CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION     

      Bullying is unwanted aggressive behaviour that seems to have an influence on children’s socio-emotional development in many schools nowadays. Bullying cases has become so rampant that it draws the attention of some researchers who try to find out the cause and prevailing consequences of this maladjusted behaviour. World Day of Bullying Prevention is bringing attention to our plight, and the plight of others who have experienced this incredibly difficult and dangerous part of many children’s lives (Yufey, 2018). It is estimated that 40-80 percent of school-age children experience bullying at some point during their school days and 10-15 percent may be either chronic victims or bullies themselves (APA 2017).  The fact that some children has been frequently and systematically harassed and attacked by other children or teachers has been described in literary works and many adult experiences during their school days (Olweus 1994).

      According to Hong et al. (2012), psychosocial problems, including depression and anxiety, are common symptoms experienced by victims of bullying, where others have suggested that depressive symptoms are also associated to students who assume bullying roles (Cook et al., 2010; Espelage, Low, & De La Rue, 2012). This also implies that some other psychopathological issues for example; phobia, low self-esteem, anger, that can influence the social and emotional development of children may result from severe bullying experiences. According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, bullying has a lifelong impact on the social and emotional development of children that puts them at risk for everything from severe mental health issues to stunted professional growth later in life (Kreps, 2018).

Systematic international research has shown bullying to be a frequent and serious public health issue especially of pupils. Parents of bullies or victims of bullies also face a lot of challenges as they keep on receiving reports about their children’s behavior at school.  Victims and bullies exhibit a psycho-social maladjustment and psychosomatic problems. This unwanted behaviour has a significant risk to children’s socio-emotional wellbeing and mental health (Bussey &Fitzpatrick 2017).

      Most often, bullies seem to be people who might have experienced bullying in the past from others like, parents, siblings, teachers, peers, those who are physically stronger than the victims or those who have more authority than the victims. Looking at this, one can say bullying can be learned for example, aggressive ways of talking to people. Bullying occurs when people also seek for social attention, recognition or acknowledgment (Genius 2020). Research has shown that in schools where children’s behavior is monitored, and equipped with a staff that is knowledgeable enough in handling socio-emotional problems, there is decline in bullying and its consequences, thus a guarantee to 70 percent of children’s wellbeing at school. In our presentation, we will examine and discuss the effects of bullying on the socio-emotional development of pupils in some primary schools in Cameroon. In this light, chapter one is designed to present the background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research questions, hypotheses, significance of the study, justification, scope/delimitation of the study and operational definition of terms. We will now proceed with the background of the study.

Background of the Study

      In earlier times, according to descriptions in old documents such as; a journal article published by Burk (1879) which addressed bullying amongst young people, human aggression (Baron 1977), Bullies and victims in school (Besage 1991), The psychology of unadjusted school children behaviour (Morgan 1952), bullying was generally described as physical harassment that usually relate to a death, strong isolation, or extortion in school children. A pattern of bullying in people has been described in books on social history and old newspapers from the 18th and 19^th centuries in some countries such as the United Kingdom, Japan and Korea. Bullying occurred in reaction to different features of victims and bullying usually took the forms of isolation and physical harassment (Hyojin 2007).

      In general, in the 19th century, although the term bullying was not mentioned, the pattern of it has been described as interpersonal violence in everyday life (D’cruze, 2000). This violent behaviour was seen as private, in the sense that it was first and foremost a matter between individuals. According to Swift (1997), this kind of everyday violence was well documented in the 19th century. Swift pointed out that Irish people were the victims of racist violence targeted against individuals and located in urban and often the neighbourhood space in the country concerned. This is in line with Heinemann (1972) who pointed out victim’s external characteristics (such as being an immigrant and using a dialect) as reasons for being bullied.

      However, using the exact term bullying, were described among school children or children in institutions, particularly those where boys predominated. That was introduced in daily newspapers such as “The Times”, (the Times is a British daily national newspaper based in London which began in 1785). The Times introduced the first bullying incident on the 6th of August 1862, after the death of a soldier named Flood. The serious problem of bullying and its consequences warranted official attention and this was the first published announcement on bullying in The Times for the period covered since 1790, (Witherow 2020).

      Moreover, Japan is perhaps the only nation in Asia where the problem of bullying (ijime) has been studied well, at least until very recently. Ijime became one of the biggest social problems featured in the Japanese mass media in the mid-1980s. In Japan specialist perceived it as mainly a modern phenomenon during the 1970s. In English speaking countries, bullies were often older children (Whitney & Smith, 1993), by contrast in Japan, victims and aggressors are often classmates, or if not mostly in the same grade (Morita et al., 1999).

      Still, ijime often takes a form of psychological (group isolation or ostracism) rather than physical harm or injury (Kanetsuna & Smith, 2002). The most commonly used parental punishment techniques in Japan were; isolation of a child for short period of time, separation from the family, and threatening a child with abandonment. The parents believed that, through such behaviour, young men could learn how to survive and would stick together before telling their parents (Hendry, 1996). This kind of mental attitude is still retained in Japanese children. Lewis (1989) observes that even pre-school Japanese children themselves frequently carried out the roles of cautioning children about unsafe behaviour and managing aggression between classmates.

      In addition, the first document on Korean bullying could be seen in Chosun dynasty (1392-1910), where it is called Myunsinrae. This was well described in ‘the Story of Chosun Dynasty’ and because of its severity King Jungjong (2nd King of Chosun dynasty, 1357-1419) and King Sookjong (19th King of Chosun dynasty, 1660s-1720) gave orders to prohibit Myunsinrae (Yang, 2000). Myunsinrae was officially a kind of a welcome event for new officers by the senior officers but, in fact, it involved misconduct by the senior officers. Officer Chung endured Myunsinrae by his older officers and colleagues for more than one year since the first day of his entry. By order of King Danjong, his suicide was investigated. According to the results, officer Chung did not have anybody to talk to, and was being isolated by other officers. His senior officer did not invite him to official events and because of that absence, Chung had often been punished. Additionally, the investigators found that some other new officers had endured Myunsinrae for a long time from colleagues and senior officers. This leads us to wonder why people have suddenly become interested in bullying, which was considered for centuries merely to be a part of human life.

       According to Brown (2014), Bullying behaviour is common among boys and girls in eight African countries and is associated with physical fighting and multiple adverse health risk behaviours. He estimated the prevalence of exposure to bullying among youth from Kenya, Namibia, Morocco, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe and examined associations with measures of mental health, tobacco use, alcohol and drug use, and sexual behaviours. Exposure to bullying behaviour was common among the boys and girls. He observed consistent, strong and graded relationships between exposure to bullying behaviour and multiple adverse health-risk behaviors.

      Bullying was also seen as a more clearly specified and simple set of behaviours than at present. According to Morgan (1952), in the early 1950s, studies of children’s misbehaviour viewed aggressive behaviour among children as involving mainly robbery and stealing. Morgan pointed out that the two most serious of children’s misbehaviours were stealing and rowdyism. Going into the 1960s, the perception of children’s misbehaviours become more complicated, especially in terms of defining what is ‘misbehaviour’. For example, persistent inattention, carelessness, underhandedness and smoking occupied the major part of Greenberg’s (1969) list of student misbehaviours, which was a representative work of its kind in the 1960s.

       Since the middle of the 1970s, children’s misbehaviour has increasingly included bullying behaviour. The first systematic and carefully documented research on bullying (with a large database) was carried out by Dan Olweus. He invented the first systematic method of studying bullying, using a ‘self-report questionnaire’ (Olweus, 1978). Since then, a number of researchers from different disciplines, such as education, psychology, sociology and criminology, have expanded the study of bullying.

      Since the end of the 1980s, the meaning of bullying has been expanded and now includes direct verbal taunting and social exclusion. Bjorkqvist & Kaukiainen, (1992) expanded the meaning of bullying and included indirect forms of bullying for example rumour spreading. Moreover, Olweus (1999) now includes more indirect ways of bullying such as unkind gestures and facial expressions. Researchers such as Smith and Rigby (2003) have included forms of indirect bullying: gossiping, unkind gestures and spreading rumours. As the above shows, the meaning and form of what is considered as children’s misbehaviour and especially bullying has changed over the last half-century and it has become more psychological as well as physical.

      Conceptually, school bullying is a serious concern which has received considerable media attention. According to the WHO (2012), bullying is defined as repeated aggressive behavior, both direct which consist of hitting, kicking, or pushing and indirect, that is; teasing, social exclusion, or spreading a rumour intended to cause physical and or psychological harm to another individual (Menesini & Salmivalli, 2017). Researching school bullying has been problematic and is partly related to the difficulty in defining it (Espelage, 2018). Broadly speaking, bullying is recognized as aggressive, repeated, intentional behavior involving an imbalance of power aimed towards an individual or group of individuals who cannot easily defend themselves (Vaillancourt et al., 2008). Bullying victims frequently experience depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, school adjustment problems, academic difficulties, and suicidal behavior (Kim & Leventhal 2008).

      More still, Bullying does not suddenly and mysteriously appear full-blown among children. As young children enter early childhood settings, they bring with them a history of experiences with family, media, and other children. These experiences prepare children to be more or less likely to engage in bullying-related behavior. In some families, children experience or observe family violence, physical punishment, or the use of verbal or physical aggression to control others. These family experiences may lead children to initiate aggressive behavior and become involved in bullying in early childhood settings as well as in schools. In contrast, when children grow up in less punitive and more caring families and learn positive social skills, they are less likely to initiate bullying in early childhood settings. (Preventingbullying.com 2016). Media experiences also influence children’s potential involvement in bullying. Children may learn bullying-related behavior by watching television and movies that glorify violence and by playing violent video games that reward violent behavior. Children’s direct and observed experiences with siblings and other children also influence how they will interact in early childhood settings (Williams &Guerra, 2007).

      Moreover, physical bullying is any unwanted physical contact between the bully and the victims. This is one of the most easily identified forms of bullying. Examples include punching, pushing, shoving, kicking, hazing, inappropriate touching, tickling, headlocks, pinching, school pranks, teasing, fighting, and use of available objects as weapons. There are basically three important aspects of physical bullying victimization: harm (deliberate, harmful and aggressive behaviors towards victims), repetition (such behaviors are carried out repeatedly and over time) and power imbalance (the bully is considered to be stronger and more powerful than the victim) (Batsche and Knoff 1994; Berger 2007; Olweus 1994).

      Still, verbal bullying is the most commonly reported form of bullying. Verbal bullying is any slanderous statement or accusation that causes the victim undue emotional distress. Example include: directing foul or profane language at the target, using derogatory (lessening the worth of a victim or individual) terms or deriding, that is making a mockery of the person’s name, commenting negatively on someone’s look’s, clothes, body as well as fomenting, harassment, teasing, belittling. some risk factors that contribute to verbal bullying is; having a disability or special educational needs (Mishna, 2003). They may have particular characteristics which make them an obvious “target”. Adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (a disorder that affects communication and behaviour) have been found to be at higher victimisation risk, especially when they misinterpret social situations (Roekel et al., 2009).

      Furthermore, emotional bullying is any form of bullying that causes damage to a victim’s psyche and/or emotional wellbeing (counselling connect, 2013). Examples of emotional bullying include: spreading malicious rumours about people, keeping certain people out of a group (exclusion), getting certain to “gang up” on others, making fun of certain people, ignoring people on purpose that is silent treatment, provocation, pretend the victim is not existing, saying hurtful words, belittling someone. One can determine whether you are being bullied emotional when you often find yourself in a situation where you feel as if you are being intimidated into doing something you don’t necessarily want to do, yet you find it hard to say no. Peer pressure actually leads to conformity when it comes to this aspect of bullying. Also, unreasonable expectations can also contribute to emotional bullying. You may have people in your life who have high expectations from you. This can be a good thing, even a motivator. However, when expectations become so unreasonable, that nothing you ever do is good enough, then you might be being emotionally bullied. The result is, you feel constantly criticized, helpless and powerless. At the end of the day, you feel awful and defeated because you are in a no-win situation.

      Bullying has been linked to an enormous number of developmental issues in children both in those who have been bullied and those who have bullied others. In fact, according to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), bullying has a lifelong impact on the social and emotional development of children that puts them at risk for everything from severe mental health issues to stunted professional growth later in life. (kreps 2018) According to the NICHD, children who are involved in bullying experiences (on either side of the situation) are at an increased risk of developing issues such as:

• Depression and anxiety
• Low self-esteem and personal drive
• Trouble focusing and falling grades
• Behavioral problems
• Social and relationship issues
• Substance abuse later in life
• Self-harming behaviors

      Theoretically, there are several theories that explains the role of bullying in the socio-emotional development of children. Theories are used to explain, understand, or predict phenomena (Dubin, 1978). Given the complexity of bullying behaviour, multiple theories are needed to fully explain this perspective and understand what motivates bullying behaviour. These theories can also help elucidate the negative victim outcomes associated with bullying and explain how the organizational culture and climate of schools is associated with the prevalence of bullying behaviour.

      The Social capital theory looks at the motivational factors that contributes to bullying behaviour which are based on the benefits gained from social relationships (Putnam, 2000). Specifically, individuals form and invest in social relationships with the expectation of fulfilling goals and profiting from their interactions with others (Coleman, 1988 & Lin, 2001). Putnam described the mutual benefit of social capital as the force that drives people to maintain social networks: ‘‘Social capital refers to features of social organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit’’ (Putnam, 1995; p 67). Social capital in this theory can be categorized as either bonding social capital or bridging social capital. Bonding social capital consists of social ties; that is interpersonal relationships between similar individuals who belong to a homogenous group that creates a feeling of cohesion and shared belonging, whereas bridging social capital consists of social ties with people outside the homogenous group that creates a wider social network (Beugelsdijk & Smulders, 2003; Putnam, 2000).

      Social Dominance Theory (SDT; Sidanius &Pratto, 1999) and dominance Theory (DT; Long & Pellegrini, 2003) are closely related. SDT focuses on group-based social hierarchies whereas dominance theory centres on individual-based social hierarchies. The fundamental principle of SDT argues that all societies consist of group-based social hierarchies that are based on gender that is; males have more power than females, age that is; adults have more power than children, and an arbitrary-set system that is; socially significant group differences such as ethnicity or social class that create hierarchies (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999). These group-based social hierarchies are formed through the mechanisms of oppression, discrimination, and injustice. Dominant groups oppress less-powerful groups to form a hierarchy with one or a few dominant groups at the top while subordinate groups are forced to the bottom. The dominant group possesses a disproportionate amount of positive social value, or all those materials and symbolic things for which people strive (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999, p. 31), whereas the subordinate groups possess disproportionate amounts of negative social value. In group-based social hierarchies, the social status and power that individuals possess is derived from their group membership rather than individual characteristics.

      Still, the Theory of Humiliation holds that; a more powerful individual publicly reveals the inadequacies of a weaker victim, who feels the treatment is unjustified (Jackson, 1999, p. 2). The concept of humiliation is distinct from shame. An individual can shame his or herself, whereas humiliation requires action from an   agent who engenders feelings of powerlessness in the victim (Hartling & Luchetta, 1999; Klein, 1991). Further, shame results in an internal feeling of inadequacy and embarrassment, whereas humiliation often causes anger towards the perpetrator and the desire for retaliation (Jackson, 1999). Conversely, the rage generated by humiliation can also be turned inwards in the form of depression (Lindner, 2007). These emotional reactions are quite common for victims after bullying incidents.

      Moreover, Organizational culture theory throws more light on how the Culture and Climate of Schools impacts bullying. Culture refers to shared values, beliefs, rituals, and customs (Deal & Kennedy, 1983). Although typically applied to ethnic or religious groups, the concept of culture also applies to organizations, and organizations have unique cultures that impact their success (Peters & Waterman, 1982). Indeed, the foundation of organizational culture theory is the notion that every organization has its own culture (Geertz, 1973). That is, organizational norms, beliefs, and behaviours impact how the organization functions and solves problems (Schein, 2010). The organizational culture in the context of a school is often referred to as the school culture or school climate. School culture is a broader concept than school climate (Schoen & Teddlie, 2008) and refers to; a school’s unwritten rules and traditions, norms, and expectations that cuts across everything (Deal & Peterson, 2009, p. 2).

      School climate is more specific and refers to the ‘‘quality and character’’ of a school and includes elements such as the level of social, emotional, and physical safety the presence of respectful behaviour, an emphasis on the importance of learning, and collaboration between students, families, and educators (National School Climate Centre, 2014). School culture and climate significantly impact rates of youth involvement in risky behaviours in the school setting. Accordingly, school culture and climate are associated with other social problems such as bullying. A positive school culture and climate denote a feeling of safety and the presence of support; teachers are aware of their students’ needs, intervene in social disputes such as bullying, and encourage students to stand up for one another. Thus, a positive school climate is significantly associated with less bullying behaviour (Lee & Song, 2012) and the reverse is also true that increased rates of bullying would be associated with a negative school climate. For example, if teachers dismiss pupils’ complaints about bullying in front of their peers, these pupils are likely to feel belittled.

      Bullying is a complex phenomenon involving biological, psychological and social systems. A phenomenological perspective on bullying underlines a question many researchers and therapists have as asked which is; Why do some people who were exposed to bullying develop unhelpful emotional, behavioural and neural changes while others do not? An affective neural proliferation requires two key ingredients which consist of a healthy genetic pool and an enriched environment. Both are vital to facilitate the development of a healthy brain that has the capacity to survive, resolve problems, excel, establish interactions, and flourish. Being a bully or victim tend to run in families First, with respect to victimization, Allison et al. (2014) showed that a parents’ past history of victimization is associated with an increased risk of their offspring being victimized (Sabine, et al., 2019).

      The ecological theory of Bronfenbrenner, 1987 makes us understand that, increasing ecological levels of inclusiveness, provides an adequate explanation of bullying in different cultures (Lee, 2011). This theory explains the influence and interaction of different variables that contributes to bullying behaviour. This consist of individual differences that is; The personal characteristics of victims and bullies. Also, the micro-system of bullying which refers to the immediate contexts in which the child or adolescent is directly involved is another variable that influence bullying behaviour. This context is mainly the family system, whose influence is explained by developmental processes. The meso and macro-system of bullying includes all the individual immediate contexts like the environment or school and the interactions between them.  However, from this ecological level, bullying may also be explained in terms of the interpersonal relationship (Garcia, 1997).

      Contextually, in Cameroon, bullying commonly takes the form of school harassment. The present situation in Cameroon is getting worse due to diverse cultural beliefs, religion, poor parenting, peer influence, social media influence, little or no professionally trained counsellors in schools to handle psychological issue. The fear of being bullied has pushed around 160 thousand children and adolescents into staying at home instead of attending school (camerooneduc.info 2021).  Statistics shows that 14% of children belonging to high school consider suicide as an option to end their crisis and about 7% actually attempt it every year. Merrell (2001) argues that; aggressive behaviour of bullies might be due to poor social skills that act as barrier in managing positive relationship with kith and kin (peer, siblings, family members) and in other settings. However, Vaillancourt et al. (2003) concluded that poor social skills of individuals might not be the reason of bullying; some individuals with advanced social skills also try to influence others.

Moreover, we realize that victims who suffer the bullying effects hardly express themselves but think of a means to personally sort out the issue. Some of the solutions taken by victims are most often dangerous. Some choose to become bullies or join the bullying crew to bully others, others quietly withdraw from schools, while some victims in trying to retaliate, attack the bullies in the quarters and the results are often horrible for example stabbing the bully. The scares of bullying last for a long time and at times the traumatic events are permanent in the minds of victims who did not have access to counselling or proper counselling therapy.

      Still, bullying effects in secondary schools in Cameroon seems to have intense negative consequence as compared to primary schools. The secondary school population in Cameroon is made up of adolescents. Considering the fact that adolescence is a period of storm and stress (G. Hall 1904) characterized by many factors that influence identity crises of adolescence, the rate of bulling can be high if behavioural patterns are not checked. On the other hand, factors that can influence bullying in primary school may differ from that of secondary schools. Haynie et al. (2001), introduced victim bully cycle in which bully and victim change their role. That is, the bully may be victim and the victim may become the bully. For instance; let’s assume that child A is a bully and child B is the victim, their roles can change when the defense mechanism of child B becomes a figure of bully to child A who was initially the bully. Child A makes a mockery of child B by calling him awkward names such as ‘’dirty boy”. At first, child B cries bitterly because of this. He later on decided to retaliate by shooting anyone who calls him dirty boy with stones. As a result of his shot, child A once sustained an injury. Since then, he never dares to bully child B. This ended up being a big lesson to others. Each time child A sees B, he runs for his dear life. This is a simple illustration of the bullying cycle. This is evident in many primary schools in Cameroon.  

      School enrolment size and disciplinary climate contribute a lot to victim bully cycle. Parental involvement has its own impact as well in victim bully in primary schools. Ma (2001) extended the knowledge about victim bully cycle and argued that gender, effective socioeconomic status, physical health all contributed to victim bully cycle. Among all factors and variables, the school climate is a major factor that contributes in victim bully cycle. That is, school location and its disciplinary actions are associated with bullying behaviour of pupils. However, the school climate can be changed through the implementation of various policies, practices whereas school context is unchangeable. Parents, administration teaching staff and local bodies can control school climate through their active participation and may be considered helpful in reducing bullying in the early stages.

      The school is the first context of socialization after the family context. Therefore, if the school climate is favourable, it will positively influence the social and emotional development of pupils in every institution. This can be achieved by practicing socio-emotional skills, also known as non-cognitive, soft, or life skills. This refers to a set of behaviours, attitudes, and values that an individual requires to “navigate interpersonal and social situations effectively” and “deal effectively and ethically with daily tasks and challenges” (Villasenor 2019). These skills are, on the one hand, emotional because they involve identifying and regulating emotions and behaviours of individuals. These skills also refer to the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions (Johnson et al 2011).

Statement of Problem

      Bullying is a maladaptive behaviour that is common amongst primary school children. In my primary school days, I was seriously bullied by my class mate. Till now I can still remember and instance where by when I tried retaliating, my uniform was turn and when I went to report to my class teacher, I was beaten doubled and accused of playing too much. At this point I felt desperate and developed some kind of hatred for her. There was no professionally trained counsellor who could even listen to me or help me out of my distress. As time went by, I kept on recalling this very incident and wondering if other children in some primary schools today might have faced a similar situation. Out of curiosity, I have the impression that if this bullying incident affected my socio-emotional development this much, could there be a probability that it can also affect the socio-emotional development of other children? It is at this point where my attention was tilted towards finding out if bullying can affect the social and emotional development of pupils in some primary schools in Yaounde VI.

Objectives of the Study

 The objectives of this study are as follows:

Main Objective

The main objective of the study was to find out the extent to which bullying has affected the socio-emotional development of pupils in some Primary Schools in Yaoundé VI.

Specific Objectives

1. To find out how physical bullying affects the socio-emotional development of pupils in some Primary Schools in Yaoundé VI.
2. To examine the extent to which verbal bullying affects the socio-emotional development of pupils in some Primary Schools in Yaoundé VI.
3. To find out how emotional bullying affects the socio-emotional development of pupils in some Primary Schools in Yaoundé VI.

Research Questions

General Research Question

To what extent does bullying affect the socio-emotional development of pupils in some Primary Schools in Yaoundé VI.

Specific Research Questions

1. How does physical bullying affect the socio-emotional development of pupils in some Primary Schools in Yaoundé VI?
2. To what extent does verbal bullying affect the socio-emotional development of pupils in some Primary Schools in Yaoundé VI?
3. To what extend does emotional bullying affect the socio-emotional development of pupils in some Primary Schools in Yaoundé VI?