Bullying in schools among early adolescents in Galenbindunuweva educational zone: prevalence, types, common responses and effectiveness of a health promotion intervention

Abstract

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Bullying is a prevalent behavior of violence and a leading health issue among school going adolescents. Aims were to describe prevalence, types, common responses and factors associated with bullying among early adolescents in Galenbindunuwewa Educational Zone and to evaluate a health promotion intervention to reduce bullying among early adolescents in a school in the same zone. METHOD: The study had two components. A cross sectional study and a participatory action research. The former was conducted in three schools randomly selected from the Galenbindunuwewa Educational Zone. A multi¬stage sampling method recruited 372 participants to obtain data using a self-administered questionnaire. In the second component, all students in grades seven to nine of a randomly selected school participated In an intervention modeled on a health promotion approach. Determinants identified and addressed were poor understanding of bullying, school culture, media promotion of violence and attitudes towards bullying and violence. Evaluation employed participatory methods, and a mixed-method approach was used in collecting data. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS. Qualitative data were analyzed manually using thematic analysis. RESULTS: The prevalence of bullying was 57.6% (verbal bullying), 31.1% (physical bullying) and 30.8% {social bullying). The most common responses reported when being bullied were tolerating (67.2%) and walking away (66.4%). Attitudes towards bullying showed significant positive changes after the intervention. Post intervention level of all types of bullying reduced significantly among participants with significant changes in the addressed determinants. Conclusion: Bullying is a prevalent issue in the Galenbindunuwewa Educational Zone. The piloted health promotion intervention proved effective in addressing this problem.