The Extent of Bullying That Is Prevalent in the Counties of New Jersey - Research Paper Example

Research Proposal Outline Introduction School bullying has been found by several researchers to have a long term impact on the development and wellbeing of victims (Nansel et al. 2001; Haynie et al. 2001). According to Olweus (1991), school bullying is defined as a student being exposed to negative actions by other students that are repeated and extended overtime. A research in the US schools that aimed at assessing the prevalence of bullying among grades 6-10 found that out of the 15,686 students involved in the study, over 30%  self-reported frequent involvement in bulling, either as a bully or the victim (Clauss-Ehlers, 2010). This study reflects the extent to which bullying happens in the US schools and calls for measures to be undertaken to understand and prevent it to make the schools a better place. Rationale for Research The current research proposal is aimed at understanding the extent of bullying that is prevalent in the counties of New Jersey. New Jersey is a considerably large area and its 21 counties would provide me with the freedom to choose from a large population size of students and teachers – who are to be the respondents for the current research. As there are a large number of schools in the region, I expect to find the schools that are relevant for participation and that agree to participate in my research. I chose also choose this region to compose the study because as a New Jersey resident, I attended public schools in Bergen County, NJ and was a victim of school bullying. Also, I am reading so many news articles or watching news programs where school bullying continues to be a problem in New Jersey. In some cases, young kids are killing themselves as a result of being targeted by bullies or are experiencing all types of physical and psychological effect that will carry onto adulthood. Victims of school bullying tend to become non-social with peers, become withdrawn from class and schoolwork, and in some cases are afraid to go to school. How can a child learn if he or she is afraid to be in the classroom? Targeted victims of school bullying need assistance in developing better strategies for effectively responding to bullies. This research will help to identify the type of bullying that is occurring in the schools that are sampled and will offer assistance to these victims so that they can get the counseling they need. Also, this will help to set up an intervention program to help teachers and administrators get more involved through training and bully awareness in their schools. The proposed research will therefore endeavor to find answers to the following research questions. 1. Does bullying lead to psychological, behavioral or academic problems among students in the schools in New Jersey? It has already been documented that students who have been subjected to bullying or even those who have witnessed others as being victimized by bullies, perceive the school as an unsafe and unhappy place (Egan & Perry, 1998; Duncan, 1999). As a result of these inherent fears, the students may have a long lasting impact on their psychology and their behavior (Olweus, 1991). Researchers have also found extensive evidence relating bullying and lack of academic performance by both the bullies and the victims (Gew et al; Espinoza, 2006). The current research wants to explore the same in the schools of New Jersey so that a comprehensive understanding of the issues can be developed and the problems of the students be highlighted. The research intends to explore specifically, the occurrence of absenteeism, low grades, non-social behavior like non-participation in class activities or having no friends in order to assess the impact of bullying on students. The occurrence of bullying will be taken on the basis of self-reporting and this will be correlated with the above mentioned behaviours and outcomes for students. 2. Are the teachers in the schools in New Jersey able to detect signs of bullying? 3. Are the teachers in the schools in New Jersey able to help victims of bullying? While there has been considerable interest shown in the outcomes of bullying for students, and researchers have highlighted the signs of bullying (Parault, Davies and Pellegrini, 2007). The current study will assess if the teachers in the selected schools of New Jersey are able to perceive these signs and link them with bullying. Also, the research will evaluate if these teachers are able to take any action – both in an informal or formal manner against the bullies or towards helping the victims. 4. Are the New Jersey schools equipped with anti-bullying awareness or rules? The research is actually aimed at those schools that do not have a formal anti-bullying program. However, the research is based on the premise that bullying is a prevalent feature in any school, and as such, the researcher wants to assess if the schools that have as yet not implemented anti-bullying programs have any awareness or understanding of the issue and if they intend to take any measures. Significance of Research The research is expected to make a significant contribution towards bringing into focus the extent of bullying that may be going on in the schools of bullying. It is conducted in two parts, involving the students in grades 6 to 8 and teachers for the same grade. As such, it will include the self-report of all the students on their experience with bullying and the impact on their academic performance and behavior in school. It will also present an honest picture about the behavior of the teachers and their intention and ability to provide help and support to the victims of bullying. The results of the questionnaires that will be answered by the students and the teachers will indicate which schools have a need for bullying intervention programs. This will address which students are the victims and some of the students that are doing the bullying, and help introduce counseling services to those students. Sample Unit There are 490 secondary schools in New Jersey for the 2010-2011 school year (NJ Department of Education, 2010).  A sample of 15 public schools (grades 6-8) each will be selected for the research from the 21counties throughout New Jersey: Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Salem, Somerset, Sussex, Union, and Warren. Out of the 15 that will receive the questionnaires, only ten schools of each county will be used for the overall sample. The reason for selecting a sample of 15 is because some of the schools may already have an intervention program already established, so this will allow the researcher to have 10 schools final in each country so that do not have a bullying program and need it. The rationale for such a selection is that the researcher wants to use only those schools that do not have any program or apparent awareness about the bullying problem. From among the 210 selected schools, all the students in all the classes between grades 6 and 8 will be included in the research. This means that the number of students involved in the research will be around XXX Next, the teachers from the same grades in the 210 schools will also be involved in a separate survey that will gauge their ability to detect and intervene in instances of bullying. Sample Selection Method There are 490 secondary schools in New Jersey, and the target sample size is of 210 or 10 per county. For this, it is intended to select randomly 15 schools at the onset per county from the directory of schools available at?? These 15 schools (per county) are selected in a random manner from the directory so that the selected schools may be in areas of poverty or in affluent upscale middle class neighborhoods. This is expected to reflect that a child can be a victim of bullying or be the bully, no matter where they live. The sample of schools is therefore collected using a random sampling technique. The random sampling method ensures that the selected sample is representative of the general population. Each item (school) has an equal chance of selection and hence, the errors related to researcher bias are minimized (Cresswell, 2007). Research Methods The research proposal outlines the research methods used for the conduction of the research. Both the secondary and the primary research methods are used for the current research. The secondary research is conducted using available information and literature on bullying in schools, theory of bullying and previous research undertaken in the US and worldwide schools on the subject. The primary research is based on a sample of 210 Middle Schools selected from the 490 schools in the 21 counties of New Jersey. The primary research is conducted in two parts, one part will use the sample of students and the other, a sample of students. The first part will use students from all the classes between grades 6-8 and the second part involves all the teachers in the same grades and classes of 210 schools. The students will be asked questions that gauge their own perceived academic performance, their social interaction and their psychological well being like happiness or sadness etc. The students will also be asked to self-report on their experience with bullying, and this will be used as the independent variable for the research. The dependent variables will be the academic performance, social interaction and psychological well-being, which will be gauged from the students’ answers. The collected data will then be analysed for correlation relationship between the dependent and the independent variables. Next, the teacher’s survey will also include information on how the teachers detect bullying, what signs of bullying are apparent to them, what actions do they take and what suggestions they may have. These answers will provide information on the ability of the teachers to make a difference to the students and also provide the basis for making recommendation for a suitable intervention program in the schools. The school’s principals will be contacted to request permission and collaboration on the project and with the help of the class teachers, the primary data will be collected from all the students and the teachers. Research Instrument The primary data will be collected using the survey instruments that gauge both quantitative and qualitative data. The following sections provide details on the two survey instruments developed for this research: For Students Survey: This questionnaire will use only close ended questions that could be scored quantitatively. The survey instrument will be divided into two parts, part A will contain questions that gauge the independent variable of bullying experience using the gatehouse bullying questionnaire (that is attached in the appendix). Part B will include a set of questions that will gather information on their social interaction, emotional wellbeing and academic performance. The literature review will provide insights about the concepts of bullying and how other researchers have gathered information on identifying and monitoring bullying. The questions related to academic performance will include questions like “how do you think you are ranking in your grades overall”, “do you find your class-work easy ?” etc. Questions regarding emotional wellbeing include. “Do you know of any of your classmates in your school who are bullied?” How do these actions make you (them) feel? Do you like coming to school? Are you happy with your performance in school? Do you have friends” etc. The answers to the above questions will provide information on the prevalence and the nature of bullying as well as about the developmental or psychological or academic problems that victims may face. For Teachers Survey: This questionnaire will use qualitative questions only. The questionnaire will include questions like, ‘how often do they witness bullying in their classrooms or on school grounds?’, ‘What do they see?’ ‘Do they get involved?’, ‘what do they think can reduce bullying’, ‘do they gauge the symptoms of being bulled reflected in low grades or behavior issues?’ etc. Also, there are additional questions on their perception of   The answers are expected to provide important insights about how the teachers handle bullying situations or victims of bullying, and this information will be used to develop teacher training programs that can improve teacher vigilance and monitoring and assist teachers in helping students who have been bullied. Validity and reliability of questionnaires The research instrument used for the students will be tested using a pilot survey involving X number of students from 1 school in X county. The pilot survey responses will be discussed with the school principle to assess if the students’ responses on their academic performance, psychological and social well-being are correct. The pilot survey results will therefore establish that that incidence of bullying (as assessed by the gatehouse bullying) and outcomes like academic, psychological or social outcomes are correlated. The teachers responses are validated by…?I AM REALLY UNSURE HOW TO TEST THAT THE TEACHERS ARE NOT LYING? CAN YOU GIVE ANY SUGGESTIONS? OR ASK YOUR TEACHER? Method of Data Collection The data is to be collected using a survey method, where the respondents are distributed questionnaires and asked to fill them in privacy. The questionnaire for the students will include close ended responses The responses are collected later and then analyzed. The survey method has distinctive advantages as a large number of respondents can be contacted simultaneously, saving time and resources, and the data collected with little expenditure of money (Singh, 2002). The alternative method of data collection could be the interview method, but that method is not feasible when a large number or respondents are to be contacted, though a face to face interview provides more in depth and detailed data and includes non verbal and body language cues as well. The researcher will personally visit each school and give out the survey instruments to the teachers and the students. Prior permission from the school’s principle will be sought, and the researcher aims to visit 5 schools per day for the purpose of data collection. This will ensure that the data collection exercise will get over within a time of 60 days. Methods of Data Analysis The collected data from the student’s survey is analysed using statistical tools using excel sheet and correlation analysis. The data from part a will also reveal the prevalence of bullying in New Jersey county, and the correlation analysis of parts a and b are expected to highlight if bullying is creating problems for students in these schools that they are unable to perform academically or emotionally at their optimum. The teacher’s responses will be analysed reflectively by the researcher and with the background information gained about teacher’s role on bullying, teacher’s perception of bullying, identification of bullying victims etc. The analysis is expected to highlight how the teachers in thee schools perceive or ignore bullying, if they are able to provide any sort of intervention, and do they feel there is need for a anti-bullying program. The analysis will be undertaken in the light of the literature review and findings will be discussed using the available literature and work of other researchers. The analysis is expected to answer the research questions mentioned earlier in the proposal. Ethical Considerations The research proposal will also outline the ethical considerations that will guide the research. These will include data collection with informed consent of the respondents, ensuring of the privacy of the respondents and the confidentiality of their response, Time Line The research proposal will outline the time spent for each individual step of the research, starting from finalizing the research topic, conducting the literature review, designing the primary research, collecting the data, data analysis and discussion, and presentation of the research report. Appendix: References Clauss-Ehlers, C. (2010). Encyclopedia of Cross-Cultural School Psychology. NY: Springer Cresswell, 2007. Duncan, R. (1999). Maltreatment by parents and peers: The relationship between child abuse, bully victimization, and psychological distress. Child Maltreatment, 4, 45-56. Egan, S., & Perry, D. (1998). Does low self-regard invite victimization? Developmental Psychology, 34, 299-309. Glew, G.M, Fan, M.Y., Katon, W., Rivara, F.P., and Kernic, M.A. (2005). Bullying, psychosocial adjustment, and academic performance in elementary school. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. 159(11), 1026-31. Espinoza, E. (2006).The Impact of Peer Abuse (Bullying) on School Performance. Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, 4(9), 221-238 Haynes, D.L., Nansel, T.R., Eitel, P., Crump, A.D., Saylor, K., Yu, K.,& Simons-Morton, B. (2001). Bullies, Victims, and Bully/Victims: Distinct Groups of At-Risk Youth. Journal of Early Adolescence, 21: 29–49. Nansel, T. R., Overpeck, M., Pilla, R. S., Ruan, W. J., Simons-Morton, B., & Scheidt, P. (2001). Bullying behaviors among U.S. youth: Prevalence and association with psychosocial adjustment. Journal of the American Medical Association, 285(16), 2094-2100. NJ Department of Education. ( 2010). NJ Public School Fact Sheet. Retrieved on November 12, 2010 from: http://www.state.nj.us/education/data/fact.htm Olweus, D., (1991). Bully/Victim Problems Among School Children: Some Basic Facts and Effects of a Schoolbased Intervention Program. In Pepler, D. and Rubin, K. (Eds.) The Development and Treatment of Childhood Aggression, (pp. 411–438). Hillsdale, NJ: Earlbaum Parault, S. J., Davies, H. A. and Pellegrini, A. D. (2007). The Social Contexts of Bullying and Victimization. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 27 (2), 14 Singh, 2002 Gatehouse Bullying. (2010). http://www.rch.org.au/emplibrary/cah/Gatehouse_Bullying_Questionnaire.pdf http://www.rch.org.au/emplibrary/cah/Gatehouse_Bullying_Questionnaire.pdf Read More