 years and the male to female ratio was 1.1:1. Nearly all of the students (98.9%) had heard of bullying. Furthermore, 56.6% of participants were victims of bullying, 32.4% were perpetrators and 11.0% were neither victims nor perpetrators of bullying. The most common bullying behaviors known to the students were: physical assaults (19.6%) and “taking things forcefully from others” (19.3%). Factors significantly associated with both bullying victimization and perpetration included; age greater than 14 years, male gender and low socio-economic status (p<0.001). Furthermore, bullying perpetration was more common in senior school students (p<0.001) while a greater proportion of junior school students were victims of bullying (p<0.001).

Conclusion: Bullying behavior remains a significant social problem among secondary school students in our society. It has deleterious physical and psychological effects on both the victim and the perpetrator. Greater efforts are required from all stakeholders to eliminate this negative trend.