Bullying Victimization in Middle Schools: A Quantitative Correlational Study

Bullying victimization is a very common, complex and potentially damaging form of violence among children and adolescents. Bullying is defined as unwanted, aggressive behavior, which involves a real or perceived social power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time (therefore, the definition excludes occasional or minor incidents). Bullying victimization in schools is not only alarming, but it has now become a persuasive concern, one that should be evaluated closely by educators, parents, and policymakers in all school systems. In public schools, 1 in 10 reports at least a case of serious violent crime, such as aggressive bullying, cyber bullying, rape, robbery, fights involving weapons, and suicide each year. The purpose of this study is to examine certain predictors that may differ with middle school students that have experienced bullying victimization and to examine if they influence their academic achievement. An additional purpose of this study is to examine the effects bullying victimization have on students\u27 school disciplinary sanctions (suspensions, office referrals, and expulsions). This study will use a correlation design, in which the correlational research design is a type of nonexperimental research in which the researcher measures two or more variables and assesses the statistical relationship (i.e., the correlation). The independent predictor variables that will be used in this study to examine bullying victimization amongst middle school student’s academic achievement and disciplinary sanctions will be age, race, gender socio-economic status (SES) and physical and emotional bullying victimization. The dependent criterion variables are academic achievement and disciplinary sanctions