CANDIDATE NAME: Justin Young

CANDIDATE NUMBER: 1600980721

CENTRE NAME: Chaguanas North Secondary School

CENTRE NUMBER: 160098

TOPIC: Racial bullying among students at Chaguanas north sec

of class form 6

TEACHER: Ms. Ramkissoon

TERRITORY: Trinidad & Tobago

DATE: 26TH APRIL 2021

YEAR OF EXAM: 2021

SUBJECT: CARIBBEAN STUDIES

TABLE OF CONTENTS

HEADER PAGE

1
Introduction and Purpose of Research 03

Literature Review 05

Data Collection Sources 08

Presentation of Data 09

Analysis of Data 17

Discussion of Findings 19

Conclusion/Limitations /Recommendations 21

Bibliography 22

Appendices 23

INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE OF RESEARCH

Background

2
 In late 2018 and 2019, racial bullying had become an evident thing at my school Chaguanas
north secondary. Racial bullying has devastating effects on students' mental health, attendance,
and success at school. Seeing this first hand has honestly given me a great urgency to do more
research on this topic.

Problem Statement

What are some effects of racial bullying on the self-esteem, mental health, academic
performance of form 6 students at the Chaguanas north secondary school?

Statement of The Problem

In 2019 the National Centre for Educational Statistics has provided these values 23% of
African-American students, 16% of Hispanic students and 7% of Asian students report being
bullied at school. Therefore, students of color are the percentile targeted. Also, it is having been
reported by the Centre for Disease control in 2019 that students who experience bullying are at
increased risk for depression, anxiety, sleep difficulties, lower academic achievement, and
dropping out of school. Racial bullying has two main execution methods which are physical and
verbal.
Research Questions

1. How does racial bullying affect student’s mental health?

2. How does racial bullying affect students’ academic performance?
3. What can be done to prevent or minimize racial bullying?
Purpose of The Study

This research is purposed towards investigating the negatives of racial bullying towards students,
which would act as a wake-up call to all school authorities and show the urgency with which this
must be addressed. It will bring to alert parents of the signs if their children are victims of racial
bullying and how to reach out and give the help needed.

Value of The Study

This study will assist students who are being bullied and those who might be engaging in racially
bullying. It will always act as an eye-opener to parents and maybe even the government to show
them that action needs to be taken to fight against racial bullying.

3
Definition of Technical Terms

Bully- one who is habitually cruel, insulting, or threatening to others who are weaker, smaller,
or in some way vulnerable

Suicidal - marked by an impulse to commit suicide

Racial bullying-

Racism - a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that
racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race

Unethical -not conforming to a high moral standard: morally wrong: not ethical

Victimize-: to make a victim of

LITERATURE REVIEW

According to Dr. Dan Olweus, (1991) in his book, Bullying at School, “a person is bullied when
he/she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other
persons, and he/she has difficulty defending himself/herself”. He has been involved in research
and intervention work in the area of bullying among schoolchildren and youth for over 40 years.
In August 2014, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) released a paper entitled
“Bullying Victimization Profile in the Caribbean”. Data in this paper indicated that the
average prevalence of bullying in the Caribbean is 29%. It was also revealed that 21% of
students are bullied at schools in Trinidad. Furthermore, it identified that Caribbean teenagers
who are victims of bullying displayed symptoms of loneliness, sleeping less, having fewer?
friends, having a low self-esteem and being more sexually active than their non-bullied peers.

4
The information provided relates to my study because in most cases bullying includes some form
of racial bullying.
In 2014 an article on how bullying and suicide are linked was published by the National Center
for Injury Prevention and Control Division of Violence Prevention. They concluded bullying
behavior and suicidal tendencies are closely related. “We know enough about the relationship
between bullying and suicide-related behavior to make evidence-based recommendations.” “We
don’t know if bullying directly causes suicide. According to the Oregon state university (2020)
“When cases of bullying are left unattended, or mishandled, they can escalate to all or some of
the following: employee turnover, students leaving, academic performance, , and health issues
ranging from depression to harming one’s self or others. Supervisors who are aware of the
typical pattern can intervene earlier to avoid escalation and the most harmful impacts on targets
and the organization.”. This study concludes that leaving cases unattended is never the way to
treat the problem. “The Journal of School Health”. The article, entitled “Cyberbullying and Self-
Esteem”, examined the relationship between the experience of middle school students with
cyberbullying and the impact it had on their self-esteem. Findings showed that students who
experienced cyberbullying, both as a victim and an offender, had significantly lower self-esteem
than those who had little or no experience with cyberbullying. This source is applicable to my
study because cyberbullying always includes some form of racial bullying and the same age
group is being studied.
A study from the Department of Psychology, Universidad de Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain.
“Ethnic-cultural discrimination in schools is a phenomenon documented in different countries
that seems to threaten personal and social development from early ages and that sometimes even
affects the health of students whose family origin or culture differs from the majority.”. The
bullying aggressor forces the victim by means of physical or psychological damage, who feels
more and more defenseless and unable to escape from the situation. (Sentse et al., 2017.
The information from these previous researchers were used as a guide to focus this study.

DATA COLLECTION SOURCES

For this quantitative survey both primary and secondary sources of data collection were used. A
questionnaire was used as the form of primary whereas a gathering of articles from the internet
and books were used as the forms of secondary sources of data.
The questionnaire was chosen because of its simplicity to construct and to receive large
quantities of data which makes the statistical analysis easier. It was simple to complete. The
instrument consisted open and closed ended questions. Questionaries were passed out to students
of both upper and lower six classes (4 classes) of Chaguanas North Secondary, through random
sampling. In all 60 students were chosen to participate in the study. Questionnaires were passed
out via WhatsApp, Gmail and Instagram on the 5th of February and was returned on the 12th of
February 2021.

5
 Secondary sources contributed to the completion of the literature review and the formulating of
the research questions which guided the entire study. These included textbooks, research from
web articles and newspaper articles. The information from the literature review provided the
understanding of the psychological work done by bullying and what happens if left unattended.
This showed me how serious the problem is and the worthiness of this investigation.

PRESENTATION OF DATA

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 TABLE SHOWING THE DENFINITION OF BULLYING
Percentage of Students Definitions
85 % Repeated behavior which is intended to hurt
someone either emotionally or physically, and
Table
is often aimed at certain people because of
their race, religion, gender or sexual 1:
orientation or any other aspect such as
appearance or disability.
10% the use of strength or power to frighten or
hurt weaker people

5% When one person is kinder and the other is

not

showing the definition of bullying

7
 Bar Grpah Showing The Various Forms Of Bullying
percentage of students

social

cyber
forms of bullying

racial

verbal

physical

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

percentage of students

TALLY CHARTY SHOWING REASONS FOR BULLYING

Gender discrimination

To gain popularity amongst students

Jealousy

Physical appearance

5% students

Figure 2: shows the reasons students believe bullying occurs

Figure 1: shows the percentage of students bullied of each category

8
 Picture chart showing the percentage of bullied students

YES NO
Figure 3: shows the percentage of students who are/ aren’t victims of bullying

9
 pie chart showing the ways inwhich students mental health has
been affected
5%

10%
*   lowered your zeal to strive for
better things and made me felt
less as an person
made room on self-doubt,
anxiety or depressed thoughts
but I still value myself
it didn’t affect my mental health

85%

Figure 4: pie chart showing percentage in different ways students mental health been affected by
bullying

Table showing the reasons students allowed the bullying to affect their mental health /self
esteem
Percentage of students Reason

45% I believed that the way I was treated was based on me so my

bullies gave me what I deserved to be bullied
20% I always had a low esteem so after the bullying it just lowered it
more
25% My fellow students laughed so I began to felt like outcast due to
my appearance or personality
10% It didn’t affect me because I did allow it change to my high self
esteem
Table 2: showing the reasons students allowed the bullying to affect their mental health /self
esteem

10
 Bar Graph Showing The Percentage Of Students Who Believe That
Bullies Bully Students Due To Low Self-Esteem

Bullies try to make themselves feel better/increase their self-esteem by picking on other

*   Bullies bully for self-entertainment

*   Bullies do bully to make themselves feel better and assert dominance

*   I don’t know

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Column Graph Showing The Percentage Of Students Who Believe That Bullies Bully Students Due To Low
Self-Esteem

Figure 5 shows the percentage of students who believe that bullies bully students due to low self-
esteem

11
Figure 6 shows the percentage of students who reported the issue of bullying to someone in
authority and whether or not action was taken by that person to rectify it

12
Pyramid showing the way students feel about leaving the problem unresolved

no the balance needs

to stay the same 5%

i dont think 10%

yes because it creates a stigma where morals are irrevalent

and lawlessness is previals 85%

Figure:7: showing the way students feel about leaving the problem unresolved

13
 Column Chart Showing The Ways In Which Bullying Can Be
Prevented 40%
35%
40%
30%
15%
20% 10%
10%
0% Column Chart Showing The
Ways In Which Bullying Can Be
Prevented

Figure 8 shows the ways in which students believe bullying can be prevented in school

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 ANALYSIS OF DATA
Table 1 showed the majority of students chose the same definition of bullying. 85% of them
viewed bullying as an act of repeated behavior which is intended to hurt someone either
emotionally or physically, the minority, 15% of students, had different views on the definition of
bullying. Figure 1 shows bullying occurs in all the forms, the most prominent being physical,
30%, and racial, 25%. Whereas, social bullying was the least prevalent in the school, 10%
.Figure 2 results showed that 45% of the students surveyed thought the main reason for bullying
was due to physical appearance. This was followed by bullies attempting to gain popularity,
Also, the minority of the student population (5%) believed that bullying occurs due to gender
discrimination /jealousy. The trend is that bullying is due to physical appearance. Figure 3
showed that 85% of those surveyed were victims of bullying. Figure 4 showed that 95% of
students experienced negative change in their mental health after bullied. Table 2 showed the
greatest percentage of students (45%) indicated that the reason for they allowing bullying to
affect their mental health was believing the way treated was based on themselves. The tend to
tolerate it and adapt to the situation, which as a result, lowers their self-esteem. Figure 5
represented indicated that bullying is linked to bullies having a low self-esteem. (60%) believed
that bullies try to make themselves feel better/increase their self-esteem by picking on other
students/making other students feel bad about themselves. 20% of students believed that by
bullying, bullies to assert dominance over others. whereas 15 % of students believed that bullies
bully students for their personal entertainment. From this figure 6, 5% of the cases reported were
rectified by someone in authority, while 95% of the cases were left unattended. From figure 7
(85%) choosing the option which stated yes, it is a greater problem to society and Figure 8 (15%)
of the students believed that bullying cannot be prevented, whereas eighty percent (80%) of
students indicated that it can be prevented. whether it be (40%) saying “introduce anti bullying
programs and make them mandatory in schools”, and the other (35%) chose provide counselling
for bullies and victims of bullying.

15
 DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

From the data collected, 95% of students defined bullying as “repeated verbal, physical,
social or psychological behaviour that is harmful and involves the misuse of power by an
individual or group towards one or more persons”. Therefore, a link can be made with the
study done by “Dr. Dan Olweus”. Definition of bullying as, “a person is bullied when he/she is
exposed, repeatedly and over time, negative actions on the part of one or more other persons, and
he/she has difficulty defending himself/herself”. In addition, it was obvious from the data
collected that the major forms of bullying were “physical” (30%) and “racial” (25%). Following
this, a total of 80% of students indicated that bullying occurred mainly due to physical
appearance and also for bullies try to gain popularity by bullying/they think it’s cool to be a
bully. It was indicated that 85% of the students from Chaguanas North Secondary School were
victims of bullying. Evidential a total of 95% responded with some form of change to their
mental health after being bullied where the other 5% didn’t change.
Another link can be made to the data revealed, a combination of 80% of the participants
believed that bullies have a low self-esteem. the majority of the students stated that the reason for
this was because “bullies try to make themselves feel better/increase their self-esteem by picking
on other students and “to assert dominance over others to make themselves feel a sense of
security.” A comparison can be made to the article from
“The Journal of School Health”, entitled “Cyberbullying and Self-Esteem”. The data in this
article showed that students who experienced cyberbullying, had significantly lower self-esteem
than those who had little or no experience with cyberbullying. In contrast, the article dealt only
with cyberbullying whereas my study focused on racial bullying. The target group for the article
was middle school students whereas my study focused on students of form 6.
the majority indicated that they believe bullying can be prevented in Chaguanas north secondary
school. The Department of Psychology, Universidad de Córdoba, Spain way were the students in
my study indicated it would be effective as only 15% of students didn’t believed that introducing
an anti-bullying program into the school would help curb bullying and that it should “stay the
same to the balance.” 2020 Oregon State University added by “When cases of bullying are left
unattended, which raises the following students leaving, academic performance, and health
issues ranging from depression to self-harm to one or others. ‘which makes and unstable work
environment”. With 85% of students agreeing that it does contribute to the lawless and chaotic
society developing.
Overall, the comparison of bullying in my study to those in the previously-mentioned studies
indicate that bullying is a grave situation. Both the similarities and differences in the research
help to make the issue of bullying easier to analyse, and it also shows that policies
need to be implemented Chaguanas North Secondary to deal with this issue.
.

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 Conclusions, Limitations and Recommendations

Conclusions
1)It can be concluded that bullying is a major issue in the school, with 85% of the form 6 student
population falling victims of bullying. It was also identified that the most prominent forms of
bullying were “physical” and “racial”.
2) In addition to this, it was concluded that bullying tremendously impacted on the self-esteem of
both bullies and their victims, (percentage)
3) major consequences of bullying were violence, depression, inability to socialize. All of which
impacts on a person both mentally and physically thus negatively affecting his/her self-esteem.
(percentage)
4) Lastly, the data of this study specified, bullying can be minimized by introducing anti bullying
programme.
Limitations
The sample size was small and the findings applied only to Chaguanas north secondary, and
cannot and should not be generalized to all schools. Research conducted in the Caribbean was
insufficient and therefore international source were accessed. some of the questions were
misunderstood therefore the results may not be conclusive.
Recommendations
1)Persons in authority, such as teachers, vice-principal, principal and other staff
personnel should take immediate action when bullying is observed. They should talk
to the students involved individually and try to resolve the problem expeditiously,
according to the discipline plans of the school.
2) Teachers should hold class meetings during which students can talk openly about
bullying and peer relations. By doing this, students can discuss how bullying affects
them and try to find solutions among themselves to try to prevent and stop bullying.
3)Parents should be more observant/pay more attention to the lives of their children.
They should be more aware of bullying and understand that it could affect their child.
They should familiarize themselves with the signs and symptoms of bullying by doing
research on the topic. This would help them to easily identify if their child is
displaying any of these sings and take necessary steps to prevent and stop it.
4) School body should introduce anti-bullying policies whereby warnings followed by
penalties for bullying would be implemented, thereby discouraging bullies from
bullying, as they would not want to be punished for their deeds.

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 Bibliography

-Masiello, M.G.M & Schroeder, D.S. (2014) A Public Health Approach to Bullying
Prevention: American Public Health Association.
-Olewus, D. (1993) Bullying at School: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Oliveira, W.A.O, Silva, M.A.S., Mello, F.C.M, Porto, D.L.P, Yoshinaga, A.C.Y. & Malta,
D.C.M., (author). (2015, April, 14th). The Causes of Bullying. Retrieved from
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25885363
-Patchin, J.W.P. & Hinduja, S.H. (2010) Cyberbullying and Self-Esteem. The Journal of
School Health, volume 80 (issue 12), pages 614 – 621. DOI: 10.1111/j.1746-
1561.2010.00548.x
-Ruprah, I.J. (2014). Bullying least prevalent in Trinidad and Tobago, IDB says. The Inter-
American Development Bank.
 -PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center https://www.pacer.org/bullying/info/stats.asp
- U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, School Crime Supplement (SCS) to the
National Crime Victimization Survey, 2017 https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019054.pdf
-The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Associated Schools
Network Trinidad and Tobago, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
http://www.silverliningtt.com/assets/UNESCO-Report-Web.pdf
 Rodríguez-Hidalgo AJ, Calmaestra J, Casas JA and Ortega-Ruiz R (2019) Ethnic-Cultural
Bullying Versus Personal Bullying: Specificity and Measurement of Discriminatory Aggression
and Victimization Among Adolescents. Front. Psychol. 10:46. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00046
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00046/full

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 Appendix

SAMPLE OF QUESTIONNAIRNE

Topic: Racial bullying among students at Chaguanas north sec of form 6(upper and lower)

Instructions: Please place an(X)over the answer of your choice and write answers where lines are
provided.

1) To which age group do you belong to?

Un under 16 years -16.67% 16-18 years-75% 19 and over-8.33%
2) To which gender do you belong to
boy 66.67% girl- 33.33% other 0 students
3) Which form do you belong to?
upper 6 58.33% students lower 6 41.67%students
4) To which ethic group do you belong
African 41.67%students East Indian 41.67% students Chinese 5%students
other 11.67% students
If other was chosen please state here the 7 other students said Hispanic
5) Which of these statements would you define as “bullying”?
a. the use of strength or power to frighten or hurt weaker people 85% students
b. Repeated behavior which is intended to hurt someone either emotionally or
physically, and is often aimed at certain people because of their race, religion,
gender or sexual orientation or any other aspect such as appearance or
disability. 10% students
c. When one person is kinder and the other is not 5% students

6) Where does bullying occur the most as a student?

a. classroom/laboratories 50%students
b. library 0%students
c. washrooms 25% students
d. fields 3.33% students
e. the hallways 10% students
f. social media 11.67% students
7) Which form of bullying is most prevalent either may have witnessed or been involved?
a. physical bullying (hitting, kicking, tripping, pinching and pushing or damaging
property.  Physical bullying causes both short term and long-term damage) 30% students

19
 b. Verbal bulling (name calling, insults, teasing, intimidation, homophobic or racist
remarks, or verbal abuse. While verbal bullying can start off harmless, it can escalate to
levels which start affecting the individual target.) 20%students

c. social bullying (lying and spreading rumours negative facial or physical gestures,
menacing or contemptuous looks playing nasty jokes to embarrass and humiliate,
mimicking unkindly encouraging others to social exclude someone damaging someone’s
social reputation or social acceptance.) 10%students

d. cyberbullying (abusive or hurtful texts, emails or posts, images or videos, deliberately

excluding others online, nasty gossip or rumours, imitating others online or using their log-
in) 15% students
e. racial bullying (threated bad because your race, ethnicity or culture) 25%students

8) For what reasons do you believe bullying occurred in Chaguanas north secondary?

gender discrimination 5% students physical appearance 45% students

to gain popularity amongst students 35% students jealously 15%students

9) Have you been a victim of bullying?

yes- 85%students no -15% students

10) If yes how has it affected your mental health?
lowered your zeal to strive for better things and made me felt less as a person -85%
students
made room on self-doubt, anxiety or depressed thoughts but I still value myself -10%
students
It did not change my mental health – 5% students
11) If there was a change in mental, what was your mental health like before the incident/s
occurred?
I always had myself in high regards and was pleased with my inner and outer appearance
66.67%students
I felt semi happy about myself with self doubuting thought ever so often about my
appareance 25% students
I was never proud myself and felt as an failure in everything I did? 8.33% students
12) Why did you allowed the bullying to affect your mental health?
I believed that the way I was treated was based on me so my bullies gave me what I
deserved to be bullied 45% students
My fellow students laughed so I began to felt like outcast due to my appearance or
personality 25% students
I always had a low esteem so after the bullying it just lowered it more 20% students
It didn’t affect me because I did allow it change to my high self esteem 10% students
Other 0% students
Please state here:

20
13) do your bullies intentionally targeting make you feel less as a person?
yes, my bullies constantly tell make me /feel less as a person 66.67 students
no, I don’t pay it no mind 33.33% students
14) how does the low esteem affect your life?
it is very hard to interact with other because I’m easily intimidated 50% students
I peform poorly acdemically because my mind space is never at ease 40% students
I don’t have low self esteem 10% students
15) Do you think your bullies have low self esteem?
yes 80%students no 20% students
16) If yes do you think that the bullies bully because of their low self esteem?
I don’t know 5%students
Bullies do bully to make themselves feel better and assert dominance 20% students
Bullies bully for self-entertainment 15% students
Bullies try to make themselves feel better/increase their self-esteem by picking on other
60% students
17) Have you ever reported any the incident/s to the authorises and if so, has action been
taken to rectify the bullying situation?
yes, I reported it and action was taken 2.5% students
yes, I reported it but no action was taken 47.5% students
no, I did report it 50% students
18) if no action was taken, do you it can create a terrible version to the society we know
now?
yes, because it creates a stigma where morals are irrelevant and lawlessness prevails 85%
students
I don’t think so 10% students
No, the balance needs to stay the same 5% students

19) Do you think bullying and by extension racial is a major societal problem?
yes 90% students
no 10% students
20) if yes, how do you think we can prevent it from becoming larger?
introduce anti bullying programs available and make them mandatory in schools 45%
students
provide counselling for bullies and victims of bullying 35% students
bullying can’t be prevented 15% students
other 10% students

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