Bullying Prevalence among Secondary School Children in Khamis Mushait City, Southwestern Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Bullying is a type of behavior that involves frequent, hostile activities expected to harm another person physically, mentally, or emotionally. Bullying behavior uses force, pressure, or threats to maltreat, forcefully dominate, or terrify another individual. The aim of this study was to assess the bullying prevalence and related features among secondary school pupils in Khamis Mushait city, southwestern Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional investigation was performed among governmental and private secondary schools in Khamis Mushait city. Data were gathered from the study pupils using a pre-structured questionnaire. Bullying was assessed using the school climate bullying survey. The study included 300 secondary school students (163 females and 137 males). The overall rate of bullying was 64.7% (95% CI 59.1–69.9). The most prevalent type of bullying was verbal (41.7%, 95% CI 36.0–47.5) followed by physical (17.0%, 95% CI 12.9–21.7), and social (6.0%, 95% CI 3.6–9.3). Males had more than two times greater probability of having been bullied than females (aOR = 2.522, 95% CI 1.408–4.518). Similarly, students in first-level grade classes had more than three times greater probability of being bullied victims than those in the higher classes, i.e., second- and third-level grade classes (aOR = 3.417, 95% CI 1.159–10.07). More than half of the students tell teachers when other students are being bullied (53.7%) and tell a teacher or staff member at the school if they are being harassed (53.6%); teachers are doing anything they can to help if they are told that a student is being bothered (58.7%), and teachers are making clear to students that bullying is not tolerated (52.3%). In conclusion, in the present study, we reported a high prevalence rate of bullying among secondary school pupils in Khamis Mushait city, southwestern Saudi Arabia. Concerted efforts among teachers and health care providers in the region should be mandatory to deal with the problem.

School violence in Saudi Arabia: A scoping review

“…After screening the articles for relevance, 14 articles that met the inclusion criteria were included in the present review. [6][7][8][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] The information pertaining to the study design and setting, objectives addressed, and all relevant findings including prevalence and type of violence are tabulated in Table 2. The studies highlighted that violence from a perpetrator and victim perspectives has preceding relevant factors (e.g.…”

Discourteous Behaviour among Students in High School of Duhok City

“…The incidence of bullying, in general, among students, was 60.0%; there was a significant difference between males and females in the prevalence of bullying behavior, which was 67.9% and 51.6%, respectively (P 0.001) [13]. It seems that boys are globally more discourteous than girls, A study conducted by Alsaleem with his colleagues in Saudia Arabia in 2021 among 300 students of secondary school aged 15-18 years, they found that the overall bullying prevalence rate was 64.7% and males had two times more than female [20]. A study was conducted among 2724 students of classes 10th and 11th, this study found a highly significant smoking role in antisocial deviation in the different ethnic groups, for example, smoking vs cursing, lying, exhibiting one's boldness sex gender identity, or smoking, dangerously driving a motor vehicle; their study found that current smoking connected to antisocial behavior differed considerably between males and females [21].…”

“…The students' scores were calculated and divided into three levels using cutoff points for behavioral discourteous from 22-36 is respectful, 37-51 is mild disrespectful and 52-66 scores is a disrespectful student. Likewise, for the physically discourteous aspect as pacifist (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24), mercurial (25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34), and hostile (35-45). In the same way, determining the verbal discourteous was from (7-11) which stands for polite, (12)(13)(14)(15)(16) for abusive, and (17-21) very offensive verbal behavior.…”

The Profile of Bullying Perpetrators and Victims and Associated Factors among High School Learners in Tshwane District, South Africa

“…Global literature reports high levels of bullying victimization among high school learners [ 4 , 5 , 6 ]. The prevalence varies across regions and countries and communities, and while a high prevalence of 74% was reported in Samoa [ 4 ], the average prevalence for the Sub Saharan Africa region countries was 38.8% [ 7 ].…”