The Problems of Bullying and Their Psychological Effects on Students in Iraqi Schools

Abstract

        This study tries to illustrate kinds of bullying incidents, their causes, consequences or effects on Iraqi students especially the psychological ones, features of bullies and victims, settings and timings in which these incidents occur as well as possible solutions. Worth mentioning that the current study relies on the results of the practical study conducted by the researcher AL-Ghizzy (2022) in Al-Najaf Al-Ashraf Governorate entitled “Bullying Among Students of Intermediate Schools in Al-Najaf: A Societal Study” which is published in (2024) by GRIN publisher. Hence, the current study is a qualitative descriptive study that objectives the following: illustrating kinds of bullying occurred in Iraqi schools, clarifying causes of bullying among Iraqi students, giving the characteristics of bullies and victims in Iraqi intermediate schools, shedding the light on the consequences and problems of school bullying, explaining the settings and timings of bullying in Iraqi schools, and suggesting the possible solutions for these bullying incidents. However, this study reveals the following conclusions: kinds of bullying incidents that are mostly occurred in schools especially Iraqi Schools are either direct (verbal and physical), indirect or psychological. The consequences of bullying can be either psychological or internalizing, psychosomatic problems like school avoidance or hating school, externalizing problems, or school environmental problems. Bullying in general and school bullying specifically can be caused by the following factors: social factors, psychological, mental and individual factors, school environmental factors like dropping out school, and societal and cultural factors. The characteristics of bullies are: they often feel jealous, powerful, riotous, hate, grudge, chaotic, ironic and aggressive; while victims often feel anxiety, depression, worried, anger, stress, insecure, confused, annoyed, and anger. The settings and timings of bullying incidents occurred in Iraqi schools can be in the school before the teacher arrives the class and in the rests when students are gathering in the schools’ yards, outside school when students are in their way to school, and when they come back homes or leave school. Finally, the suggested solutions include making anti-bullying policies clear; increasing the awareness of bullying; including bullying as part of the curriculum; giving the students awareness lectures; increasing the contact between the students’ families and the school staff; monitoring the school yards especially in the breaks, etc.