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.
