School bullying research paper

Research proposal on bullying in school

Does ethnicity-race have any correlation in being a bully or being on the receiving end of bullying in middle school setting?

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Background

Bullying has been and continues to be a significant problem in most middle/high school settings across the country. Most scholars who have thoroughly reviewed the issue can agree on the fact that bullying poses serious health problems to young students. Besides being a constant threat due to the physical injuries sustained by the victims, bullying has been proven to cause psychological problems for the young people, which often end with suicides. As explored further by Center for Disease Control [CDC] (2016), students who are victims of bullying are at the risk of poor school adjustments, anxiety, and depression. The similar report also indicates that bullies, on the other hand, risk academic problems, drug abuse and violent behaviors in the adult stages of their lives. Consequently, CDC (2016) insinuate that students who are both victims and perpetrators of bullying risk serious mental health problems.

Significantly, the prevalence rate of bullying in schools is still high. In the analysis carried out by Pergolizzi et al. (2009: 265), survey data that was collected in the 1990s show that 40% to 80% of school going children in the US was exposed to bullying. With a decade having passed, the percentage of bullying victims is still high within learning institutions. As technology has changed the world, so have bullies who now use the online platform, especially social media to harass their victims. This form of harassment is referred to as cyber bullying and is responsible for extensive psychological torture in most victims. In 2009, 28% (7,066,000) of all schools going students in America were bullied (DeVoe and Murphy 2011). Statistics also show that 6% (1,521,000) students were cyber-bullied. In recent statistics of bullying presented by Davis and Nixon (2010), 55% of students are often bullied based on looks, 37% based on body appearance and 16% based on race and ethnical factors. As analyzed further by DeVoe and Murphy (2011), a higher percentage of white, non-Hispanic reported being harassed at school followed by black, African-American students. However, a study by Davis and Nixon (2010) indicates that a higher percentage of African American and Asian American students are frequently bullied compared to the minimal percentage of white students. As such, the agenda of this discussion scrutinizes how ethnicity is related to one being a bully or bullied.

Research paper about bullying: ethnic aspects

Ethnicity is directly correlated with incidences of bullying in schools. In an esteemed study carried out by Kupczynski, Mundy, and Green (2013), it is evident that the ethnical factor plays a significant role in school harassment, preferably cyber bullying. As a multi-cultural country with several ethnicities, the prevailing conceptualization is that people don’t see ‘eye to eye’ because of their racial differences. With a long history of civil right injustices carried out to the minority groups, it is clear that the gloomy past is still affecting the turn of events in the current dispensation. Racial differences that are emphasized by adults almost in every issue are currently affecting how children are behaving at school. As such, it is one of the relevant aspects that links racial differences with bullying at school. Several studies carried out on the issue of racial differences and bullying rate provide varying results concerning the role of each group in being the victims or the perpetrators. This section begins by analyzing how ethnicity predisposes one to be a victim of bullying

Correlation between bullying and race

In a normal middle school set-up, face to face bullying has always been a problem, which is mostly underestimated by both parents and teachers. A pool of traditional research links a number of factors, including race to bullying. However, much emphasis is not put into the aspect of ethnicity as it is currently being done. Kupczynski, Mundy, and Green (2013) indicate that with the equalizing effect the internet has fostered, the nature of bullying as it pertains to the traditionally marginalized ethnical groups has changed. However, this does not mean that traditional bullying is not racially motivated. In a study by Campbell and Smalling (2013), bullying in schools takes on many different forms and when it comes to racial harassment, direct verbal and physical aggression are the most common forms. 2011 statistics show that 11% of 12 to 18 years old students reported being verbally abused with the perpetrators using racial-related hate words. The severity of bullying based on race has been on the rise in the recent years with the minority groups being the target. As such, it is significant to analyze how each group is associated with being victims of bullying.

Native Americans and Bullying in Schools

As one of the ethnic groups that have experienced a tumultuous history of civil right injustices, Native Americans are still on the receiving end with regards to bullying in schools. Recent statistics show that 22% of American Indian students indicated that they were verbally threatened or injured by a weapon on the school property (Campbell and Smalling 2013:2). Unfortunately, the prevalence of racial bullying, also known as a hate crime, does not stop at the middle or high school. In colleges, 40% of American Indian students reported being victimized because of racial status. Regardless of the existing statistics, school incidences of bullying may be under-represented because of scarce information. Higher incidences of hate crime perpetrated against them have made the majority of American Indian students to consider schools unsafe to them. Using the work of Sampson (2009), Campbell and Smalling (2013:2) provide some of the reasons why American Indian students do not report hate crimes against them, and they include the fear of retaliation, being ashamed, and believing nothing would change among other factors. Significantly, these students drop out of school because they see no progress to protect them from relevant stakeholders. In accomplishing their analytical study, Campbell and Smalling (2013) used a survey sample of 125,119 students to prove that American Indian students were victimized more than other racial groups. Ranging from physical violence to verbal threats, American Indians suffered more. This led them to feel unsafe and eventually dropping out of school. Campbell and Smalling (2013) show that the higher the learning grades get, the lower the population of Indian American students gets. Based on the predicament of American Indian students, it is evident that racial minority status is correlated with being bullied at school. As such, it fuels the need to analyze how other racial groups categorized as the minority fair on with regards to being victims of bullying.