Bullying of the Male-Child in Selected Senior High Schools in Ghana

Abstract

The main objective of the study was to examine the bullying of the male-child in selected senior high schools in Ghana. The descriptive and exploratory research designs were used for the study. A multi-stage sampling procedure, comprising purposive, stratified, simple random and snowball sampling technique, was used in the selection of the sample. A total of 354 respondents were drawn from six schools in Kumasi, Cape Coast and Tamale. Three interview schedules were generated for the bullies, victims and bystanders respectively. The Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) (Version 16.0) software was used to analyse the data. Frequency tables, percentages and t-test statistics were used to present the data. The study revealed that physical and verbal bullying were rampant in the various schools in the country. Bullies and victims also had specific characteristics which led to bullying in the schools. Also, bullying went on as a tradition and initiation that all new students had to go through. In respect of the effect of bullying on students, it was revealed that some became dropouts, others developed low self-esteem, whereas still others put up characters which could affect them in their future lives. There was no significant difference in bullying among co-educational schools and boys-only schools. The study recommends the need for the schools to set up a system which will stop bullying in schools. Vigorous counselling should go on among the students, especially the bullies and the victims, to overcome these difficulties. Students should be made to understand the long- term effects of bullying on the individual and society.