1

EFFECTS OF BULLIYING TO THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG

SECONDYEAR ENGINEERING STUDENTS OF
BULACAN STATE UNIVERSITY (BUSTOS CAMPUS)

Undergraduate Thesis Proposal Presented to the Faculty of Instruction in the college of

I.T, Engineering, and B.A (CITE & BA).

Ms. Janice Villoria

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements in Technical Communications (ENG. 223),

For the Degree of Bachelor of Science in General Engineering.

By:

Castro, Jullian

Estrada, Charles Philip A.

Capistani, Christian Kyle R.

Ricafort, Melvin Kleine

Maningas, Darwin M.

Sanchez, Arjay
 2

CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUD

Introduction

The term bully was not originally used to describe a person who intimidates other

people using force or influence, but it actually meant something that is almost completely the

opposite. In the 1530s, the word was used to denote a sweetheart, from the Dutch word boel

meaning lover or brother. Over the years the meaning of the word declined, from fine

fellow, to blusterer, until it reached its present meaning, which is harasser of the weak. The

verb to bully was not formally certified until 1710 (Zwerdling, 1987).

Bullying among students occurs across the world. Among all the problems faced by these

people, none is as debilitating as bullying because not only does it affect the victim physically

and emotionally but it also affects them academically as well. Nearly every part of a schools

building is laid a witness to such acts of aggression, such as the hallways, bathrooms,

classrooms, and much more. The media usually pours most of their attention on higher forms of

violence such as assault and murder, but lower forms of violence such as bullying have only been

given little notice in the past, only in recent years has it started to be addressed by researchers,

parents and guardians, and authority figures (Whitted, K.S. & Dupper, D.R. 2005). And only in

recent years has bullying been recognized and recorded as a separate and distinct offense, but

there have been well documented cases that have been recorded over the centuries.
 3

The act of bullying comes in many different forms; one of them is physical bullying

which is defined as having physical contact with the victim for the purpose of inducing harm.

One such incident took place in the Philippines was that of a girl who studied at Fisher Valley

College in Taguig. The bullying started when a girl suddenly pulled away her chair just as she

was about to sit on it, causing her to fall on the floor. When her parents took wind of the incident,

they discussed to the school about it and the school promised to take disciplinary actions towards

the one who is at fault.

The next bullying attempt took place four months after when another classmate poked the

girls right palm with a pencil. The girl received first aid from a teacher instead from the school

nurse. When the girls father came to fetch her, he noticed that the lead point of the pencil was

jutting out on the girls right thumb. The father took her to an emergency room to have the lead

removed. Then the victims parents complained again to the school. This time, the vice principal

said that the child who poked the girl with a pencil would be transferred to another classroom.

But that didnt happen. Instead, the school recommended a one-week leave of absence for the

girl and the child who hurt her, calling it a cooling off period. Then the school assigned an

intern to watch over the bullied girl.

After the school year, the girl transferred to another school. But her parents made sure

that her previous school takes complaints about bullying seriously, so they filed a formal

complaint at the Department of Education.

A second incident of bullying took place in Malabon when a boy was in critical condition

after being bullied by his classmates. The boy, Fred Aston Mendoza, was confined in the

Philippines Childrens Medical Center after undertaking surgery.

 4

The victims mother told that her son went home with bruises and complained that he was

stripped, punched and kicked in his abdomen. Later that night, the boy experienced severe fever.

When he was brought to the hospital, it was discovered that he was suffering from internal

bleeding in the liver. Fred underwent surgery.

School authorities have called the parents of the two children involved in the incident. It

has only been a month since President Aquino formally certified RA 10627, or the Anti Bullying

Act. Freds case is only one of the many cases of bullying in Malabon at that time. The Malabon

police kept tabs of 7 recent cases of bullying in the city. They are watching closely on schools

with numerous cases of bullying.

Not all cases of bullying are committed physically to the abused. Sometimes victims are

harmed emotionally through verbal bullying in the school environment. An incident in

Zamboanga City might add to this case as a boy, who is believed to have been bullied in school,

committed suicide in Tungawan town in Zamboanga, Sibugay. According to the towns chief, the

boy, who was living with his aunt, was found hanging from the ceiling of his home with a cable

wire tied around his neck. On the scene of the incident the authorities found a suicide note

blaming the classmates and a neighbor of the boy. The assistant school division superintendent

urged authorities to investigate the boys death. Their suspicion leads them to the bullies and they

must be identified to prevent more cases like this from occurring again.

Academic achievement represents performance outcomes that indicate the extent to

which a person has accomplished specific goals that were the focus of activities in structural

environments, specifically in school, college, and university (Steinmayr, 2014). In other words,

academic achievement is the result of education. A person academically suffers when he

 5

experiences bullying in the class. A study in the University of California, Los Angeles was

conducted with 2,300 students. The researchers asked the students to rate whether or not they get

bullied and to list their fellow students who were bullied the most, whether physically, verbally,

and as the subject of nasty rumors. It was found out that a high level of bullying was consistently

associated with lower grades in their academics. The students who were rated the most-bullied

performed substantially worse academically than their peers.

Students who get bullied run the risk of not coming to school, not liking school,

perceiving school more negatively and now based on this study doing less well academically

(Juvonen, 2010). The researchers of the study added that instructions from professors cannot be

effective unless the students are ready to learn, and that includes not being fearful of raising your

hand in class and speaking up, but once students get labeled with a demeaning word, they get

picked on and perform even worse.

Bullying is becoming a bigger threat in schools all over the world, especially in the

Philippines. In 2015, a Department of Education report has cited that about 31 incidents of

bullying are reported everyday in schools everywhere in the country. They surmised that the

number could be more and they presume that out of fear of possible retaliation, many victims are

still reluctant to stand up and complain of bullying in school (Gullas, 2015).

By choosing to study this topic, effective methods and techniques can be found to

mitigate cases of bullying in our schools and universities. Such methods would be viable for

having a safe and worry free school environment that students can go around freely without

worry from abusers, which in turn will prevent students from performing poorly on their

academics.
 6

Statement of the problem

The focus of the study is finding the effects of bullying to the academic performance

among second year engineering students of Bulacan State University, Bustos Campus. It seeks to

understand the connection between harassment from bullying and the academic achievement of

the receiver of bullying.

The study sought to know how victims of bullying lose interest in school and extra-

curricular activities, frequent complaints of illness to avoid attending school, and how their

academic performance suddenly decrease.

Significance of the Study

Having examined the problems to be investigated in the study, the findings this study will

reveal shall benefit the following beneficiaries:

Firstly, the students of Bulacan State University Bustos Campus will benefit greatly from

this study, for they will attain valuable knowledge that can help deal with their problems of

bullying in the campus. Being able to study peacefully and without harassment from bullies

allows them to learn uninterrupted and to perform their best in class.

Secondly, the parents of victims and would-be victims of bullying may also benefit from

this study by obtaining insightful knowledge about the effects of bullying. They could learn what

warning signs that victims of bullying often exhibit so they could determine if their children are

being bullied in school or not. If they found out that their children are one of the victims, the
 7

parents could offer their wisdom and support on how their children can cope with harassment

from bullies.

Thirdly, this study will enable the community to further adopt necessary measures or

remedies to combat bullying within their area to stop these cases of harassment from ever

occurring again.

Lastly, the future researchers who are interested in gathering needed knowledge can use

this study as a good source of accurate and useful information.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The study focuses on the identification of the effects of bullying on the academic

performance among second year engineering students of Bulacan State University Bustos

Campus.

The researchers chose the Bustos Campus of Bulacan State University as the place

conduct their study.

 8

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Theoretical Framework

Traditional schoolyard bullying is an age-old problem among elementary school

children and adolescents. As long as young people have built social relationships with each other

through attending school together, they have engaged in some amount of verbal teasing,

emotional manipulation, and physical aggression toward one another (Aluede, Adeleke, Omoike,

& Afen-Akpaida, 2008). According to Doherty (1988), bullying in American schools has been

acknowledged as an existing phenomenon since at least the middle of the 20th century, when the

term teenager was coined and it entered the national lexicon. This developmental period of

adolescence was seen for the first time in American society as a distinct time between childhood

and adulthood, with its own unique set of universal experiences, problems, and challenges to

deal with. It was still decades, however, before the phenomenon of schoolyard bullying became a

subject of formal study.

Norwegian researcher Dan Olweus published the first study on bullying, Aggression in

the Schools: Bullies and Whipping Boys, in 1978 (Meyer, 2009). More recently, bullying has

been the focus of research and debate since the early 1980s (Furniss, 2000). The relevant

literature on bullying includes the difference between bullying and normal peer conflict, the

varied negative effects of bullying on students, factual aspects of traditional schoolyard bullying

(what it is, where and when it typically takes place, the prevalence of bullying incidents, and

who is most often affected), adolescent bullying behavior leading into adult harassment,
 9

characteristic attributes of bullies, the unique characteristics of cyber-bullying, gender

differences in bullying, aspects of homophobia prevalent in bullying behavior, and prevention

and intervention strategies for teachers and administrators, parents, and students themselves.

Related Literature

Increasingly high rates of bullying result in several threats to school safety, which

includes not only harm to the students mental health but also on their academic achievement.

Multiple studies have suggested that students who are engaged in bullying, as victims and/or

perpetrators, are more likely to experience negative effects on academic performance (Buhs et al.

2006). Moreover, some studies that took into account the concurrence between bullying and

victimization provided evidence that victims and bully victims were more likely to have low

school achievement compared to bullies and noninvolved children, while other studies indicated

that the bully victim group might be at higher risk for low academic achievement (Fanti&

Georgiou, 2013).

A research journal on Caldwell College has revealed that the set of 3 predictors (i.e.,

chronic stress, racism-related stress, and bullying experiences) explained a significant proportion

of the variance in reading comprehension performance. Critical to the current investigation is the

finding that bullying negatively impacted reading achievement. A look at the individual bully

victim scale revealed that students affected by bullying performed significantly lower on reading

comprehension (Brandt et al., 2016). Students from schools in which principals reported higher

levels of bullying were likely to have lower math and reading scores than students from schools

in which principals reported lower levels of bullying. Math and reading achievement were
 10

negatively related to school-level bullying for both boys and girls. A study conducted by the

Canadian Journal of School Psychology has discovered that students from schools in which

principals reported higher levels of bullying were likely to have lower math and reading scores

than students from schools in which principals reported lower levels of bullying. Math and

reading achievement were negatively related to school-level bullying for both boys and girls

(Konishi et al., 2010).

Related Studies

Data provided by a study of Centre for Educational Research and Development in Chile

confirmed that a primary student in Latin America who reports having been robbed or physically

or verbally bullied has a significantly lower level of reading and math achievement than students

who have not, and students in classroom settings with a higher incidence of theft or physical or

verbal bullying also score worse in reading and math than those in classrooms with a lower level

of violence (Roman & Murillo, 2011). A 2003 study in the Journal of School Healthfound that

there was a correlation between bullying and school grades, they reported that those students

who were harassed enjoyed school less, had lower grades and have a lower connectivity with the

school (Eisenberg, 2003). A 2010 Canadian study found out that the link between bullying and

student achievement was inversely proportional; the less bullying there is in school, the better

students did in school. The study reported that The present results suggest that school bullying

exerts a pernicious influence on students academic performance (Hymel, 2010).

A study conducted in Portugal indicates that the effects of bullying contribute

substantially to the development of an unsafe environment in schools and to a decline in the

 11

academic and social performance of students involved in bully/victim experiences. For instance,

according to some results in a Portuguese sample, most victims and aggressors do not seem to

feel comfortable in school. However, victims feel worse, particularly in relation to colleagues,

friends and themselves, while aggressors feel worse in relation to learning and teachers, but feel

good about themselves and friends (Seixas, 2013).

While there are many studies that find a negative connection between bullying and

academic performance, there are also other studies which conclude that there is no connection

between the two. A study in the University of Hertfordshire have provided empirical evidence

that direct bullying behavior is not largely associated with decrements in academic achievement

in primary school. Nosupport was generated for the theory that under achievement and

frustration at school is caused by direct physical bullying behavior (Woods &Wolke, 2004).

Another study illustrated that bullying behavior itself may not directly influence

achievement score. The researchers stated that bullying is not the cause of low achievement

scores, but it is instead correlated with social relationships (Norris, 2010).

Conceptual Framework

The researchers chose the Independent and Dependent Variables figure to illustrate their

conceptual framework. They believe that opting for this figure can clarify the concepts, provide a

background for interpreting the findings, and to explain the observations made in the study
 12

Bullying Academic Performance

Defective upbringing
Lack of empathy
Social stress
Differing interests
Media effect

Hypothesis of the Study

The researchers believe that bullying has a significant effect to the academic performance

of second year engineering students of Bulacan State University Bustos Campus. Bullying does

not only affect the victim of the harassment but the bully himself can be affected as well. Being a

bully in a school environment isnt exclusive for students of a class. Even teachers can become

bullies by giving disparaging remarks and humiliating students in front of the class.
 13

CHAPTER III

METHODS OF RESEARCH

This chapter presents the research method, sources of data, and the data gathering

instruments that were used in the investigation.

Methods and Technique of the Study

The researchers used the descriptive analytical method of research for this is the most

appropriate means of evaluating the effects of bullying on the academic performance among

Second Year Engineering Student of Bulacan State University Bustos Campus.

The descriptive survey is based on the questionnaires prepared for the participants;hence

this study calls for this method. It is a study component to serve as a direction in reaching a goal.

The descriptive method tells what is, which leads to a scientific information about education

and other situations. It is described as fact-finding with adequate interpretation usually beyond

fact-finding (Calderon, 1993).

Population and Sample of the Study

The respondents of this study are 50 random students from second year engineering of

Bulacan State University Bustos Campus, who were chosen through simple random sampling.

Sampling is a method by which a researcher chooses an individual or a group of respondents.

 14

According to Tan (2006) Simple random sampling is the selection on random basis of

elements from sampling frame, wherein each element has an equal chance or probability of being

chose as subject of the study.

Data Gathering

The researchers prepared a questionnaire which is answered as a checklist to obtain

information pertaining to the study. After collecting the adequate amount of data the researchers

shall present it to their professor.

Once the adviser has made the necessary corrections and has approved the questionnaire,

the researchers will produce 50 Xerox copies of the questionnaire and then ask for the

participation of the chosen respondents of the study.

Chapter IV
 15

PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

This chapter presented, analyzed and interpreted all the data interpreted all the data

gathered in this study. Presentation was done through the use of tables, analysis and

interpretations of data done after tabular presentation.

Table 1. Shows the Gender Profile of the Respondents:

Table 1

Gender Profile

Sex Frequency Percentage

Male 25 50%
Female 25 50%

Total 50 100%

The above data shows that the respondents were consist of equal number of male and

female. This implied that the quantity of respondents are accommodated by male and female

equally and is cooperated with the researchers during the study that was conducted at the vicinity

of Bulacan State University Bustos Campus

Table 2 Show the Age Profile of the Respondents:

 16

Table 2

Age Profile

Age Frequency Percentage

18 24 48%
19 20 40%
20 6 12%

Total 50 100%

The table two shows that there were 24 or 48 percent of the respondents are 18 years of

age, 40 percent or 20 students are at the age of 19 and the rest belongs to 20 years old with 6 or

12 percent.

Table 3

Effects of Bullying
 17

Effects Extreme Stron Moderate Not at all

g

Interest

8% 22% 34% 24% 12%

Loss of interest in school and
extra-curricular activities.

10% 16% 40% 22% 6%

Sudden decrease in
academic performance.

8% 6% 48% 28% 10%

Lack of sleep, psychological
distress, unable to listen and
focus on studies.

School Habits
Get into fights, vandalize 10% 14% 20% 44% 12%
property, and drop out of school.

20% 10% 16% 42% 12%

Seems afraid of going to
school, riding the jeep,
walking to school, or taking
part in organized activities
with peers.

Traits
2% 18% 24% 28% 8%
Anxiety or low self-esteem.

Frequent complaints of 6% 10% 32% 32% 20%

illness to avoid attending
school.

Thinking that teachers and 8% 20% 24% 17% 14%

staff have little control and
don't care about them.
 18

The table three shows the number of respondents opinion in percentage. This shows that

bullying has a moderate effect in students performance in academic, extracurricular activities

and listening or focusing on studies. Fairly as an outcome for school habits; getting into fights,

vandalizing property, and dropping out of school. Lastly, it is classified that bullying has a fair to

moderate effect when it comes on students traits.

CHAPTER V

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

Summary

The main purpose of this study is to assess the effects of bullying on the academic

performance of the second year engineering students of BulSU Bustos Campus. A survey was

conducted and used a main instrument to gather the data needed to obtain our goal.

Respondents

Gender profile:

The table one shows the sex profile of the respondents, the table shows that there were 25

or 50% of the respondents were females and 25 or 50% were males.

Age Profile:
 19

Students within the 3-year range of 18 to 20 were asked. Out of 50 respondents there

were 24 or 18% percent aged of 18, with the percentage of 40 or 20 students were at age of 19

and the remaining 6 or 12% belongs to 20 years old.

Effects of Bullying

It is indicated in Anxiety or low self-esteem is one of the main effects of being bullied with its

average of 3.5 verbally interpreted as moderately. Thus it ranked 1.

Sudden decrease in academic performance indicated that it is one of the effects of being bullied

with the average of 3.0 also interpreted as moderately, ranked 2.

On rank 3 is the loss of interest in school and extra-curricular activities having 2.9 and Being

afraid of going to school, riding the jeep, walking to school, or taking part in organized activities

with peers on rank 4 with 4.8 as an average.

Tied in rank 5 having an average of 2.7 is the lack of sleep, psychological distress, unable to

listen and focus on studies, getting into fights, vandalizing property, and dropping out of school

and thinking that teachers and staff have little control and don't care about them.

Rank 6, placed as least incident among the effects of bullying with an average of 2.5 is the

frequent complaints of illness in order to avoid attending school.

Conclusion

Based on the findings, the following conclusions are given and concluded:
 20

1. Bullying negatively affects the child being victimized. There is always light effects; self-

change, lack of concentration and if the bullying is severe enough there can also be long term

effects; fear of going to school and doing violations.

2. Children who are bullied can suffer from low self-esteem and other emotional problems and

children who experienced bullying are much more likely to have problems with their educational

occurrence.

4. The victims of bullying often withdraw from friends and activities. If it is not stopped and

continues for long enough, children can suffer these problems permanently and could lead to

dropping out.

Recommendation

From the findings of the study based on the conclusions drawn the following:

1. Bullying should not be taken lightly as it can cause serious problems for all the children

involved.

2. Being bullied is a very stressful ordeal for children. Many bullying victims are reluctant to

socialize with peer groups making it even harder to help them.

3. Never tell the child just to ignore the bullying. They will feel as if you are just going to ignore

it and they should not have bothered to tell in the first place, theyll just thought of that you dont

care.

4. Make contact with the bullys parents. Often they are unaware of their childs behavior and

will want to help work with you to make positive changes.

5. Do not allow your child to hang around empty playgrounds or stay late at school alone. Teach

them to always use the buddy system.

 21

6. Sometimes children exhibit certain behaviors that irritate or provoke others. If this is the case,

help the child to find more suitable ways to interact with friends and groups.