Impact of peer bullying on academic performance of students of Pope John Senior High School, Koforidua

Abstract

The study sought to assess the impact of peer bullying on the academic performance of students of Pope John Senior High School in the New Juaben Municipality in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The study employed quantitative descriptive survey research design. A sample size of 285 students was selected from a population of 1100 using a multi-staged sampling techniques comprising purposive and simple random sampling. The study used questionnaire to collect data from students and data were analyzed descriptively into frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviations using SPSS (version 23.0). The findings of the study revealed that causes of peer bullying in Pope John SHS were peer group influence, watching violent movies and obscene images and coming from a dysfunctional family. Also, the findings revealed that peer bullying has negative effects on students’ academic performance; for it discourages students from attending class, creates a negative environment in the school, negatively affects students’ academic level and cause students to perform poorly in school and then drop out. Finally, the findings from the study showed that some peer bullying mitigation measures in Pope John SHS include maintaining open lines of communication with students on a one-on-one basis, all teachers in the classroom collaborating with students to address bullying, involving the parents of the youngsters in a bullying prevention program and making a set of ground rules and prospects that are both clear and enforceable. Based on these findings, the researcher recommended that there should be a professional development training program for teachers to be able to handle issues of bullying effectively.