Perception, Attitudes and Self Esteem Regarding Bullying Among Preparatory Schools

: Background : School bullying is a pervasive international problem which attracted the concern of global research community. Bullying is common among primary and prep school students. School bullying is the predominant factor that affects children' physical and mental health. These effects carry over into adulthood and include suicide tendencies. Therefore, many preventative strategies and technology used to prevent school bullying. Aim of the study was to investigate perception, attitudes and self-esteem regarding bullying among preparatory school students. Subjects and method: Three hundred students. study was conducted at two governmental preparatory schools of Tanta city. Tools : Four tools were used for data collection (socio-demographic Data, perception of preparatory school students regarding bullying, Bullying attitude scale and Rosenberg self-esteem scale). Results : More than half of students had health problems due to their exposure to bullying, about 40% of students had high level of perception about bullying, half of students had low level of perception regarding bullying, three quarters of students had negative attitude regarding bullying while one quarter of students had positive attitude regarding bullying. Conclusion : there were statistical significant differences among students' perception, attitudes and self-esteem regarding bullying. Recommendations: School students should attend health education programs to improve their perception regarding school bullying and to improve their practices about bullying prevention and control.


Introduction:
Bullying is a repeated aggressive behavior, intended to harm another student or group of students.It is common in schools but can be a problem at work in adult life too.It is a pervasive international problem, has attracted the concern of the global research community.Researchers around the world have devoted attention to various issues related to bullying including intervention, anti-bullying policy, the measurement of school bullying and its connections to related variables.Sadly, bullying is very common.At least one in three children is bullied at some point.Around one in ten experiences bullying which is persistent, lasting six months or more.Bullying is a common phenomenon worldwide among fifty percent of children. (1)ehaviors used to assert such domination may include physical assault or coercion, verbal harassment, or threat, and such acts may be directed repeatedly toward particular targets.Rationalizations of such behavior sometimes include differences of social class, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, appearance, behavior, body language, personality, reputation, lineage, strength, size, or ability.Bullying is divided into four basic types of abusepsychological, verbal, physical, and cyber.Physical bullying is the outcome of students using physical actions to excite, dominate, and control another student.It could be in the form of physical abuse involving hitting, pushing, kicking, stealing or damaging others' properties or even slapping. (2)erbal bullying is another form by which school children are commonly bullied.Though it does not involve any physical assault, it is equally traumatic as physical bullying.Other than teasing, verbal bullying involves actions like taunting, intimidating, and threatening, repeated name-calling, remarks, and sexually directed comments.Cyber bullying is bullying which takes place through mobile phones or online.Bullying occurs through social network sites . (3)arning Signs that a child is being bullied may include: unusual injuries, symptoms of anxiety and post-traumatic stress, destroyed clothing, changes in eating habits, decreasing grades, recurrent school absences, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and excessive tendency to apologize.Bullying can take place anywhere.Most bullying in school takes place in unsupervised areas including playgrounds, hallways, bathrooms, bus stops and bus rides. . (1)s a result of bullying, victims may feel helpless, depressed, anxious, furious, stressed, out of control, may experience a significant drop in academic performance, or in rare cases commit suicide, develop mental illness, personality disorder or posttraumatic stress disorder. (4)ullying is a complex issue and there is no dominant cause of bullying.These factors include environmental, social, individual, and bystander Factors.Other risk factors include depression, personality disorders, impulsivity, use of force, aggression addiction, perceiving others' actions as hostile, concern with maintaining selfimage, and engaging in obsessive rigid actions. (4)ost crucial action to do in bullying control is to tell someone in authority.Most schools are required by law to combat bullying.As we've seen, bullying has a significant negative impact on students' health and the only effective approach to treat and prevent these effects is to put an end to bullying.
Preventive measures include raising awareness, establishing zero tolerance for fighting, adopting a program that involves teachers, students, and parents, hiring security guards in the school, avoiding rigid confrontations, gathering witness reports, getting parental response, teaching communication skills and alternative behavior education. (5)hanging the climate that supports bullying behaviors is considered the most successful bullying prevention programs.Also, administrators, teachers, staff, parents, and students should support the program.Without their support, the program has very little chance of success. (5)chool nurses have a key role in preventing and reducing bullying in school setting on several levels, as outlined in a policy statement by the National Association of School Nurses.Additionally, School nurses take actions to prevent violence and decrease the effects of bullying on students.They take action to ensure safe school environments by collaborating with school staff, parents, healthcare providers, and community members.Family is a major factor in the initial stage of students' attitudes.Initially, a student picks up certain attitudes from their parents, brothers, sisters, and family elders.In turn, a student may modify the attitudes they pick up from their family and use them in future relationships.There is a high degree of relationship between parent and children in attitudes found in them.(6) Significance of the study Students' mental and physical health in preparatory schools is impacted by school environment.A child who works in a peaceful calm environment is more productive than one who works in a chaotic noisy environment.Therefore, it is crucial that preparatory schools students and school staff comprehend bullying and how it affects students' physical and mental health.Additionally, school staff members need to be aware of how anti-bullying initiatives can improve children overall health.Anti-bullying efforts may ultimately improve the mental and physical well-being of students in preparatory schools.(7) Aim of the study  (8) It included definition, causes, risk factors, signs, effects, prevention and school staff role regarding bullying at school.Preparatory school students' perception was scored as following: -Correct and complete answer was scored (2) -Correct and incomplete answer was scored ( 1) -Wrong answer was scored (0) The total score of preparatory school students' perception was calculated three levels as following: -Less than 60% was considered low level of perception.
-From 60 to less than 75% was considered moderate level of perception.
-From 75-100% was considered high level of perception.Tool (III): Bullying Attitude Scale to assess attitudes of students. (9)his scale was used by the researcher to assess students' attitudes toward acceptability of bullying behaviors at school.It included the following: dealing of students with verbal bullying, physical bullying in the class, communication of students with each other, communication of students with their teachers, dealing of students with others those have intellectual disabilities special needs, visual, hearing, or any physical disturbances and reaction of bystanders toward victims and bullies.
-The scale consisted of 9 items that used a five -points Likert scale (one=strongly disagree to five= strongly agree).-Higher scores indicated greater acceptance of bullying behavior.The total score was obtained by summing all items.Total score was categorized as follows: -Positive attitude: less than 60% of the total score.
-Negative attitude: 60% and more of the total score.Tool (IV): Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (1998): (10) -Respondents use four -points Likert scale (strongly agree\ agree\disagree\ strongly self-esteem inventory) -Self-esteem inventory was used to measure self-esteem of the subjects.
-This tool consisted of ten items that, evaluated attitude towards the self in social, academic, family and personal area experience to rate five positive and five negative self-worth statements.Scoring system: Sum scores for all ten items.Keep scores on a continuous scale.The scale ranged from 0-30.Scores between 15 and 25 were within normal range; Scores were calculated as follows: -Strongly agree=3 Agree=2 Disagree=1 Strongly disagree=0 Method 1-An official permission was obtained from the responsible authorities of the preparatory schools after explanation of the aim of the study.2-Ethical and legal considerations: a-Ethical approval was obtained from students after explaining the aim and nature of study.
b-Confidentiality and privacy was taken into consideration regarding the data collection.c-Nature of the study was not caused any harm to the entire sample.d-Informed consent was obtained from the students to participate in the study.e-Each student was informed that he had the right to withdrawal from the study.3-Tools of study were developed based on the review of related literature tool I, II, III.4-Content validity: The face validity of the questionnaire was calculated based on experts' opinions after calculating contents validity index of its items and it was 99.1%.5-Reliability: The study tools tested by the pilot subject (cronbachs alpha) were=0.950and 0.92 respectively.6-A Pilot study was carried out on (10%) of students to test the clarity applicability, feasibility and identify obstacles and problems that may be encountered during data collection then the necessary modification of the tools was done.Pilot study was excluded from the actual study subjects.

Statistical analysis:
The collected data has been organized, analyzed and tabulated.The investigator used descriptive, analytical and statistical measures by using appropriate statistical methods.Statistical design was done by computer and through using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS), software version 26.0 and Microsoft Excel 2019.Data were represented using descriptive statistics in the form of frequencies and percentages.Qualitative categorical variables were compared using chi-square test (X).The level of significance was taken at P value.

Results
Table ( Regarding (Feeling a student of worth, at least on an equal plan with others), 57.0% were strongly agree while 43.0% were agree.Regarding (Having a number of good qualities), 38.0% were strongly agree while 62.0% were agree.Concerning (Feeling of a failure), 39.0% were strongly agree while 61.0% were agree.Regarding (Ability to do things as well as most other students), 40.3% were strongly agree while 59.7 % were agree.Regarding (Feeling don't have much to be proud), 25.7% were strongly agree.In addition, (Taking a positive attitude toward self), 39.7% were strongly agree while 1.0% were disagree.Regarding (Satisfying with self), 38.3% were strongly agree while 1.0% were disagree.Concerning (Wishing to have more respect for self), 61.7% were strongly agree while 38.3% were agree.Concerning (Feeling useless at time), 33.0% were strongly agree while 3.0% were disagree.Finally, (At time, thinking not good at all), 32.3% were strongly agree.Table (6): The result revealed a highly statistical significant relation between age and the total perception regarding bullying (P-value=.000)and X 2 =47.004.Also there is a highly statistical significant relation between sex and the total perception regarding bullying (P-value=.000)and X 2 =59.645.The results revealed a highly statistical significant relation between academic achievement and the perception regarding bullying (P-value= .007)and X 2 =17.760.Also, there is a highly statistical significant relation between residence and the perception regarding bullying (p-value=.000)and X 2 =112.039.Table (7): The result revealed a highly statistical significant relation between age and the attitude regarding bullying (P-value=.002)and x 2 = 12.06.Also, there was a highly statistical significant relation between sex and the attitude regarding bullying (P-value=.000)and x 2 = 56.412.The results revealed a highly statistical significant relation between academic achievement and the attitude regarding bullying (P-value=.000)and x 2 = 33.116.There was a highly statistical significant relation between family members and the attitude regarding bullying (P-value=.000)and x 2 = 65.368.

Discussion
School bullying is a serious problem in both developed and developing countries.It can take multiple forms.All forms of bullying have a huge impact not only on children physical health but also on their mental and emotional health.School bullying is more frequently associated with serious problems such as depression, isolation and other health problems which can lead to suicide.The prevention of school bullying is the responsibility of society at all.Parents play a key role in preventing bullying. (11)ncerning to health problems accompanying bullied preparatory school students, than half of students had health problems.This finding agreed with the results of the study about ''Relationship between bullying and health problems in school children, in Izmer" by Nama et al.,  (2017), who mentioned that students who had high scores for being exposed to bullying were significantly more likely to experience health problems.This may be due to strong association between bullying effect and occurrence of medical health problems. (12)e present study revealed that the most of bullied preparatory school students suffered from feeling of insecurity.This finding was in the same line with the results of the study about "Children and youth perceptions of family insecurity and bullying, in United States" by Edwards OW & Taub, (2017), who mentioned that most of students suffered from insecurity.This may be due to strong association between bullying and feeling of security. (13)e present study reported that the majority of bullied students suffered from sleep disturbances.This result was in the same line with the result of the study about" Forgiveness reduces anger in a school bullying context, in Sydney" by Hayley Watson & Natasha Todorv, (2017), who indicated that most of bullied students suffered from sleep disturbances and stated that advice to forgive the perpetrator led to significantly less distressed.This may be due to significant relationship between bullying and disturbances of sleeping. (14)e current study revealed that the majority of bullied preparatory school students suffered from lack trust.This finding agreed with the results of the study about "Past peer victimization and current adult attachment, in United States" by Cosgrove HE. & ,Nickerson A. ( 2017), who mentioned that more than half of students suffered from lack trust.This may be due to significant relation between bullying and lack of trust. (15)e present study revealed that more than three quarter of bullied preparatory school students suffered from psycho-somatic symptoms.This finding agreed with the results of the study about "Incidence, risk factors and psycho-somatic symptoms for traditional bullying, in china" by Jiameng Li, Theresa Hesketh (2019), who reported that there were strong associations between bullying victims and psycho-somatic symptoms.He reported also traditional victims and cyber victims were at least 1.5 times more likely to report headache, abdominal pain and sleep problems.This may be due to significant relationship between bullying and psycho-somatic symptoms. (16)he current study revealed that more than one third of bullied preparatory school students suffered from eating disorders.This finding agreed with the results of the study about "Bullying and body image, in U. S'' by Carty MC.(2017), who mentioned that more than three quarters of the sample suffering from an eating disorder admit bullying is a significant cause of their disorder.This may be due to effect of bullying on appetite. (17)e results of the present study found that more than one quarter of bullied preparatory school students suffered from depression.This finding agreed with the results of the study about "School bullying and symptoms of depression, in Albania" by Marjola Lala, Silva Ibrahimi (2019), who mentioned that there is a significant statistical relationship between the frequency of victimization and their depressive symptoms so, children who were frequently prey to bullying behaviors experienced more depressive symptoms.This may be due to bad effect of bullying on students' psychological state. (18)garding to preparatory school students' perception about bullying definition, the current study revealed that about one third of students had correct and incomplete answer about bullying definition.This finding was in the same line with the results of the study about "Knowledge about bullying by young children with special educational needs, in Spain" by Roman Garcia & Prendes Espinosa (2021), who stated that the majority of students had good information about bullying definition.This may be due to increase awareness of students regarding bullying. (19)ncerning to preparatory school students' perception about the bully who does bullying, the present study revealed that more than one third of students had correct and complete answer.This finding agreed with the results of the study about "Knowledge about bullying by young children with special educational needs, in U.S" by Menesini (2017), who stated that the majority of the sample had good knowledge about the person who does bullying. (20)garding to preparatory school students' perception about the place of bullying inside school, the current study revealed that less than two third of students had wrong answer while more than two fifth of students had correct and incomplete answer.This finding agreed with the results of the study about "School bullying and fitting into the peer land scape, in Swedish" by Robert Thornberg, (2018), who mentioned that more than half of the students had good knowledge about place of bullying.This may be due to school role in increasing awareness of students regarding bullying. (21) regard preparatory school students' perception about risk factors for bullying, the present study revealed that less than two third of students had correct and incomplete answer while more than one third of students had correct and complete answer.This finding agreed with the results of the study about "A systematic review of contextual level risk factors in observational studies, in London" by Catarina M. Azeredo (2015), who mentioned that student, family and socioeconomic factors are predictors of bullying. (22)s regard preparatory school students' perception about bullying types, the present study found that more than half of students had correct and incomplete answer while more than two fifth of students had correct and complete answer.These findings agreed with the results of the study about "Types of bullying behaviors and its association with general life satisfaction, in Iran" by Rezapour & Khanjan, (2019), who mentioned that the majority of the students had good knowledge about verbal and relational bullying.This may be increasing knowledge of students about bullying types. (23)garding to preparatory school students' perception about the most vulnerable group to bullying, the current study revealed that more than half of students had correct and incomplete answer while more than two fifth of students had correct and complete answer.This result was in the same line with the study about "Bullying at school and mental health problems, in Ukraine" by Hakan kallmen & Hallgren, (2021), who mentioned that more than one third of the students had good knowledge about the most vulnerable group to bullying and the prevalence of bullying remained stable and was highest among girls. (24)ncerning to preparatory school students' perception about causes of bullying, the present study revealed that more than half of students had correct and incomplete answer while more than two fifth of students had correct and complete answer.These findings agreed with the results of the study about "Results from the national survey of school health, in Swedish" by Hjalmarsson (2018), who mentioned that more than half of the students are victimized related to body appearance.This may be due to increased awareness of students regarding different causes for bullying. (25) regard to preparatory school students' perception about effect of bullying on student, the present study revealed that more than half of students had correct and incomplete answer while more than two fifth of students had correct and complete answer.This finding agreed with the results of the study about "Effects of bullying, in Britain" by Jara et al., (2021), who mentioned that bullying affect mental and physical health.Also, he stated that at least half of suicides are related to bullying in 10-14 years old girls.This may be due to increased awareness of students regarding effects of bullying on physical and mental health. (26)garding to preparatory school students' perception about bullying prevention, the present study found that less than two third of students had correct and incomplete answer while more than one third of students had correct and complete answer.This result is in the same line with the study about " Preventing bullying consequences, in Pittsburgh" by Wakefield et al., (2021), who are starting to show ways in which law and policy can play a role in strengthening state and local efforts to prevent bullying.This may be due to the active role of media in increasing awareness of students regarding bullying prevention. (27)ncerning to preparatory school students' perception about student reaction when seeing other student being bullied, the present study revealed that more than half of students had correct and incomplete answer while more than two fifth of students had correct and complete answer.These findings agreed with the results of the study about "Teacher response towards bullying predict victimized students' disclosure of victimization, in Dutch" by Ten Bokkel et al., (2021), who mentioned that more than half reported that they disclosed to student and told their teacher.This may be due to positive role of students in facing bullying. (28)e current study found that more than half of students had moderate level of perception regarding bullying while more than one third of students had high level of perception regarding bullying.These findings agreed with the results of the study about "Middle school students' perception of bullying, in US, by Jared R. Rawlings, (2017), who mentioned that the majority of students had high perception and he reported experiencing peer victimization more frequently outside of the classroom than inside.This may be due to increased awareness of students regarding bullying through media. (29)garding to preparatory school students' attitude about bullying, the present study revealed that more than one third of students are agree about item (Don't set highest standards for self, this end up a second-rate student.), less than half of students are agree about item (Value as a student depends greatly on what others think) and more than half of students are agree about items (Students probably think less of student when making a mistake-Happiness depends more on other students than the student) .These findings were in the same line with the results of study about "The relationship between bullying, family functions, perceived social support among school students, in Turkey" by Toplu et al., , (2018), who mentioned that there was statistically significant relationship between students relations attitude's subscales which is bully personality and all of the subscales of family assessment. (30)ncerning to preparatory school students' attitude about bullying, the current study stated that more than two third of students are agree about item (Student failed at work, this mean a failure as a human) and more than three fifth of students are agree about items (Student is unhappy unless most students admire the student-The best thing is giving up own interests in order to please other students).These findings agreed with the results of study about "The social attitude-influence model efficiency, in China" by Lee et al.,(2018), who mentioned that attitude towards bullying affected the intention of harassment and the intention also influenced the behavior of harassment. (31) regard preparatory school students' attitude about bullying, the present study revealed that about three quarter of students had negative attitude regarding bullying.This finding was in the same line with the results of study about "The contributions of negative attitudes towards victims and the perceived expectations of friends, in Australia" by Rigby, (2017), who mentioned that negative attitudes to victims and the perceived expectations of friends were associated with self-reported bullying.This may be due to significant relation between bullying and attitude. (32)garding to preparatory school students' self-esteem about bullying, the present study revealed that more than half of students are strongly agree about item (Feeling a student of worth, at least on an equal plan with others) and more than three fifth of students are agree about items (Having a number of good qualities-Feeling of a failure).These findings were in the same line with the results of study about "Bullying and self-esteem in children from public schools, in Olinda" by Brito et al., (2019), who mentioned that in a group of victims, males had higher statistically significant self-esteem scores.This may be due to significant correlation between self-esteem and bullying. (33)garding to preparatory school students' self-esteem about bullying, the present study revealed that about three fifth of students are agree about items (Ability to do things as well as most other students-Taking a positive attitude toward self) and more than two third of students are agree about item (Feeling don't have much to be proud) more than three fifth of students are agree about item (Satisfying with self-Wishing to have more respect for self-Feeling useless at time) and less than half of students are agree about item (At time, thinking not good at all).These findings agreed with the results of study about "Rosenberg self-esteem scale and bullying, In England" by McKay et al., (2021),), who mentioned that the program stimulated an increase of cooperative conflict resolution strategies and an increase of self-esteem.This may be due to high self-esteem of students. (34)e current study found that there was relation between socio-demographic characteristics of the studied preparatory school students and their perception regarding bullying.It was found that there was highly statistically significant relation between the students' age, sex, family members and their perception regarding bullying, and there was statistically significant relation between the students' academic achievement, residence, and their perception regarding bullying.These findings agreed with the results of the study about ''Association between school perception and being bullied among secondary school students, in Finland'' by Ilona Markkanen and Raili Valimaa, (2021), who find that there was statistical significant relation in students' perception and socio-demographic factors of students.They reported that there were a statistical significant relation in students' perception and age, sex, family members, academic achievement and residence. (35)

Conclusion
Based on the results of the present study, it was concluded that more than one third of the students had high level of perception about bullying, about three quarters of the students had negative attitude regarding bullying, more than one quarter of students had positive attitude regarding bullying .The study also showed that there were a highly statistical significant relation among age, sex, academic achievement, family members, residence, students' attitude and selfesteem regarding bullying.

Recommendations
Based on the study findings and research question, the following recommendations can be suggested: 2) Mass media should be used as an important tool for increasing awareness of the preparatory school students about prevention and control of school bullying.
1): Shows percentage distribution of preparatory school students regarding their socio-demographic characteristics.Concerning students' age, the table shows that 39.7% were 13 years, 34.3% were 13<14 years and 26.0% were 14<15 years.Concerning students' sex, the table shows that 53.7% were females while 46.3% were males.Concerning housing condition, the table shows that 54.3% lived in urban area while 45.7% lived in rural area.Concerning family members, 55.3% had a family consists of 4 members, 27.0% had a family consists of 5 and more.Concerning academic achievement according to teacher assessment, 36.0%were very good, 30.0%were good, 17.0% were excellent and 17.0% were poor.Table (2): Regarding definition of bullying, 35.3% had correct and incomplete answer while 64.7 % had wrong answer.

Table ( 1
): Percentage distribution of preparatory school students regarding their sociodemographic characteristics.Table (3):Total score of preparatory school students' Perception regarding bullying.
Figure (1): Total score of preparatory school students' perception regarding bullying Table (4): Total score of preparatory school students' attitude about bullying .High Moderate Low Figure (2): Total score of preparatory school students' attitude about bullying.Table(5): Percentage distribution of preparatory school students' self-esteem regarding bullying.