Bullying behaviour and psychosomatic health among township learners: Cross-sectional survey
Date
2020
Authors
Malatsi, Nomsa
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Abstract
The study aimed to establish the association between bullying and psychosomatic health. The target population for this study consisted learners from three Orlando West high schools in the township of Soweto, Johannesburg. Approximately 300 learners were sampled, comprising girls and boys from grades 9–11. A convenient sampling technique was used to select participants for this research. The study analysed data from respondents using univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis, specifically descriptive statistics as well as logistic regression. Regarding bullying, the study concluded that it happened more among boys than girls. Psychosomatic health challenges, however, occurred more among girls than boys and there was an association between bullying and psychosomatic health. The study has shown that bullying can affect the psychosomatic health of young people beyond psychological and academic performance effects as seen in previous studies. Going forward, it would be important for schools to prevent and decrease the levels of bullying in order to ensure increased levels of psychosomatic health among school children in South Africa.
Description
A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Educational in Psychology to the Faculty of Humanities, School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2020.