When Kids Hurt Other Kids: Bullying in Philippine Schools

Abstract

This research looked into prevalence rate of bullying victimization and perpetration as well as teachers’ response to bullying incidence in the Philippines. A total of 340 sixth graders from five different schools in Western Visayas participated in the study. Slightly more than half (54.1%) of the sample were boys and 45.9% were girls. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data gathered from the survey. Children’s self-reports revealed that prevalence rate for victimization was 40.6% and that for perpetration was 23.8%. Similar to previous literature, results also showed that there were significantly more boys than girls who reported to be victims (χ2(1, N = 340) = 4.26, p = 0.039) and bullies (χ2(1, N = 340) = 4.35, p = 0.037). Regardless of gender, verbal bullying came out as the most common type of bullying children experienced as a victim and bully. Teachers’ response to bullying was all in line with direct sanctions, i.e. verbal reprimands, temporary removal from class, withdrawal of privileges, and suspension, which were imposed on individuals involved in bullying as bullies. Although all teachers and school personnel were required to report bullying cases they had knowledge of to the child protection committee in their institution, very few did so. These findings suggest the need for a more effective bullying prevention program and a careful examination of the implementing rules and guidelines of RA 10627, otherwise known as the Anti-Bullying Act of 2013.