CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM

I. Introduction
Bullying is intentional aggressive behavior. It can take the form of physical or verbal

harassment and involves an imbalance of power (a group of children can gang up on a

victim or someone who is physically bigger or more aggressive can intimidate someone

else, for instance).

Bullying behavior can include teasing, insulting someone (particularly about their

weight or height, race, sexuality, religion or other personal traits), shoving, hitting,

excluding someone, or gossiping about someone.

Roland and Idse (2001) have investigated how reactive aggressiveness and two

aspects of proactive aggressiveness, power-related aggressiveness and affiliation-related

aggressiveness, are related to being bullied and bullying others. In addition they have also

attempted to differentiate between different kinds of aggressiveness in bullying among

boys and girls in different grades. Overall, they have found that there was a good

correlation between both proactive power-related aggressiveness and proactive

affiliation-related aggressiveness, and being involved in bullying. However, reactive

aggressiveness was not a good predictor for bullying behavior. Fandrem et al. (2009)

have also conducted a bullying study in Norwegian schools using the same scales

developed by Roland and Idse. The result showed that proactive power-related

aggressiveness and affiliation-related aggressiveness are related to bullying behavior, but

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somehow different in strength in gender relation. Thus, although there might be different

results in other studies, Roland and Idse and Fandrem et al. in their studies have

somehow shown associations between bullying cultural patterns and aggressiveness as

well as between gender and degree of aggressiveness. Roland and Idse (2001) defined

the two different dimensions of aggressiveness as follows: reactive aggressiveness is a

tendency to express negative behavior when one is angry, while proactive aggressiveness

is the tendency to attack someone to achieve some material or social rewards.

Bullying can cause a victim to feel upset, afraid, ashamed, embarrassed, and anxious

about going to school. It can involve children of any age, including younger elementary

grade-schoolers and even kindergarteners. Bullying behavior is frequently repeated

unless there is intervention.

Bullying is characterized by an individual behaving in a certain way to

gain power over another person. According to statistics by ABC News (2008), nearly

30% of students are either bullies or victims of bullying, and 160,000 kids stay home

from school every day because of fear of bullying. In short, bullying has an effect on the

students especially their self-esteem. In The Social Outcast (2005) the authors agree that

bullying can lead to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem and susceptibility to illness. As

the Internet and online social networks continue to grow, so does the phenomenon known

as cyber bullying. This type of bullying describes when a child or teenager is harassed,

humiliated, embarrassed, threatened or tormented using digital technology. Emotionally,

cyber bullying can be scarring, since it involves threats and humiliation. Mostly, the

school is the place where bullying problems occur. This study showed the relationship of
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bullying behavior and self-esteem of grade seven students of Aura de Laurentus Business

High School (ADLBHS), Olongapo City, Philippines.

A. Objectives

The study determined the relationship between bullying behavior and self-

esteem of grade seven students of Aura de Laurentus Business High School.

B. Research Problems

1. How may the respondents be described in terms of:

1.1 Age;

1.2 Gender;

1.3 Self-esteem and

1.4 Bullying behavior?

2. Is there a relationship between the respondents self-esteem and bullying

behavior?

C. Hypothesis

This study tested the following hypothesis:

H1 : There is a significant relationship between the respondents self-esteem and

bullying behavior.

H0 : There is no significant relationship between the respondents self-esteem and

bullying behavior.
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D. Conceptual Framework

BULLYING
SELF-ESTEEM
Figure 1
Conceptual Framework of the Study

E. Significance of the study

The study aimed to find out the relationship between self-esteem and bullying

behavior. To some extent bullying can lead to a broader context of violence. The present

study, which has addressed particular issues of bullying and self-esteem, enriched the

teachers sphere of knowledge concerning the phenomenon of school bullying. The

researcher also took the advantage of this study by using it as a reference for further

investigation on other contexts of bullying. Parents can be aware whether their children

are victims of bullying or not.

F. Scope and Limitations of Study

The variables of the study were limited to self-esteem and bullying behavior. It

targeted the grade seven students of ADLBHS who are enrolled in the academic year

2014 2015.
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G. Locale of the Study

Figure
2

Showing the map of Aura de Laurentus Business

High School in the City of Olongapo

The Business High School is a 4-year program of the Aura de Laurentus Business High

School with the K-12 program that puts special concentration on business subjects using

BEC as the core curriculum.

It is a program that answers the need for economic self-sufficiency by preparing

our high school graduates to manage small scale businesses. The program is such that

after graduation, the student can run his/her own business or be an engineer or professor

and still be a businessman at the same time.

Aura de Laurentus Business High School is the first and only secondary school of

its kind in the City of Olongapo.

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Responding to the call for more competent high school graduates, AdLBHS does

not only aim to effectively facilitate learning but also to provide students with theoretical

input and practical output on technical subjects. Part of the school curricula are highly

technical subjects such as entrepreneurship for 7th Grade, business management for 8th

Grade, accounting I for 9th Grade and accounting II for 10th Grade For Junior High

School and two years of Bus Management Subjects for Senior Year High School. Both

Years having certificates after graduation.

The institution believes that learning should not be confined to the four corners of

the classroom. As one educator once mused, Tell them and they will understand: teach

them and they will learn; involve them and they will participate. The technical subjects

have lecture hours with field or office practice.

Case studies and apprenticeship programs are implemented to aid in the translation

of theories into practice.

H. Definition of Terms

These are the key descriptors used in the study:

Aggressiveness. It is a mode of communication and behavior where one expresses their

feelings, needs and rights without regard or respect for the needs, rights and feelings of

others.

Anxiety. It is a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent

event or something with an uncertain outcome. Victims of bullying often experience this.
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Bullying. Bullying is 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. Cyberbullying refers to bullying through information and communication

technologies.

Depression. This is more than just sadness. People with depression may experience a

lack of interest and pleasure in daily activities, significant weight loss or gain, insomnia

or excessive sleeping, lack of energy, inability to concentrate, feelings of worthlessness or

excessive guilt and recurrent thoughts of death or suicide.

Self-Esteem. This describe a person's overall sense of self-worth or personal value. Self-

esteem is often seen as a personality trait, which means that it tends to be stable and

enduring. Self-esteem can involve a variety of beliefs about the self, such as the appraisal

of one's own appearance, beliefs, emotions, and behaviors. Self-esteem levels at the

extreme high and low ends of the spectrum can be damaging, so the ideal is to strike a

balance somewhere in the middle. A realistic yet positive view of the self is often

considered the ideal.