Stop bullying! Does gender influence bullying and bully victims?

Abstract

The problem and the aims of the study. Every student should not be afraid to go to school because of harassment and parents should not be worried that their children will be bullied while at school. This study aimed to examine whether gender influences Malaysian school students of being bullies or bully victims. Research methods. The design of a cross sectional survey using a questionnaire for the data collection process to identify the influence between the study variables was conducted. Dependent study variables consisted of bullies (physical, verbal, anti-social & cyber) and bully victims (physical, verbal, anti-social & cyber). While the independent variable was gender (male & female). A total of 700 samples were involved in this study consisting of students aged 13, 14 and 16 years (students aged 15 and 17 years were not involved in the study as they were national examination candidates). A set of questionnaires containing 61 items measuring four constructs of bullying (physical, verbal, anti-social & cyber) as well as 60 items measuring four constructs of bully victims. The sample consisted of 349 males (49.9%) and 351 females (50.1%). Results. Independent t-test analysis as a whole showed that there was a significant difference in the tendency to be a bully among students based on gender, t (689) = 2.69, p <.05. Data showed male students were more likely to be bullies than female students. The finding of an independent sample t-test showed that there was no significant difference in the tendency to be a bully victim among students based on gender t(689) = 1.23, p > .05. However, there was a tendency to become bully victims among students based on gender for the categories of physical bullying (p <.05, p = .000) and cyber bullying (p <.05, p = .015). In conclusion students' tendency to become bullies and bully victims can occur among male or female students. Every individual should have the right to be free from being oppressed or deliberately humiliated either in school or in society.