Vol. 3 - 2026
Bullying continues to be a major problem in secondary schools and is having a profound impact on the educational performance of students. This study investigated the effect of bullying behaviour on academic performance in senior secondary school students in Sabon Gari Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. The study was based on Social Identity Theory and adopted a survey research design. There were 150 students selected across five schools by simple random sampling. A structured questionnaire was used to gather data regarding the experiences of physical, verbal, and social bullying, and their impact on academic outcomes. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests of independence were used for analysis. Results indicated a high incidence of bullying with verbal bullying (67%) and physical bullying (59.3%) being most common. There was a statistically significant relationship between all types of bullying and academic performance: physical (χ² = 4.32, p < .05), verbal (χ² = 5.11, p < .05) and social (χ² = 6.27, p < .05) bullying, with the strongest association for social bullying. The study concludes that bullying has a clear and significant impact on students' academic engagement and that there is a need for better counselling services, prevention programmes and policy enforcement.
Bullying, Academic Performance,, Social Identity Theory, Guidance and Counselling
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