Adolescence is a developmental stage where adolescents start expressing their characters. It is especially important to understand the challenges of this developmental stage which is characterized by different disruptive behaviours. Adolescents, similar to every other person, can see differences or characters as an avenue to survive others in their environment. This makes the favourable adolescents either in biological traits, social characters or other factors to exhibit bullying behaviour over others that are seen as disadvantaged (this is later well explained through the biological evolutionary theory on bullying). According to Veenstra et al. (2013), bullies appear to deliberately target individuals who are not capable of effective retaliation or receive peer support.
Aggression, violence and bullying have been observed to be escalating in recent years in school environments across Nigeria. Aggression is inherent both in humans and animals, but what makes humans different is that they can bring aggressive behaviour under control (Celik, Kurtipek & Ilhan, 2016). This buttresses the fact that bullying as a form of aggression is a deliberate and intentional harm-doing (Wolke D, & Lereya, 2015). Bullying manifests in many forms, such as harassment, hounding, maltreatment, oppression, intimidation and discrimination. It is usually inflicted by seniors on junior students. Naturally, children are usually associated with compassion, sympathy, empathy, kindness, care, love, and forgiveness. However, surprisingly, children and adolescents who are assumed innocent could perpetrate such evil acts against fellow students. Although physical bullying can be easily noticed, most people may think of physical bullying as the most damaging type of bullying to a person; however, verbal bullying can be just as harmful as physical bullying, if not worse (Longwood, 2012).
Parents are usually unsure how to protect their children from bullying and violence. Others may not know if their children are victims, bystanders or even perpetrators of this harmful behaviour. Because parents may not always follow what their children are doing in school, it can be difficult to know when your child is affected. Bullying is a dynamic process, and factors that predict it may relate to interactions between adolescents and their families, peer groups, school communities, and societal norms (Rose & Espelage, 2012). Parental involvement is a direct effort provided by the parent to get abreast with the life activities of their children. Parental involvement is a combination of commitment and active participation on the part of the parent in their child’s activities. It is the participation of parents in every sphere of a child’s education and development. Parents become involved in school activities by attending parent-teachers association meetings assisting their children in doing their homework, attending academic clinic days, and many other activities organized by the school (Encyclopedia Parental Involvement; 2021). Greater paternal involvement may result in greater academic achievement, reducing rule-breaking behaviour, and increasing interpersonal and institutional trust (Salgado, Gonzalez, & Yanez, 2021). Adolescents who feel accepted and supported by their parents, and whose parents communicate clear expectations regarding their children’s behaviour and are monitored are less likely to develop serious problems (Sharon 2022).
Interactions, especially among adolescents in school may not be devoid of conflict because they are an inevitable feature of human interactions. Often, what ignites conflict seems simple, such as interrupting other students or using someone else’s belongings without permission. Such conflicts, however, are not necessarily detrimental to adolescent development. The way conflicts are managed is of crucial importance, and is known as conflict resolution. It is the parts, methods and processes engaged in facilitating the peaceful ending of conflict and retribution. Conflict resolution is the formal and informal process that two or more parties use to find a peaceful solution to their dispute (Katie Shonk, 2021). According to Burger (2022), conflict management might not be appropriate for preventing bullying victimization in the first place, nor is it appropriate for stopping ongoing victimization or its negative effects on school adjustment. However, this is not to suggest that conflict management in general is not important for prevention. Constructive management of conflict will lead to positive peer relations and more peaceful behaviour. This is the reason why some anti-bullying programmes also foster adequate conflict management skills among students. Studies and researchers have developed different typologies to describe individuals’ conflict resolution strategies in interpersonal relationships. The most widely used approaches are the dual concern model (Qin Gao, 2017) in which five types of strategies were identified according to the level of concern for oneself versus concern for others: problem-solving (i.e., collaborating, integrating; high concern for self and others); compromising (moderate concern for self and other); forcing (i.e., competing, dominating, antagonism, negativity; high concern for self and low concern for others); smoothing (i.e., accommodating, obliging, compliance; high concern for others and low concern for self); and withdrawal (i.e., avoiding; low concern for self and others). The present study will also follow the dual concern model by considering and assessing four conflict resolution strategies: problem-solving, conflict engagement, compliance, and withdrawal.
Adolescents seek acceptance from their social environment. If an individual feels that he/she is socially accepted, that person would perceive that other people wish to include him/her in their groups and relationships. On the other hand, social rejection indicates that others have little desire to include the person in their groups and relationships (Leary, 2010). The concepts of “acceptance” and “rejection” are frequently treated as dichotomous (i.e., a person is either accepted or rejected), in practice, the levels of acceptance/rejection lie along a continuum (Leary, 2001). According to this view, the end of acceptance would reflect the active pursuit of strong relational interactions, whereas moderate levels of acceptance may involve a welcoming attitude only, with minimal acceptance indicating mere tolerance of the individual’s presence (Leary, 1990). Children who perceived their social acceptance in a positive light had the lowest levels of self-reported emotional dysregulation and parent-reported affective problems, regardless of their peer social standing. Children who hold a positive view of their social acceptance despite being rejected by their peers may not be at increased risk for internalizing problems (Pardini et al., 2006). Perceiving acceptance by peers is believed to promote a greater sense of belonging in school and thereby promote school engagement (Juvonen et al., 2012; Juvonen, 2006; Furrer & Skinner, 2003). Moreover, positive peer relationships may provide greater access to information and resources that help adolescents accomplish academic tasks (Wentzel, 2014). Being rejected by classmates may lead to disengagement and decreased academic achievement (Buhs, 2005; Juvonen & Knifsend, 2016), which might eventually lead to antisocial behaviour among peers.
Bullying can have long-lasting consequences especially the physical effects of bullying. Children may also experience emotional and mental health problems, including depression, anxiety and panic, which may lead to substance abuse and decreased performance in school (Wolke & Lereya, 2014). The favourable conditions necessary for normal functioning in schools are disrupted by this act. It interferes with the normal developmental processes of children and hinders their smooth passage through adolescence, thereby rendering them dysfunctional in society (Sullivan, Cleary & Sullivan, 2005). This disturbing and despicable act has disturbed and affected normal schools and the peace of the majority of schools in the Egbeda Local government on several occasions, even leading to intergroup and interschool violence. Even in other places in Ibadan, such as students of Zumuratu Secondary School and Muslim Grammar School, they were seen on the viral video fighting with cutlasses, planks and stones. Globally, the impact of this despicable act on children cannot be overemphasized. There are instances of children who have become victims of depression, suicidal ideation, hatred and bitterness as a result of the negative impact of bullying. Bullying can also affect the social environment of a school, creating a condition of fear among students, and inhibiting their ability to learn and leading to other antisocial behaviour.
The situation is alarming and significantly places serious threats to the realization of the goals of secondary education, as spelt out by the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004) in the National Policy on Education. It is obvious that none of the national values and goals can be successfully inculcated in the face of the bullying culture that has eaten deep into the school system. In Nigeria, there are no available national statistical facts to show the actual number of students who are bullied or victims in Nigerian schools. This lack of statistical facts and the absence of well-documented evidence have made it difficult for us to be alert to the prevalence of bullying behaviour in Nigeria. A study on some Nigerian students in Benin City (Egbochuku, 2007) revealed that almost four in every five participants (78%) reported being bullied, and 85% of the children admitted to bullying others at least once. Using moderate criteria, the study further indicated that more than half of the students (62%) were bullied and 30% bullied others. In a somewhat first-ever nationwide situational analysis survey of school violence conducted by the Federal Ministry of Education (2007), it was reported that physical violence and psychological violence accounted for 85% and 50%, respectively, of the bulk of violence against children in schools. Across school locations, physical violence was more prevalent in rural area (90%) than in urban areas (80%). Across regions, physical violence in schools is higher in southern Nigeria (90%) than in the northern region (79%). This is also the case for psychological violence, which is 61% in southern Nigeria and only 38.7% in northern Nigeria.
The victims of a bully do not want to speak out or report for fear of the oppressor in most cases. However, some signs could readily show that a child is being bullied. This may include constant loss of personal belonging which is usually taken by the aggressor, especially if it is a boarding school. Most times, the victim is denied their personal belongings by the bully, while the parents usually assume that the child is careless. Parents are usually unsure how to intervene to protect their children from bullying and violence. Others may not even know if their children are victims, bystanders or even perpetrators of harmful behaviours. Because parents may not be involved and always follow what their children are doing in school, it can be difficult to know when their child is affected.
Checking through journals and literature, parental involvement has been linked to academic achievements but not to disruptive behaviour (bullying). Most studies on bullying are on actual bullying behaviour but not bullying tendency. There is also no empirical data collection on the prevalence of bullying in Egbeda Local government. However, this study will fill these gaps by studying the role of parental involvement, conflict resolution and perceived social acceptance on bullying tendency among adolescents in Ibadan, and reporting the prevalence of bullying in Egbeda local government Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria.
Evolutionary Theory on Bullying
Animal inherent trait of dominance as an instrument of survival could make them strive to dominate either by acceptance or by force on the other animals. This inherent trait is also fostered by biological factors that make the advantaged or the animal with favourable or surviving characters perceive themselves as superior and others as inferior, which may lead to a bullying tendency. This act can also be seen among nonhuman animals, where the older, lager and/or stronger animal continually takes advantage of or bullies the other by harming and preventing them from eating, which in turn results in a wider gap between the bully and the victim animal. Because as the bigger or stronger eat more, the bigger it becomes at the expense of the other ones.
By providing objectives that were adaptive in the past and are still adaptable today, a functional evolutionary approach clarifies the key roles of bullying. Evolutionary theory and evidence also support that bullying is a goal-directed behaviour, and is associated with adaptive outcomes relating to reputation (i.e., social dominance), resources, and reproduction (Volk et al., 2012).