IMPACT OF BULLYING BEHAVIOUR AND PERSONALITY TRAITS ON PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN THE GREATER ACCRA REGION

ABSTRACT The purpose of the study was to ascertain the impact of bullying behaviour and personality traits on psychological health of junior high school students in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The study used the descriptive survey design with quantitative approach. Multi-stage sampling procedures were used to select a sample of 390 junior high school students for the study. Three questionnaires adapted from the Olweus Bullying Questionnaires, Brief Symptoms Scale and Eysenck’s Personality Inventory were used to collect data for the study. Frequencies, means, standard deviations, spearman rank correlation, Pearson product moment correlation and independent sample t-tests were used in the analysis. The study revealed that bullying is prevalent among the junior high schools students in the Greater Accra Region with emotional bullying being the most prevalent [Overall mean % of 47%]. The study also revealed that the prevalent kind of personality traits among the junior high school students is extraversion [Overall mean of 2.93]. The results of the study further show a significant moderate negative relationship between bullying behaviour and personality traits [rbp = -.501, p = .014] as well as a significant strong positive relationship between bullying behaviour and psychological health [rbp = .731, p = .006]. In furtherance, the results show no significant relationship between personality traits and psychological health. The study also revealed a statistically significant difference in bullying with respect to gender [t(388) = 3.367, p = .002] with male students being the most perpetuators of bullying [Mean = 26.18]. Recommendation were made based on the need for policy makers and stakeholders in education to formulate policies to curb bullying in schools.