Cyberbullying and Self-Perceptions of Students Associated With Their Academic Performance

The aim of this study is to explore the factors influencing students’ academic achievements in secondary school level (grades 09 and 10). Those factors include students’ self-reported psychological and issues (e.g. being bullied through social media) as well as socioeconomic status. Study participants included610 students at senior secondary level (237 male and 363 female) randomly selected from ten different government schools. The schools were randomly selected from the lists provided by their respective Education District Officer (EDO). The data were collected by researchers with the help of teachers. Participants’ were offered as incentives a drawing for a gift certificate. Bivariate statistics and multinomial logistic regression analyses were used for data analysis. Our study shows that traditional as well as cyberbullying may have a significant negative impact on students’ academic performance when socioeconomic status is not considered in the model. The effect of cyber as well as traditional bullying is offset by socioeconomic status. The findings from this research study show that socioeconomic status (i.e. household income, parents’ education) and low self-efficacy are the factors responsible for students’ low performance. Policies and interventions addressing these issues may be instrumental in improving overall student performance at the secondary school level.