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Experiences of Bullying Among College Students and Implications For Teacher Formation Programmes: From Bullied To Bully
Experiences of Bullying Among College Students and Implications For Teacher Formation Programmes: From Bullied To Bully
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Ugyen Choden
Paro College of Education
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Abstract:
Bullying in schools and colleges/universities has significant negative impacts on individuals and learning en-
vironments. Much of the evidence comes from school studies. This study, the first of its kind in Bhutan, ex-
plores the experience of bullying among college students. The study employed a self-administered survey to
a representative sample of 2471 (male = 1242 and female = 1191) college students with mean age 21.5 years,
from eight of the 11 college campuses across Bhutan. The findings indicate that bullying is not an uncommon
experience amongst the college students; both as victims and victimizers. Implications for relevant stakehold-
ers in Bhutan, and elsewhere, and recommendations to address the issues are presented, especially as they
relate to teacher formation (teacher training programs). Although teacher formation is largely dependent on
a pre-service teacher’s beliefs and prior learning experiences, teacher preparation programs play a vital role.
Recommendations for further research are also provided.
Keywords: bullying, caring, college student, compassion, teacher formation
DOI: 10.1515/ijamh-2019-0087
Received: April 24, 2019; Accepted: May 30, 2019
Introduction
Bullying is common in schools and colleges. The experience of bullying is associated with numerous negative
outcomes, including bullying others [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15]. Being
bullied by peers or their teachers may have impacts on the development and mental health of school students.
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Likewise, being bullied by teachers or peers in college is likely to have similar negative impacts.
Much of what is known derives from research with school students. Little is known about the experience of
bullying among college students, an important sub-group of adolescents and young people ages 18–24, other
than in relation to cyberbullying. College students who are in teacher formation programs (teacher training
courses) are of particular interest, as they will become responsible for the education, development and wellbe-
ing of the young people in their care, and regarded by many students and other stakeholders as role models
especially in the Bhutanese context [16]. While teacher formation is largely dependent on the student’s be-
liefs and prior learning experiences, teacher preparation programs play a vital role [17]. It is important that
pre-service teachers are trained to become caring and compassionate teachers. Issues associated with being
bullied, being a bully, or both, may have significant implications as to how they undertake their professional
roles post-graduation. Those bullied may become bullies when in positions of power, such as teaching. Edu-
cation is recognized as a protective factor, especially so for young people from disadvantaged and or abusive
family backgrounds, offering a pathway out of deprivation, and an opportunity to benefit from positive and
safe interactions with teachers and fellow students.
This study, the first of its kind in Bhutan, reports on the experiences of bullying among a sample of Bhutanese
college students, and highlights concerns about how bullying might be addressed within curricula, and student
via services.
– hostile intent (i.e. the harm caused by bullying is deliberate, not accidental);
– imbalance of power (i.e. bullying includes a real or perceived power inequity between the bully and the
victim);
– repetition over a period of time (i.e. more than once with the potential to occur multiple times); and
– victim distress (victim suffers mild to severe psychological, social or physical trauma).
Bullying occurs in most schools and colleges. It may be directly physical (hitting, poking, hair pulling, inap-
propriate touching), verbal (name calling, teasing, gossip), emotional (rejecting, defaming, humiliating, ma-
nipulating friends, peer pressure), sexual (sexual harassment, sexual propositioning, exhibitionism) [2], [7] or
“cyber” via social media and other Internet platforms [8], [9]. Indirect bullying can be similar to emotional and
verbal bullying, and usually involves exclusion from groups and activities, spreading rumors about character
or reputation, making faces or obscene gestures behind someone’s back, and manipulating friendships or other
relationships, often via use of online social media, chatrooms and blogs.
Prior research has shown that between 15 and 35% of people may experience bullying in their lifetime, with
up to 30% reporting being involved in bullying others [2], [7], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15]. People from minority
groups and those with diverse sexual and gender orientations experience higher rates of bullying [6], [18], [19].
The cyberbullying rate is higher than the traditional type of bullying [20]. Up to 50% of victims seek assistance,
often of little or no impact. Those who do not seek assistance, often cite fear of stigma, embarrassment, being
seen as ‘weak’, or feel that the problem is not serious enough to seek help [13].
Gender and social norms play a role, for example, social norms that support the authority of teachers over
students may legitimize the use of violence to maintain discipline and control [14]. Schools themselves can
‘teach’ children to be violent. This can occur through teacher led or modeled gender discrimination, or tolerance
of, or not effectively managing, bullying by students or school personnel that can lead students to feel unwanted
or unimportant and traumatized.
Schools and tertiary education systems (hereafter, colleges) are not isolated from the broader community
and social contexts within which they exist. Norms of communities that do not protect young people from
violence, bullying, discrimination, stigmatization, and the marginalization of certain sub-groups, are usually
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reflected in the ‘culture’ of educational settings unless carefully and effectively managed. Unsafe learning envi-
ronments are of no benefit. They are characterized by fear and insecurity, beliefs that teachers and the ‘system’
do not care about, and are incapable of, ensuring student wellbeing and safety, all of which have impacts on
the student wellbeing and the quality of education.
The impacts of bullying from fellow students and/or teachers are extensive, and include depression, anxi-
ety, stress, insecurity, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), lack of trust, feelings of rejection, isolation, loneli-
ness, suicidal ideation, suicidal attempts, psychosomatic symptoms, sleep difficulties, enuresis, substance use,
relationship difficulties, violence, decline in concentration, performance, participation in activities, truancy and
fear of attending school [3], [4], [6], [18], [19], [21], [22], [23]. Also, there may be feelings of anger and a desire for
vengeance. A meta-analysis confirmed that both in the United States and internationally, bullying is strongly
associated to suicidal ideation and the other negative behaviors discussed which could have lifelong impact
on youths [3]. These impacts can be associated with young people not meeting their potential, having poorer
learning outcomes, reduced participation in further education and vocational preparation, and lower employ-
ment prospects. Duncan (2, p. 272) argues, “ignoring any of the [bullying] behaviors can be dangerous because
the less serious actions may easily escalate to more severe behavior”.
In addition, there are impacts on “bystanders” (fellow students and teachers) who witness the bullying,
and who attempt to intervene or not [24]. These include guilt, shame, anger, and are similar to the impacts
on victims. Likewise, there are impacts on the perpetrators, which, again, may mimic those of their victims,
and/or the development of traits of antisocial personality disorder. Bullies may be popular students, who do
not encounter a great deal of social stigma from their aggression, or unpopular and who may be rejected by
other students [24].
There is some lack of clarity as to whether the impacts of bullying endure. The Twins Early Development
Study in England and Wales followed 11,108 twins (5894 girls and 5314 boys) of mean age 11.3 years at first and
16.3 at last assessment [19]. It was found exposure to bullying was associated with higher anxiety, depression,
hyperactivity and impulsivity, inattention and conduct problems. Pre-existing and multiple vulnerabilities were
significant, however, some effects dissipated over time, demonstrating a potential for resilience.
In Monasteries, child monks reported being bullied by older monks and regularly beaten by the kudrung
(discipline master) with a teycha (leather whip) or other adult monks for committing “offences”, such as being
late to prayers. However, child nuns reported only “light beatings” by their kudrung or “adult nuns” (31, pp.
vii–viii), albeit these remain acts of violence.
Research questions
This paper aimed at addressing the following research questions:
– What is the prevalence of the experience of being bullied and bullying others?
– Are there any significant differences in being bullied and bullying others, in terms of gender, year of study,
type of accommodation, age, and college?
others verbally; and (v) bullying others physically as dependent variables (DVs) and four demographic variables
(gender, year of study, accommodation, and college) as independent variables (IVs) to explore if there were any
statistically significant differences in their experiences.
Inspection of a multivariate Box’s M test showed significance in terms of all four demographic variables. This
indicated that the homogeneity of covariance matrices of all the DVs was not equal across groups. Levene’s tests
for each of the DVs were undertaken to check the homogeneity of variances. All six DVs showed significance
(p > 0.05) for each MANOVA indicating that there were differences between the groups of variables. However,
inspection of standard deviations (SDs) for these DVs revealed relatively small differences (less than one scale
unit of SD) between the various groups.
Results
The results of this study are presented as they relate to the research questions posed, preceded by demographic
information.
Demographic characteristics
Relevant demographic information is presented in Table 1.
Prevalence of bullying
Up to 36% of students surveyed reported experiencing at least one form of bullying (Table 2), with the most
frequent being having lies told about them (45.2%), other students made to get peers to dislike them and being
called names, made fun of and teased (36.1%). However, far fewer reported bullying others, with the most
frequent being excluding others (18.1%).
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A greater number of college students appear to be a victim of bullying through peers influencing each other (M =
0.44; SD = 0.52), followed by bullying others verbally (M = 0.14; SD = 0.28), and being a victim of verbal bullying (M
= 0.14; SD = 0.34) (see Table 3).
The overall multivariate F-tests showed that gender (Wilk’s lambda = 0.972, MV F (6, 2226) = 10.672, p < 0.05,
partial η2 = 0.028), college (Wilk’s lambda = 0.973, MV F (6, 2260) = 10.257, p < 0.05, partial η2 = 0.027) and year
of study (Wilk’s lambda = 0.975, MV F (18, 6259) = 3.066, p < 0.05, partial η2 = 0.008) were significantly different.
The multivariate F-test showed no significant difference for accommodation.
Following the significant multivariate F-tests for gender, college and year of study, univariate F-tests were
examined to identify which of the components contributed to the significance. For IVs with more than two cat-
egories, posthoc Tukey multiple comparisons tests were examined to identify significant differences between
the categories of students.
According to the results of univariate F-tests, gender showed statistically significant differences (p < 0.05)
on three components, college showed statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) on four components, and
year of study showed statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) and marginally significant differences on two
components each (see Table 4).
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The examination of effect size, as measured by partial Eta squared, generally explained a small portion of
variability of scores for each grouping of variables (see Table 4). Examination of means and SD for each of the
group of variables showed the following:
In terms of gender, means for male students for all three components (victim of verbal bullying; bullying others
verbally; and bullying others physically were significantly higher than female student means. In terms of college,
means for teacher education colleges for all four components (victim of verbal bullying; victim of bullying through
influencing others; victim of physical bullying; bullying others verbally) were significantly higher than other college
means (see Table 5).
In terms of year of study, consultation of posthoc Tukey multiple comparison tests showed several significant
and marginally significant differences (see Table 6). The overall pattern for all components showed that senior
student means are significantly and marginally significantly higher compared to their junior counterparts.
Victim of verbal bullying 1st year vs. 4th year 1st (M = 0.12, SD = 0.28)
2nd year vs. 4th year 2nd (M = 0.12, SD = 0.30)
4th (M = 0.21. SD = 0.42)
Victim of bullying through 1st year vs. 3rd year 1st (M = 0.39, SD = 0.48)
influencing others 1st year vs. 4th year 3rd (M = 0.50, SD = 0.57)
4th (M = 0.52, SD = 0.58)
Victim of physical bullying 2nd year vs. 4th year 2nd (M = 0.10, SD = 0.26)
3rd year vs. 4th year 3rd (M = 0.10, SD = 0.26)
4th (M = 0.17, SD = 0.34)
Bullying others verbally 1st year vs. 4th year 1st (M = 0.12, SD = 0.25)
4th (M = 0.18, SD = 0.33)
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or exposed to, in the college environment by peers and academic staff, or what they observe during in-school
placements.
Education college students are future teachers who are role models for those they teach, especially in smaller
communities. Earlier research has shown that more than what teachers teach, students are influenced by the be-
havior and conduct of their teachers [16], [34]. Good teachers create and maintain a safe learning environment,
and demonstrate that they care for their students to assist their growth as kind and caring adults.
Despite the Bhutanese Ministry of Education’s ban on corporal punishment since 2008, it appears that cor-
poral punishment still occurs in schools across the country, as it does in monasteries for both monks and nuns
[31]. Past research indicates that if Bhutanese teachers and principals, and senior monks and nuns, continue to
make use of corporal punishment [31] and continue to threaten their students emotionally [16]. It is likely to
have a negative impact on them, and is inconsistent with the national philosophy of Gross National Happiness
(GNH). Opening up a respectful and culturally sensitive conversation about the impacts of corporal punish-
ment and cycles of violence is necessary. In a GNH society, teachers, and monks, should model compassion,
care, honesty, and a positive attitude towards life.
particularly on the prevalence, nature, frequency and impact of school and college bullying. Further research is
required to explore if the increasing rate of sexual harassments and youth suicide have any correlation to bul-
lying. Likewise, given the cultural pervasiveness of violence and bullying, qualitative studies of perpetuation
of violence by those bullied would be helpful.
Notwithstanding these research gaps, relevant stakeholders need to initiate programs and develop re-
sources that increase the knowledge and understanding of the nature and causes of bullying and harassment,
the negative impacts of all forms of bullying, and to interrupt any cycles of being a victim of bullying to becom-
ing a bully; especially for those in teacher formation programs.
Many countries have implemented anti-bullying programs in schools, as part of curricula and in school
policies and structure [1], [15]. There appears to be less activity at the college level. Colleges that not already
do so could draw on the developments in the school sector, and reflect on the design and implementation of
bullying prevention policies, and reinforce procedures for reporting and investigating such acts. Appropriate
supports need to be provided for the victims through the enhancement or establishment of counselling services
with trained and accredited counsellors on college campuses.
In addition, there appears to be a need for programs and research to reconsider the use of the term “bul-
lying”, where much of what comes within its ambit is actual violence – that is, behavior punishable under
criminal codes. “Bullying” has possibly become a softer term than physical and emotional violence. Greater
attention is required to recognize the significant, and often under-recognized, impacts of emotional and psy-
chological abuse. Teachers, for example, can use words to control, regulate and demean students, as well as
praise, support and encourage.
Research on the protective influence of the WHO’s “health promoting schools” approach, adopted by num-
ber of European countries, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, and Canada, has continued since the late 1980s
and has identified mostly positive outcomes [35]. The approach might usefully be deployed in developing
“health promoting colleges”, where such a concept is not already enshrined in guiding principles.
Limitations
This report is based on a part of the larger study that explored “legal and illegal drug use, mental health con-
cerns and sexuality among college students in Bhutan”. The sample obtained represents about 20% of college
students in Bhutan, and while representative, the findings might require cautious interpretation.
Acknowledgment
We would like to thank UNFPA, Bhutan for the funding support and Paro College of Education for adminis-
trative support.
Compliance with ethical standards: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were
in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the
1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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