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Bullying Behavior Roles And Mental Health Correlates Among Secondary School Students In Ilesa, Nigeria

Temitope Jegede, Tunde-Ayinmode MF, Tolulope Jegede, Adesanmi Akinsulore, Ibigbami Olanrewaju

Objective: Bullying behaviour is pervasive, cuts across age group, transcends geographical location and its impacts include but not limited to physical or academic snags. The objective of the study is to determine bullying roles and their association with emotional or behavioural problems among adolescents in Ilesa, Nigeria.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed on 432 senior secondary school students (12-18 years old) in Ilesa (Nigeria). Peer Relationship Questionnaire was used to determine bullying roles and the Strength and Difficulty Questionnaire to measure behavioural problems.

Results: Prevalence of bullying behaviour is high. The bully-victims had the highest means score on all subscales except pro-social. Similarly, the bully-victims was significantly associated with all subscales of the SDQ except the pro-social problems at (P< .001), (P=.024), (P= .004), (P= .004), and (P< .001) for conduct, emotional problem, hyperactivity problem, peer relationship problem and the total difficulty score respectively.

Conclusion: This shows that participating in bullying behaviour irrespective of the role played increases the likelihood of psychological consequences, especially the bully-victim. There is a need to establish anti-bullying programs in schools to curb this menace and its mental health consequence.