Prevalence of bullying among students in international schools and its relationship with social skills and mental health outcomes: a study in Thailand

Abstract

Objectives: The study aimed to investigate the prevalence of bullying as well as the characteristics of bullying amongst high school students attending international schools in Thailand. The levels of positive mental health, i.e., social capital, social skills, self-esteem, resilience as well as negative mental health including depression, anxiety and perception of physical appearance and discrimination in the participants were also examined. This research aimed at comparing these mental health variables amongst various type of bullying, i. e. , bully, being bullied and bystander as well as the correlation between mental health variables.

Methods: International school students in Thailand aged 13 to 18 years old (n=102), completed online questionnaires addressing social capital, Olweus Bullying Questionnaire, social skills questionnaires (SSQ), Rosenberg self-esteem scale (RSES), resilience inventory (RI), outcome inventory (measuring anxiety, depression, interpersonal difficulties and somatization), body shape questionnaire (BSQ) and adolescent discrimination index (ADDI). Descriptive analysis was conducted to identify the prevalence and characteristics of bullying. The t-test was used to analyze the mean comparison of two independent groups, and Pearson’s correlation was used to analyze the association between variables.

Results: Amongst all students, 16(13.7%) reported to be bullied, whereas 12(11.8%) admitted that they had bullied others in the past two months. Bystander was reported for 43(42.2%). Only 2(2.0%) experienced being victims, bullies, and bystanders. Regarding bullying types, the most common type in this sample was " lying or spreading false rumors about the victim and trying to make others dislike the victim", while other types such as physical abuse were quite low. The bully group was found to have significantly higher level of resilience ( t = 2. 20, p < . 05) , whereas the victim group showed significantly lower level of self-esteem ( t = 3. 16,)

Conclusion: The prevalence of bullying in international schools was low compared with general schools in Thailand. Part of that might be related to a relative high level of socio-economic status of the students. Social skills did not differ significantly amongst the three groups. Being bullied was associated with low self-esteem, low level of resilience and high level of body dissatisfaction. Psychological problems associated with bullying were few and not associated with bullying. Despite that research on intervention should be further conducted especially amongst students experiencing being bullied. Keywords: victim, bully, bystander, mental health, international school, social skills, self-esteem, penetrator, social capital, body shape satisfaction, resilience. Background: Bullying is an important school problem. It has been studied around the world for more than four decades. It has a great impact on the physical and psychology of young people