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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Bullying is one of the most intriguing issues that society is facing over and over again.

This might sometimes be a physical, psychological, cyber, and the rampant among the types of

bullying is verbal bullying. Moreover, engaging in and being target of bullying is a significant

risk factor for future criminal behavior and for mental health, making bullying a significant treat

to an individual long term psychological and personal development. Name-calling has been

around what may seem forever but someone who is on receiving end of this, it can often have

devastating consequence (Fekkes, Pijpers, Fredriks, Vogels & Verloove-Vanhorick: Pedriatics,

May, 2006).

Verbal bullying is the most common and also most overlooked forms of bullying that

different countries facing. According to Longwood (2012) defines that verbal bullying is not

taken lightly and can be truly devastating on people being affected by this nonsense. It can

damage our overall emotion because the persons who experience being bullied suffer

extensively. It was so painful that it can paralyze ones’ body because of a shame. People are not

able to interact directly because of the effect of the words thrown to him.

Moreover, Canlas (2016) added that verbal bullying is the repeated act of aggressive by

one or more person toward another individual. In our current generation, kids were mostly

impulsive, insensitive and selfish. Most don’t care what others will feel and what others will say,

and that is perennial problem nowadays. The damage of verbal bullying cannot be seen

externally but rather it is found internally that leaves behind psychologically impact that often
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makes it to the child to get over. According to the study of Bradshaw, Goldweber & Waasdorp

(2012) says that the link between bullying and other risk of behaviors was particularly noted

among urban and African American students. Students who have bullied affect their physical

aspects and also to their mental health.

According to the study of Gini & Pozzoli (2009) children who are the target of verbal

bullying or who are bully-victims are at significant higher risk for a variety of psychosomatic

problems. Long-term effects of verbal bullying a study of physical health consequences of

physical and psychological abuse concludes: verbal abuse is strongly associated with chronic

pain, migraine and frequent headaches, stammering, ulcers, spastic colon, and frequent

indigestion, diarrhea, or constipation along with many stress-related heart conditions.

The psychological effects of verbal bullying include: fear and anxiety, depression, stress

and PTSD, intrusive memories, memory gap disorders, sleep or eating problems, hyper-vigilance

and exaggerated startle responses, irritability, anger issues, alcohol and drug abuse, suicide, self-

mutilation, and assaultive behaviors. Although more research is needed, men seem to suffer from

the same problems in the long term.

Furthermore, according to the study of Daljevic (2014) states the different interest, habits,

dress style, way of talking, skin color are some of the reasons why students become victims of

bullying. With these premises, the researchers want to know the challenges and difficulties of

students being bullied in their studies, as well as their coping mechanisms to pursue their studies.

Furthermore, knowing the lived experiences of the bullied students will help students

know its impact towards being bullied.

Statement of the Problem

This study will aim to discover the Difficulties and Coping Mechanisms of the five (5)

students who are being verbally bullied in the Municipality of Cauayan , Division of Negros

Occidental during the First Semester, School Year 2018-2019.

Specifically, this study will seek to answer the question:

1. What are the lived experiences of the bullied students?

Theoretical Problems

Dominance Theory: A Motivation for Bullying Behavior, (SDT; Sidanius & Pratto, 1999)

and Social Dominance Theory (Long & Pellegrini, 2003) are closely aligned, SDT focuses on

group-based social hierarchies whereas dominance theory centers on individual-based social

hierarchies. The fundamental tenant of SDT argues that all societies consist of group- based

social hierarchies that are based on gender (e.g., males have more power than females), age (e.g.,

adults have more power than children), and an arbitrary-set system (e.g., 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 (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999).
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Verbal bullying is a group process and the peer group dictates whether a bully can

establish dominance (Salmivalli, 2010; p. 113). For example, if classmates respect and support

the bully, the bully gains dominance and social power within the classroom. Further, if the bully

becomes the leader of a clique of admiring followers, the clique members might experience

heightened power within the classroom based on their membership in a group led by a powerful,

respected individual. To maintain social dominance, this group would use ongoing bullying as a

means of oppressing less powerful members of the class. Indeed, youth who desire dominance

act aggressively and bully others to gain social status (Long & Pellegrini, 2003).

Bullies exert power over weaker peers, relegating those peers to a low position in the

social hierarchy. Although bullies are usually disliked (Rodkin & Berger, 2008) they are often

perceived as popular by their peer group (de Bruyn, Cillessen, & Wissink; 2010; Prinstein &

Cillessen, 2003; Vaillancourt, Hymel, & McDougall, 2003). Perceived popularity indicates

social status and is a form of social capital because it indicates that peers think of bullies as

having power and social prestige.

Bully victims might also turn to bullying perpetration as a means of acquiring social

capital, improving their social status in the classroom, and ending their victimization. For

example, as classmates scramble for social capital, bully victims are likely victimized, resulting

in a low social status and a lack of social capital. However, rather than withdrawing like most

victims, bully victims might search out weaker classmates to bully in an effort to obtain social

capital and improve their social status. In this regard bully victims mimic the behavior of the

bullies and bully weaker classmates in an effort to obtain social capital.

Social Capital and Bullying Victimization this theory was anchored (Bagwell & Schmidt,

2011; Scholte, Overbeek, Brinks, Rommes, Kemp & Goossen, 2008) youth victimized by
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bullying have few friends, and in turn, have low social status resulting in minimal social capital.

Even when bullied youth have friends, these friendships do not provide social capital because

victims’ friends are often rejected by the larger peer group outside the friendship (Scholte et al.,

2008). Although having one or a few friends could serve to reinforce a victim’s self-worth,

victims’ friendships likely do not increase their access to valuable social information, improve

their social credentials, or provide avenues to influence powerful social figures in the school.

Further, victims’ limited social capital likely precludes them from being invited to social

gatherings where they would have the opportunity to interact and perhaps bond with peers who

could provide social capital. Victims’ lack of social capital intensifies and prolongs their

victimization experiences and many victims lack friends or acquaintances who can protect them

from being bullied. For example, victims are unlikely to receive help from bystanders given that

research has shown only 10 to 20 % of bystanders intervened to protect victims of verbal

bullying (Atlas & Pepler, 1998; Evans & Smokowski, 2015; Hawkins, Pepler, & Craig 2010).

Thus, bullying behavior often continues uninterrupted. Acquiring additional social capital in the

form of one supportive friend or a small group of friends willing to support the victim could help

a victim escape further bullying. However, victims are often seen as undesirable friends because

of their low social status and social awkwardness, making it difficult for victims to acquire either

friends or additional social capital.

Conceptual Problem
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Bullying is a group process and the peer group dictates whether a bully can establish

dominance (Salmivalli, 2010). For example, if classmates respect and support the bully, the bully

gains dominance and social power within the classroom. Further, if the bully becomes the leader

of a clique of admiring followers, the clique members might experience heightened power within

the classroom based on their membership in a group led by a powerful, respected individual. To

maintain social dominance, this group would use ongoing bullying as a means of oppressing less

powerful members of the class. Indeed, youth who desire dominance act aggressively and bully

others to gain social status (Long & Pellegrini, 2003).

According to the study of Donoghuea, Almeidab, Brandweinb, Rochac, & Callahana

(2014) becoming a victim of verbal bullying in middle school can lead to illness, psychological

stress, and maladjustment. Studies of children in many European countries and in America have

consistently found that verbal bullying victimization can have a negative impact on school

functioning, physical self-perception, and academic achievement (Boulton, Smith, & Cowie,

2010; Dyer & Teggart, 2007; Puhl & Luedicke, 2012). Somatic effects such as headaches and

stomach aches are also common among victims (Due, Holstein, Lynch Diderichsen, Gabhain,

Scheidt, & Currie, 2005). Becoming a victim can make a child vulnerable to psychological

distress, depression, irritability, anxiety, loneliness, and a sense of helplessness (Peskin,

Tortolero, Markham, Addy, & Baumler, 2007).

Recently, verbal bullying victimization has been studied as a form of interpersonal

trauma (D’Andrea, Ford, Stolbach, Spinazzola, & van der Kolk, 2012). Inter- personal traumas,

such as bullying, erode victims’ abilities to form social and emotional attachments to others such

as an inability to successfully attach to a peer group or to school (Popp & Peguero, 2012;

Smokowski & Kopaz, 2005), further, bullying threatens the physical well-being of victims, who
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often report feeling afraid and helpless. Bullying victimization is a form of humiliation and inter-

personal trauma that makes forming and sustaining rela- tionships difficult for the victim.

National Center for Education Statistics, 2011; Peskin, Tortolero, & Markham, 2006).

The higher rates of verbal bullying during the outset of middle school might serve to establish a

social pecking order as youth transition to a new school setting and social context. Although

rates decrease thereafter, bullying continues at lower levels to maintain the social hierarchy. An

example of the way bullying can be used to establish social dominance can be found in relational

bullying among girls. Relational bullying and relational aggression are closely related but

distinct constructs, primarily distinguished by whether the behavior is repeated. Relational

bullying is repetitive and ongoing, whereas relational aggression is limited to a few isolated acts.

Relational bullying and aggression are intended to harm the victims’ reputation and social

relationships, and include actions such as rumor spreading, excluding, ignoring, and posting

embarrassing images of the victim via physical or elec- tronic means (Gladden, Vivolo-Kantor,

Hamburger, & Lumpkin, 2014). These forms of relational aggression are less obvious and

obtrusive than physical aggression, which makes them effective because they often goes

undetected by adults (Mishna, 2012). Further, the lack of overt aggression makes relational

aggression especially appealing to girls and consequently some studies have found that girls are

more likely than boys to be relationally aggression (Crick & Grotpeter, 2015).
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 Difficulties

 Coping Mechanisms

 Lived experiences

Table1. Showing the Schematic diagram

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

This study will aim to light up the lived experiences of the bullied students at two schools

the Cauayan National High School and Guiljungan National High School in order to know what

their lived experiences are during and after they were being bullied.

The participants of the study were selected on those students that are being bullied. There

are five (5) participants that undergoes in an interview at the designated area for the sake of their

privacy at exactly 1 to five pm in the afternoon on August 13-14, 2018.

The related issues among the five (5) participants was focused on how the students faced

the challenges, difficulties and what coping mechanisms they used to overwhelm the problem

they facing, and what are they lived experiences as one of the bullied students.

Significance of the Study

The following will benefit from the study:

Schools Division Superintendent. This will help the Superintendent what are the ways

how to resolve the problem. This will help the Superintendent to help those bullied student to

improve their

School Head. The result of this study would give idea to the principal about the reasons

why students are being bullied, and can use this in designing programs that can help resolve the

existing problem.
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Guidance Counselor. The result of this study is the guidance to the Guidance Counselor

and serve as a benchmark to all Guidance Counselor especially to the school that have a

Guidance Counselor.

Teachers. The findings of this study will help the teachers on how to manage those

students that undergoes bullying. It can also help the teachers on their interaction to the bullied

students.

Parents. This study will aim to help the parents to provide the proper attention of their

students and this study help to encourage their students to pursue their study despite of the

problem they are facing.

Participants. This study will help the students on how come up their challenges they are

facing, it will also help those students that are about to bully. Furthermore, this can also help

them how to manage and grow up their thoughts of what is their right.

Researchers. The result of this study is much helpful to the researchers on how to

manage their interaction in the bullied students. It will also aim to help the researchers to cope up

the good judgment and a better solution.

The Future Researchers. The research findings of this study could somehow expound

by other researchers or tackling other concerns of the bullied students. It will encourage further

significance in effectiveness of the government by means of coping actions to the bullied

students.
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Definitions of Terms

In order to gain more understanding about the study, several terms are defined:

Bully. Bullying is the most pronounced form of aggression in schools, often associated

with serious consequences (Hymel, Schonert-Reichl, Bonanno, Vaillancourt, & Henderson,

2010) As used in the study, this means that bully is the main problem of the students.

Bullied Students. Operationally this means that bullied students is being overbearing

person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weak people.

Bullying. According to the World Health Organization defines bullying as a threat or

physical use of force, aiming at the individual, another person, in specific community or group

which result in injury, death, physical damage some development disorders or deficiency. As

used in the study, knowing what is the conflict why student is being bullied.

Difficulties. If our thought is to be cleared we are to succeed in communicating it to other

people, we must. As used in the study, the findings of difficulties of students when it comes to

their study habit that are being bullied.

Coping Mechanisms. The strategy of which the student is used to face the struggles

he/she is facing. Operationally used as a ways to which external or internal stress is managed,

adopted to or acted upon.

Lived Experiences. This means the firsthand accounts and impressions of the living

based on their significant participation (Heoger, 2016). As used in this study, refers to the direct

participation, observation, feels and gained experiences which are directly happened to the

participants.

.Mental health. According to Medilexicon’s medical dictionary (2018), mental health is,

emotional, behavioural, and social maturity or normality; the absence of a mental or behavioural
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disorder; a state of psychological well-being in which one has achieved a satisfactory integration

of one’s instinctual drives acceptable to both oneself and one’s social milieu,; an appropriate

balance of love, work, and leisure pursuits. Operationally this is used to observe the mind of the

bullied students.

Verbal Bullying. Defined as “repeated exposure of an individual to negative interactions

directly or indirectly inflicted by one or more dominant persons” (Twemlow, Fonagy, & Sacco,

2009 p., 78) It is a kind of bullying that uses words. As used in the study as the primary weapon

to manipulate the victims.