**4. Students' perception of bullying**

Research to date indicates that bullying can seriously affect adolescents' psychosocial functioning, school adjustment particularly academic performance. Peer victimization and low academic performance often correlated because children who are chronically victimized experience negative emotional and psychological outcomes that can inhibit their engagement in the classroom and thus affected their academic achievement. Although small percentages of students are chronic victims of bullying in school, but also temporary victimization can

Results of longitudinal studies highlight strong correlations among peer victimization and lower grade-point averages and lower teacher-rated academic engagement across middleschool years [29]. Students who experienced bullying has 2–3 times negative school perception than those who did not involve in bullying activities [30]. Data from three African countries including participants aged 12–16 year, who participated in Trend study in mathematics and sciences. The results show that bullying is a significant problem in the three countries and is among the most common factors associated with low academic performance [31]. From Arab country, students who report being bullied have symptoms of depression and anxiety and

Research also assessed the mediating and moderating factors that influence peer victimization, and suggested that bullying contributes to poor academic achievement through mediating influences of internalizing behaviors, such as depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem [33]. Victims of bullying are often blaming themselves for being bullied which in turn develop a negative self-perception that affects their concentrating on school work, and become potential to have lower grades and perform poorly on standardized tests [13]. The most commonly investigated factors as having a moderating role in the relationship between bullying victimization and academic performance were friendship quality, peer social support, school

Findings from a nationally representative sample of 7th and 8th-grade students suggest that classmate support was negatively related to victimization and positively related to academic performance for both boys and girls [34]. On the other hands, having friends with high prosocial behavior, and low social anxiety reduces the risk of victimization and enhances academic performance [35]. Bullying and a violent school culture are also interfering with students' academic performance and negatively affect their social and emotional well-being [35, 36].

There is no specific profile of students who involved in bullying [37]. Findings of previous studies illustrate that there are many factors impact the occurrence of bullying in the schools, ranged from the students' sociodemographic, schools size, number of students, and students' perception of bullying [19, 26, 33, 38]. Several studies investigated the characteristics of those who involved in bullying both bullies and victims. The result showed that preschool aggressiveness, low socioeconomic status, and poor family relationships increase the probability of involvement in bullying cycle at later stages [26, 33, 39]. The results of Meta-analysis study, in which the students were categorized according to certain characteristics (either as victims,

seriously impaired students' academic performance and achievement [5, 21, 27–29].

poor academic performance [32].

50 Health and Academic Achievement

maladjustment, and school disconnect [21, 22].

**3. Who is at risk for bullying**

Although bullying in schools has gained the attention of research over the last three decades, there are some inconsistencies of how students perceive bullying [37]. The research found that students perceive the bully as one who has characteristics such as feel superior, seeking the attention of another, giving the way the victim behaved or look (e.g., wearing glasses, types of hairstyles or clothes), or act in a manner that makes others irritable. Moreover, students perceived the way the victim look, talk or dress as an essential leading factor for bullying. Being odd, such as wearing different clothes, eating different food, listening to different music, and having strange behaviors perceived as an exclusive characteristic associated with the victim of bullying [19, 26, 33, 38, 42].

A recent study found that students described a bully as "one who is a coward underneath, lacks respect for other people, wants to show power, wants to impress others, and wants to feel superior". Students perceived victims of bullying as "having low self-esteem, talking or sounding different than others, shy, and having no friends" [37]. Both victims and bullies, male and female students, agreed that being poor and fat were the main reasons for being bullied. Male students who are physically weak and shorter girls were also perceived as the main reasons for being bullied. Students also perceived the bully as having a bad manner and always making trouble in classrooms [38–40, 42].

• Design an educational program to helping students develop skills in conflict resolution,

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• Technical, psychological, social and cognitive interventions are recommended to prevent cyberbullying, such as technical web-protection including blocking cyberbully, changing the password, deleting messages, training of students as cyber mentor-safety, designing cybersafety resources for parents, and cyberbullying professional development programs

• Anti-bullying school programs should benefit from implementing peer interventions. Peers who have high self-efficacy, more likely to defend negative behavior and they are

• Schools need to create a culture of intolerance for violence by enforcing all school policies

• Schools must develop a professional preparation and development program for teacher

• School-based bullying programs should benefit from the mental health resources in schools (including the counselors, school psychologists, and social workers) in recognizing and understand the relations between the mental health of students such as depression, and

• Schools have to implement a systematic protocol for the early identifications of students

Bullying in schools is a widespread problem around the world, and no community is immune from this problem, despite the anti-bullying initiatives that implemented almost everywhere. Research on bullying has provided rigger evidence about the nature of bullying, the factors contributing to bullying, the characteristics of a bully and the victim, the physical, social, mental and academic consequences of bullying. Research also suggested many practical strategies that help in preventing and reducing the incidence of bullying in schools. Effective prevention bullying programs must define bullying in a clear way to the community and include as its core team, students, school staff, parents and other community members. In order to have a safe environment for students to learn, and to grow up, students must learn how to communicate with each other, resolve conflicts effectively, and learn how to be empathetic

negotiations, listening, communication, and decision making.

more likely to act in the bullying situation.

and staff to help them teaching mental resilience.

anxiety and attendance and bullying problem.

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

for schools.

consistently and fairly.

facing challenges and crisis.

**6. Conclusions**

to others.

**Conflict of interest**
