CYBER-BULLYING AND ITS NEGATIVE EFFECTS TO THE ACADEMIC

PERFORMANCE OF THE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS OF ANDRES

BONIFACIO COLLEGE

Introduction

Modern technology is continuously evolving, and in recent times, it has manifested itself

in a very serious social problem, namely cyber bullying. Modern technology is like a double-

edged sword; on one hand it gives us connectivity, on the other it increases emotional stress

(Michel, 2011). As such, young internet users, including students, may be at the mercy of cyber

bullies. The victims, under great emotional stress, are unable to concentrate on their studies, and

thus their academic progress is adversely affected (Juliana, 2010). Unfortunately little attention is

given to this global problem by institutions of higher learning, teachers, parents and emergency

service providers. The depressive effect of cyber bullying prevents students from excelling in

their studies (Lauren, 2011).

Bullying in schools and universities are causing unimaginable problems to students,

parents and to educational institutions. Unfortunately little has been done to help those victims

who are continuously trapped in the name of modernization and digitalization (Watson, 2010).

Researchers agree that the stressful impact of bullying is escalating with the rapid expansion of

technological advancement (Justin, 2011). Many students who are victims of cyber bullies suffer

silently; they are reluctant to complain to the authorities or their parents owing to the social

stigma attached to victims of bullies (Susan, 2011). As such, parents, teachers and institutional

authorities have to be on the lookout for such occurrences.

Statement of the Problem

The aim of the study is to determine the negative effects cyber bullying to the academic

performance of Senior High School students of Andres Bonifacio College.

To be more specific, this study tends to answer the following questions:

1. What is the socio demographic profile of the respondents in terms of:

1.1 Gender

1.2 Age

1.3 Strand and Year Level

1.4 Civil Status

1.5 Religion

2. Have you ever experience cyber bullying at school? If yes, what are the consequences

that youve encountered after that?

2.1 low academic performance

2.2 depression

2.3 attempt suicide

2.4 trauma

2.5 self pity

2.6 negative vision towards life

3. In which social media accounts would you prefer to advocate or advertise the prevention

of cyber bullying?

3.1 Facebook

3.2 Twitter
 3.3 Instagram

3.4 Snapchat

3.5 Youtube

3.6 All of the above

4. If you have encountered cyber bullying, how did you cope up with its negative effects

such as loneliness, depression, embarrassment and etc.?

5. How cyber bullying affects the school performance of a student?

5.1 Low Grades

5.2 Absenteeism/Attendance

5.3 Cutting classes

5.4 Mentally drain

6. In which social media account you have experienced cyber bullying? (If cyber bullying is

encountered)

6.1 Facebook

6.2 Twitter

6.3 Instagram

6.4 Snapchat

6.5 Youtube

6.6 All of the above

Hypothesis

There is no negative effect of cyber bullying to the academic performance of the Senior

High School students of Andres Bonifacio College.

Significance of the Problem

 Technology as we can observe is very fast in terms of development and discovering new

items, such as social media cites, digital tools and a lot more. Cyber bullying is a crime for the

bully can hurt someones reputation, feelings and emotions. Cyber bullying is very rampant in

our society because of this innovation. Most people around us do not have a proper guidance on

what is the proper usage of the social media. Instead of using it in a good ways, there are some

who uses it to hurt someones feelings and emotions. Using vulgar words in social media is

clearly observed by many of us specifically to the younger ones.

It is very important to lessen the cases of cyber bullying specifically in Andres Bonifacio

College to avoid the negative effects of it to the academic performance of the Senior High

School students of the said school. As an example of these negative effects of cyber bullying is

low grades, absenteeism/attendance, being mentally drain, cutting classes and etc.

The beneficiaries of the studies are the following:

Researchers-they will have, or gain ideas about the topic. This research proposal can be their

secondary source when getting data in the future.

Students-students are the main beneficiaries for this research proposal because they are the most

prone

Teachers-Through this research proposal they could notice the cyber bullying that is happening

inside the classroom/school and will take action, such as suggesting to the faculties of setting up

a symposium regarding this problem.

Adviser- They are the beneficiaries of the study for they will notice the silent cyber bullying that

is happening inside their classrooms, if ever, they will find ways and will take some actions on

how to lessen the cyber bullying.

School- when the school will notice the silent cyber bullying that is happening inside the school

campus, they could add more action through this. They will conduct more seminars and

symposiums so that the students will be more aware with cyber bullying.

Faculty and staffs- they can have the role of giving advices and monitors the cases of cyber-

bullying that is happening inside the school campus.

Parents- parents can be considered as one of the beneficiaries of this study because their

children are the most prone of cyber bullying. In addition, parents also would notice that their

children are being cyber bullied. If in case cyber bullying happens to their children they could

find good ways to protect their children from cyber bullying. And if in case their children are the

cyber-bully, they would notice and make ways on how to discipline their children.

Administration- the admin as the beneficiaries of the research study could deal with the

students issue with cyber-bullying. They could use the alternative solution of the research

proposal in accordance to cyber-bullying.

Definition of Terms

Cyber-bullying- is a social electronic problem that the grade 12 senior high school students of

Andres Bonfacio College is facing and has been encountering a different ways of bullying

through social media.

Students- They are the main respondents of this research proposal, they are the one who is more

prone of cyber-bullying in the school.

Academic performance- Academic performance of the students will be affected by cyber-

bullying.

Bully- they are the students that hurt some co students by using abusive words through social

media.

Cyber- is a technological tool specifically the computers that is used as an equipment or a tool to

bully some grade 12 senior high school students of Andres Bonifacio College.

Computer- this is a primary tool of the bully to hurt the victim online and in social media.

Internet- tool that enables interaction in cyberspace.

Bullying- the act of hurting someones feeling, emotion, image with the use of cyber.

Emotional- emotion after being cyberbullied

Psychological effect- pertaining to the mind or to mental phenomena as the subject matter.
Assumption

13% of the students had suffered emotionally due to cyber bullying. Furthermore,

majority of the respondents 70% agreed that cyber bullying adversely affects students academic

performance. 1.1% of the Students had bullied someone outside the school campus.

Limitations and Delimitations

The results of this study are subjected to the following limitations: First, this research

conducted only on Senior High school students with 350 samples. As thus, the results cannot be

generalized. Second, further examinations are necessary with longer period of time as well as

more samples to test whether cyber bullying indeed affected them academically. Third, it is

beyond the control of this research to avoid human factor such as bias to cyberspace and affected

students.
Review of Related Literature

According to the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program there are nine types of bullying.

The first one is verbal bullying, which includes attacks through nicknames or derogatory

comments; the second and third types are physical assaults against an individual or his

possessions. The fourth type of bullying is through isolation or social exclusion; the fifth one

refers to aggression through lies, gossip and false rumors; the sixth is when children are

threatened to do things against their will; the seventh and eight are racial and sexual bullying.

Lastly, this prevention program includes cyber bullying, through phones and internet, as a new

type of aggression.

The Internet has created a new paradigm shift in communication. Today our youth are

addicted to using electronic communication tools. It is an undeniable fact that electronic-based

communication has transformed our lives tremendously, but unfortunately, there is a dark side to

this technological advancement. Cyberspace is a potential site for violence, victimization and

oppression (Faye, 2011).

According to Olweus (1993), a student is being bullied or victimized when he or she is

exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other students.

Hence, bullying is showing aggressive behavior to a person without any prior provocation with

the intention of causing harm.

It also denotes that the harm is done repeatedly over time and there is a disparity in

strength and power between the victims and cyber criminals. Electronic bullying or cyber

bullying, according to Kowalski (2011) simply indicates using the Internet to cause

psychological and emotional disturbances.

 Olthof (2011) defines cyber bullying as a strategic behavior of an individual to dominate

another individual or a group of individuals. Online Oxford Dictionary defines cyber bullying as

the use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an

intimidating or threatening nature. Cyber bullying is defined by Wikipedia as a deliberate act of

aggression using technological advances such as internet to cause harm to a person. This

aggression can be repeated, deliberate hostility. Cyber-bullying occurs "when the Internet, cell

phones or other devices are used to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass

another person" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber-bullying).

Cyber bullying also happens when a person's name is used to publish undesirable

materials online, thus causing character assassination of the victim. Character assassination can

be done through e-mail, chat room, sms, calls, social network, twitter, MySpace, Facebook,

discussion boards, on-line forums, blogs, instigation and rumors. Recent findings indicate that

cyber bullying is becoming a pervasive problem around the world and it is increasing alarmingly.

(John, 2011).

The psychological effects of cyber bullying in our society and institutions cannot be

ignored any longer (Bulent, 2009).

As the social networking domain expands in cyber space, it inevitably creates more

opportunities for cyber criminals to victimize young, unsuspecting internet users (Allison, 2009).

Research findings have shown that cyber bullying causes emotional and physiological

damage to defenseless victims. (Yavuz, 2010).

With regards to the international evidence on this relationship, Roman and Murillo

(2011), employ a hierarchical model, finding that aggression in schools has a negative effect on
academic achievement in Latin America. In particular, the authors affirm that students who have

been cyber-bullied perform less well in math and language on the Second Regional Comparative

and Explanatory test conducted by Unesco in 2005 and 2009.

Brown and Taylor (2008) use an ordered probit model to predict the probability of being

in given grade, in a given time period, based on the level of cyber-bullying experienced by each

individual at that period; they control by the quality of the school, the family environment and

student ability. Their main result is that an increase in one standard deviation in the level of

cyber-bullying to which a child is exposed at age 11 increases the likelihood of failing all

secondary education examinations by 1.7 %, where the magnitude of the effect depends

positively on the proximity between the bullying episode and the test. Their results are robust to

controlling for educational level, previous academic achievement, height, weight and personality

characteristics of students as well as household characteristics. However, it is worth noting that

the authors don't control for the existence of reverse causality in their estimates.

Likewise, Mundbjerg et al. (2014) analyze the causal relationship between cyber-bullying

in elementary in school and future outcomes in Denmark, establishing that bullied children have

lower academic achievement in 9th grade and that the effects are larger when cyber-bullying

episodes are more severe. The authors use the Aarhus Birth Cohort database, ABC, which

contains information on academic achievement in 9th grade and bullying incidence from two

sources, parents and teachers, for all children born in Aarhus, Denmark, between 1990 and 1992.

Along the same lines, Le, Miller and Heath (2005), estimate the effect of having a

conduct disorder on the probability of dropping out of school9. To do so, the authors use

information on family background, demographic variables and behavioral variables such as

bullying, theft, and physical violence from the Australian Twins Registry. It is worth noting that

this dataset is a volunteer sample of siblings in Australia that contains information about

behavior problems and family labor market outcomes for 4,264 twin pairs born between 1961

and 1974.

As to the specific ways through which cyber-bullying can affect academic performance,

Smith, Talamelli, Cowie, Naylor and Chauhan (2004) study the profile of the bullying victims

from interviews in two time periods. Their results show that school attendance negatively

depends on the level of bullying to which each student is exposed to; those students who have

never been bullied by their peers have the highest rate of school attendance while those who

were victims of bullying at both moments in the interviews spent 4.55% less time in school10. A

second way in which bullying can have a negative effect on performance is through lower peer

effects because, according to Brown and Taylor (2008), victims have fewer friends and worse

relationships with their peers and therefore fewer opportunities to learn from them.

Regarding the institutional characteristics that explain the negative effect of cyber-

bullying, it is important to acknowledge that in schools with higher levels of cyber-bullying,

classroom climate hinders learning process because students live in an environment of teasing,

stress and anger, all of which negatively affect their ability to learn (Chaux, 2012). Furthermore,

this type of environment decreases student motivation and prevents students from participating

and asking questions in class because they are scared of the reaction of their peers.

According to the above finding, although international evidence posits the existence of a

negative relationship between cyber-bullying and academic performance both for developed and

developing countries, this paper contributes to the literature as it quantifies the relationship
between these variables after controlling by the existence of reverse causality. In this sense, the

paper adds to the literature by estimating the relationship without the negative bias on the

magnitude of effect that comes from the fact that bullying is aimed at students with depending on

their academic performance.

Tim Table
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