The Impact of Bullying on Children: A Research Report (BUS 410)

This report, focusing on the pervasive issue of bullying, investigates its profound impact on children's lives. The research delves into the definition of bullying, its various forms, and the environments where it occurs, including schools, playgrounds, and online platforms. It presents national statistics highlighting the prevalence of bullying and its detrimental effects on physical, emotional, and academic performance. The study explores the need for stricter laws and zero-tolerance policies to combat bullying, and it outlines a semi-structured interview research design to gather qualitative data. The methodology includes questionnaires and interviews with school administrators, counselors, and students, with ethical considerations such as confidentiality and informed consent. The report aims to raise awareness, provide information to parents, educators, and the community, and contribute to the prevention of bullying in schools and communities. The study uses a deductive reasoning approach to examine the impact that bullying has on innocent children and society, with the ultimate goal of advocating for stricter laws to prevent physical and emotional harm.

RUNNING HEAD: Bullying
Bullying
By
Jessica brito
BUS 410: Theory and Practice of Business Research
Professor Smith

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ABSTRACT
Bullying has become a huge problem in the school systems and in our communities. It threatens
the physical health and causes emotional stress on many people. The purpose of this study is to
investigate the impact that bullying has on our children’s lives and how it can harm the innocent
lives of other people. Bullying can be verbal, and it can also be physical aggression, threats, and
disparaging behavior. The Federal and Government laws are implemented in relation to bullying
but the problem is increasing at the present age. Deductive reasoning approach can help in
examining the impact that bullying has on innocent children within the school systems and in the
society. Bullying is a disconcerting experience for the children and it has become like an
epidemic in the present age. Moreover, it aims to find out whether the government (state and
federal) should establish stricter laws to prevent bullying which causes physical and emotional
harm. Findings from this study will raise awareness of the negative impact bullying has in our
schools and our society. It will also provide parents, educators, students and the community
important information regarding how to intervene. Most importantly, coming together as a
community can help in preventing the incidence of bullying in the society. Making a
commitment and being knowledgeable can help in saving the lives of the children.

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INTRODUCTION
Have you or anyone you know ever been bullied before? Well, you’re not alone. I have
a niece who was intensely bullied which caused serious harm emotionally and mentally. Not to
mention, the parents were distraught, emotionally and mentally drained. My research question
focuses on whether the Government (State and Federal) should establish stricter laws to prevent
bullying which causes physical and emotional harm. Even though the state, Federal, and local
governments have acknowledged the growing problem and have adopted laws as well as action
plans and some programs to prevent such obstruction, a good deal of these responses have been
pushed forward with minimal consideration to what is known about bullying and its outcome.
It’s imperative that bullying be stopped before it harms more innocent children and adults and
takes more lives.
In 2010 the Department of Education reviewed state laws on bullying and identified key
components which can assist those creating or trying to improve their bullying laws or policies in
their state. In spite of the fact that there are no federal laws in place for bullying, schools are
obligated to address such conduct under the laws enforced by the Department of Education and
the U.S. Department of Justice. There are, however, anti-bullying laws in place in every state.
The purpose for this revision was to create a framework of the damaging effects bullying has on
students, in addition to impacts on student academic achievements, school safety, student
engagement, and the school environment. It also reaffirms that any form, type, or level of
bullying is unacceptable, and that every incident needs to be taken seriously by school
administrators, school staff (including teachers), students, and students’ families. (Key
Components, 2018)

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LITERATURE REVIEW
What Is Bullying?
Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a
real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated,
over time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully others may have serious, lasting problem
(“What is Bullying”, 2018).
Bullying occurs not just in schools, but in workplaces and in homes. This unpleasant
behavior has been around for decades and which seemed to be just a playful and teasing
behavior, has now become an obstruction for many children and adults.
Bullying can happen in many different forms, such as, making threats, spreading rumors,
attacking someone physically or verbally (teasing, name-calling, taunting, etc.), and excluding
someone from a group on purpose (“What is Bullying”, 2018). Due to the traumatic nature,
some victims never get over the distress that can come with bullying both for the victim and the
bully. As a result of this, school violence has increased significantly and it’s causing deaths
amongst classmates.
Where and When Bullying Take Place?
Bullying can occur during or after school hours. While most reported bullying happens in
the school building, a significant percentage also happens in places like on the playground or the
bus. It can also happen travelling to or from school, in the youth’s neighborhood, or on the
Internet (“What is Bullying”, 2018).

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The National Statistics shows that according to one large study, the following
percentages of middle schools students had experienced bullying in these various places at
school: classroom (29.3%); hallway or lockers (29.0%); cafeteria (23.4%); gym or PE class
(19.5%); bathroom (12.2%); playground or recess (6.2%) (“Statistics”, 2018).
Effects on Bullying
Bullying causes unimaginable harm and even fatalities in some cases. National Statistics
shows that 28 percent of U.S. students in in grades 6 through 12 experienced bullying and 20
percent in grades 9 through 12. Thirty percent of young people admit to bullying others
(“Statistics”, 2018).
Physical, emotional and academic performance is compromised by bullies every single day for
some of the children including adults in the workplace.

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STATEMENT OF PROBLEM/PURPOSE OF STUDY
The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact bullying has in our children’s lives
and what can be done to stop it before it harms more innocent lives. Bullying has become a huge
problem in the school systems and our communities which threatens physical and emotional
harm to a large number of people. Despite Federal and Government laws in place, it seems as
though, the problem is sadly increasing.
Why does this research need to be conducted?
This research needs to be conducted to raise awareness of the problem and to provide
parents, educators, students and the community information of how we can make the data
decrease. Having stricter laws and zero tolerance can hopefully end bullying in our children’s
schools and the communities.
What is its relevance?
The importance of this research is that making the sacrifice of being knowledgeable of
the problem can save lives. People of different ages, social statuses, nationalities, and races are
being violently under attack every single day.

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RESEARCH DESIGN
I will be utilizing the semi-structured interviews to gather focused, qualitative
documented data. This method will propose a balance between the flexibility of an open-ended
interview and the focus of a structured ethnographic survey. By way of utilizing the semi-
structured interview method, this will assist in the clarification of the research scope or the
specific research question. This method can reveal valuable descriptive data analysis on the
exclusive insights of participants.
Process to be Undertaken
1) Question Development Stage/Interview Guide:
 Approach: Open-ended questions will be utilized to get lengthy and descriptive answers
in order to obtain full and insightful information from the participants.
 Zero Biases: Avert from leading questions and giving your own opinions.
 Clear Communication/Terminology: Clear terminology will be applied for the
participants to comprehend, given their understanding, language skills, influential
background, age, sexual orientation, etc.
 Remain Brief: Questions will be conducted short and sweet but at the same time clearly
defined.
 Framework: Questions with any strong positive or negative association will be avoided.
This will abstain the interviewer from imposing any bias onto the participant.
2) Materials:
 Consent forms: Copies of consent forms will be at the disposal and ready to be signed
by each of the participants.
 Recording devices: If any, a voice recorder will be utilized in the interview phase.

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 Ethical Standards:
o The research study procedures for the interview will be set out in writing, and
clearly explained to each participant before proceeding with the interview.
o Participants will be notified of the location, when and where it will be taking
place, and the time.
o Participants are in no way bound to participating if they wish not to. There will
be no consequences at any time.
o There are no risks involved in this research study.
o Confidentiality- All participants demographic information and data analysis
(responses) will be kept 100% secured and undisclosed. Information will be
solely used for the research study and future ones.
o Permission- All documented contribution, in written form or in notes taken at the
interview, should be used in accordance to the signed consent form.
3) Demographics: Participants and interviewer(s) will be recognized.
4) Meeting Formation: This session will allow the interviewer to introduce her/himself, re-
explain the research in study and get the participant’s consent (written).
5) Investigation: Upon interview completion, and assessment will be conducted of all the
responses data for insights and principles.
7) Report Initiation: A report of the collected data analysis will be finalized and disseminated
to the proper staff and will be utilized for future research studies at the university.
Methodology
This is the process which will be applied by the research so as to collect data which is
needed for the analysis phase (Howell, 2013). Moreover, the methodology will cover the

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instruments used as well as data analysis techniques. The study instruments is a broad term
which is used to refer to the devices applied in gaining information for the study. In this research
the main focus is to analyze the impact of bullying on the lives of children as well as analyze the
long-term consequence of the vice.
Instruments
In order to collect the relevant information, the research will apply a variety of
instruments. One of the instruments to be used will be questionnaires, this will be applied to
obtain information from a number of students selected to take part in the study (Franklin, 2012).
In addition, face to face interviews will be administered specially to obtain information from the
senior personnel such as the school counselors and administrators. A copy of questions to be
used in the questionnaire is attached in the appendix.
Data Collection
So as to obtained the necessary data for the research will select five schools within a State
in the United States and select a total of 100 respondents randomly within grade 6 to 12. In
addition, the school counselors together with an administrator per school will be interviewed. To
ensure an appropriate environment for collecting the data the interviews will be conducted
privately (Ndira, Slater, & Bucknam, 2011). Also, the pupils participating in the interview will
be selected at random and allowed to answer the questionnaire in a private room under the
guidance of a qualified counsellor. The interviews will be recorded inform of short notes and
together with the filled questionnaires used in the data analysis.
Data Analysis
Once the data is collected it will be cleaned and the statistical values recorded in an excel
sheet. The Microsoft excel tool will thereafter be used to analyze the data so as to obtain relevant
statistics that can be used to make conclusions.

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Ethical Considerations
In this study the human population will be used in a large scale especially when it comes
to data collection. As a way of ensuring the confidentiality of the individuals who took part in the
study a number of precautions will be put in place. The students will not fill their names in the
questionnaires. Also, during the interviews each interviewee will sign a consent form which will
guarantee that his/her identity will remain hidden unless it is necessary to reveal it under their
permission (Creswell, 2008). Also, the raw data collected will not be shared with third parties
where not necessary. Only the filtered data and the analysis outputs will be reported.
Before taking part in the study the participants will be verbally informed on their rights.
That is participating in the study in purely voluntary and does not attract any payment. In
addition, a participant is allowed to withdraw from the research at any step with no implication
on them. Considering that some of the students filling the questionnaires may be under age their
parents will be supplied with a consent form to fill and sign on their behalf. Permission will also
be obtained from the school administration which allows the study to be carried out within the
chosen schools.
In the information collection process, the study will seek the guidance of a professional
counselor to ensure that the rights of the minors are not violated in any way and they are free and
willing to take part in the study.
DISCUSSION
It is imperative to have strict laws for bullying, where the traumatic stress can certainly
create a major stress for the children at school. There is a possibility that they might be fearful to
attend the school, using the restrooms or going alone anywhere. The fear and anxiety can be

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mainly difficult for the children to focus on how they engage in the classrooms which will
eventually make their learning more difficult. Hence, the laws and programs that reduce bullying
practices are important, where the antibullying programs might be holding elicit responses which
exerts a major indirect influence on bullying with limiting the effectiveness of anti-bullying
activities (Espelage, Low, Van & Polanin, 2015).
It is seen that a small group of students might evidence reactance which can influence a
wider group of students through modelling the antisocial behavior and encouraging the peers
with disregard or disruption of programs.
The process is considered to be deviancy training which is likely to flourish in
relativeness to the unstructured settings, where bullying occurs often (Rigby, 2017). The
mechanisms set through antibullying initiatives might generally elicit the responses that could
undermine the programs through recurrent focus group themes. The participants need to focus on
limiting the extent to which the initiatives are influencing their peers (Evans, Adler, MacDonald
& Côté, 2016).
There are different factors of psychological reactance which might be leading to
influencing the student response for antibullying initiatives. The reactance’s are likely when
prevention programs attempt to limit the behaviors of student value.
The strict laws can help in saving the lives where people of different ages, social status
and the nationalities are seen to be violent under attack each and every day. The bullying has
been a major problem in the communities that could threaten the physical and the emotional
harms which are done to the people, at an enormous level (Formby, 2015).
Limitations and Delimitations

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There are different limitations to the research. We need to know where the study is
conducted, and whether the bullying rates are higher or not. It is also not clear if the findings are
transferrable to other schools all over the country where the antibullying programs are generally
considered to be successful.
The other limitation is the decision to engage the workers with focus group interviewers
who might have introduced a completely biased factor towards a favorable evaluation for
antibullying programs.
There is a need to reduce the disruptions with focus groups only limited to time of 45
minutes.
This could have reduced the percentage of groups, where theme was recorded.
The research delimits that the study might not be completely generalized for other
populations or the youth who are not attending the schools, any longer.
Significance of the study
The study will be of assistance in raising awareness for the problems and then provide
parents, educators and the students with proper information on how to handle the problem of
bullying in society. The strict laws need to be reformed so that the children are not harmed
through this.
CONCLUSION
Bullying is indicative of aggressive behavior among the children and bullying involves
power imbalance. Bullying is often repeated, and it takes place over a course of time. Bullying
can occur in various forms and one can make threats or spread rumors in the case of bullying.

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Bullying can take place at the time of and after the school hours. Most of the cases of bullying
takes place within the school premises, as well as, the playground and/or on the bus. Bullying
can give rise to unimaginable harm and it also causes fatalities in most of the cases. Bullying
debilitates the academic performance of the students and it can also harm the professional
performance of an individual. Deductive reasoning approach is applied in this research paper on
the topic of bullying. It helps in examining prospects that can help a person in reaching rational
conclusion.
The significance of the research is that it can pave the path for more research and
governmental regulations would be reevaluated owing to this research. People should come
together and become a community that can help in dealing with bulling in the schools, office and
in the society.

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REFERNCES
Creswell, J. W. (2008). Educational Research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating
quantitative and qualitative research. Upper Saddle River: Pearson.
Franklin, M. I. (2012). Understanding Research: Coping with the Quantitative-Qualitative
Divide. London and New York: Routledge.
Howell, K. E. (2013). Introduction to the Philosophy of Methodology. London: Sage
Publications.
Ndira, E. A., Slater, T., & Bucknam, A. (2011). Action Research for Business, Nonprofit, and
Public Administration - A Tool for Complex Times . CA: Sage.

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APPENDICES
Questionnaire form
Dear student, we wish to assist you have a better learning environment. In that regard by
answering the questions below you will help us identify some of the obstacles you face within
the school set up. Thanks for accepting to take part in the study.
1. What’s your age?
2. Kindly state your school grade
3. Have you ever encountered bullying in school?
4. If yes in which area of the school?
5. Did you ever report the incidence to anyone in the school?
6. If yes state the rank of the person
7. Was an appropriate action taken to the person who bullied you?
8. If yes did the action make them stop?
Thanks for answering the questions