Bullying Behaviors among University Students in Palestine

Background

Education system has the priority in all plans and development strategies in all over the world. They consider it as the most important of the national projects which aim to prepare human cadres, who can achieve goals and aspirations of their society. Student community is one of the most important elements of the school institution. It’s the backbone of the society and its future promise to maintain and care for them. Also providing all conditions and possibilities necessary for their development and protecting them from harmful influences. Therefore, the integrated and balanced attention to the service of all students leads in general to the formation of a human personality compatible in terms of mental abilities, social and psychological, which needs all school and community coordination and efforts. Despite the considerable efforts made by schools in the area of ​education in particular. There are some negative phenomena that affect the effectiveness of the educational process and the ability of its members to achieve their goal [1].

Schools have been always viewed as institutions to transfer knowledge and culture to the future generation. It is a dynamic human system which aims at nurturing the mutual growth and understanding between children and adults. At schools, students are the core of the system. For

their great importance, adequate information about pupils is necessary for any meaningful learning process in order to save teachers’ effort and change learners in accordance with the set objectives, such factors that affect learning and teaching; including child growth, age heredity, interest, home and social effects and violence in school as well as school bullying, need to be addressed [2].

Studying problems of students, psychological and social adjustment are considered as an urgent and a necessary need. The accelerated aspects of economic, social, educational, technological and other changes have made life difficult and complex. This causes the appearance of many problems at all levels, including problems related to students’ undesirable behavior. One of these problems which affecting students negatively is bullying, it affects the student himself and all his life aspects. Bullying is a phenomenon practiced by an individual on another person in his or her same age or younger. The latter is the riskiest. The consequences of this behavior on individuals, victims and bullies are very significant. Victims suffer from social isolation, rejection, persecution, harassment, irrelevance, low academic performance, and even more serious consequences for the future as some victims become even bullies. Bullies develop different aspects of social and criminal behavior, alcohol and drug abuse, and using weapons. Many people have an irrational idea of bullying which consider it as a normal behavior among children, and end automatically without the intervention of anyone. However, the renegades-bullies- victims-victims-and bystanders-suffer from psychological and physical problems and difficulties that affect their lives and growth harmfully. Early awareness-raising is a most in order to stop bullying. There is an urgent need to teach students how to participate and communicate with others [3].

Bullying, based on research conducted in different countries, is a serious issue within schools from primary to high school in many western and eastern countries. Bullying as an aggressive behaviour has probably occurred as long as there have schools. However, until the pioneering work of Olweus in the 1970s, it had not received much attention. Shortly after Olweus working Scandinavian countries, interest in such a research spread in other countries [4]. Bullying is one of the violence phenomenons in its various forms, which may arise in riots, robbery, destroying property, and aggression toward teachers or students [5]. It is one of the most dangerous behaviours threatening the physical and mental health of students across a broad range of grades and school systems [6] Bullying is an aggressive behaviour characterized by three defining conditions: (a) negative or malicious behaviour intended to harm or distress, (b) behaviour repeated over time, and, most importantly, (c) a relationship in which there is an imbalance in strength or power between the parties involved American Psychological Association (APA) [7, 8, 9].

Methods

The study used a survey design, and it provides sufficient information about the main study and what it was looking for. This Quantitative research conducted through a questionnaire and scale of “Bully-Victim Determination developed by Piskin & Ayas was used for the Turkish students, whilst the adapted Arabic version of the instrument was used for the Palestinian students [12]. The tools measure the Bullying types and causes of bullied, victims, among university health science students in Palestine and the method which used was suitable to the purposes of the study. The researcher selected cluster randomly 191 students from medical profession department at Modern University College in Ramallah & Al- Bireh governorate after received the approval letter from the ethical committee at the university college. The sample was 81 male students, and 110 female students.

Discussion

This research was carried out with the purpose of investigating the prevalence rate of bullying and victimization and causes of bullying among the sample of university students in Palestine. Towards this end, the following sections discuss the findings of the analyses made. When the question on the frequency of bullying among male and female students was examined, the results showed a statistically significant gender difference in the percentage of victims and the bullies. Specifically, it was observed that the percentage of victims was generally higher among male students compared to their female counterparts. Similarly, the percentage of bullies was generally higher among male students than their female counterparts. This finding could be explained in terms of traditional gender role theory that always seeks to associate masculinity with fearlessness and one’s ability to behave aggressively. In a very conservative society such as the West Bank, male children undoubtedly are likely to be socialized into accepting such traits as physical and mental toughness and thus will like to demonstrate them on those they find weaker. This is even evident in their responses to the question on the causes of bullying as most of them answered that it is to show one’s physical strength. Other previous researchers have equally corroborated this finding. For instance, in a study by Antill, Cunningham, Russell, and Thompson in Australia, the researchers concluded that those males who are unable to live up to the stereotype of physical and mental toughness are considered desirable qualities for Australian males, fear having their masculinity questioned. As a result, they try to act tough or sometimes tougher than their peers in order to prove their masculinity. This is why many of them end up as bullies. In a similar past study, [13] also reported that males generally bully more than females that their own male colleagues mainly bully them and those females are equally bullied by males and females.

The current research concludes with the study of Hanani A [12], who said that the bully, who sees the acceptance and approval of his family members for violent and aggressive behavior associated with his sex, sees himself and conceives through his family’s perception of him. The friends and peers of the bully are greatly influencing the formation of a bullying image of itself. Where his self-esteem and respect depend on what they consider and approve of and favour violent behavior on the victim. As much his relations with friends saturated, as much as the acceptability, from them and the more self-appreciated. This acceptance and recognition by peers and friends for his socially unacceptable behavior will gradually form part of his vision of himself and his entity, so he will try to adapt as much as he can.

The study concluded that the credence voices of students in the universities of Palestine sought to uncover not only student perspectives about bullying but also to determine these perceptions regarding bullying. And, Impact of the political, military, and economic blockade on the Palestinian territories impacted the psychological aspects of the Palestinian youth, especially those which creating stressful conditions affecting all aspects of their life. Where the participants in the study mentioned that the first common answers about the reasons for the bullying in Palestine were stress, jealousy, and revenge. Concluded that common type of bullying among male university students was physical and verbal bullying the highest among female university students.

Acknowledgements

The author highly appreciates all colleagues who helped in distribution and allowing to do the questionnaire among the targeted students.

Funding

The author covered the research expenses by themselves and they did not receive funds for this work.

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.