Psychologists Jun-Bin Koh and Jennifer Wong wanted to find out if adolescent bullying is derived from evolutionary development. In order to test this, they conducted a study in a suburban, secondary school in British Columbia, Canada. Their two main questions in the study was to find out if bullies differ in their mental health from victims and bully/victims as well as in their sexual access. The subjects were 133 students, 68 male and 65 female, from thirteen classrooms of grades 8, 9, and 10. The subjects were assessed on bullying and victimization, as well as on their social anxiety, self-esteem and social status. Bullying and victimization was measured by a modified version of the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire on the questionnaire.
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Bullies exhibited the lowest levels of depression among the four groups, but the results were not statistically significant. For self-esteem, the researchers’ hypothesis was confirmed as bullies exhibited the highest levels of self-esteem, and the results were statistically significant. From these two findings, the researchers concluded that bullying promotes better mental health. For the second main question of the study, the researchers’ hypothesis that adolescent bullying confers social hierarchy advantages to bullies, and it may have evolved through sexual selection was confirmed. Bullies had a significantly higher social status than any other group as well as self-esteem. However, for social anxiety, no statistically significant differences were found among the groups involved in bullying. Overall, this study contributes evidence that adolescent bullying is an adaptive behavior that emerges from evolutionary development. It is important to gather more information on why adolescents bully, so parents and teachers are able to develop prevention …show more content…
The procedure the researchers followed is clearly stated, as well as any complications they had. They described where the study was conducted, when it was conducted, and how it was conducted as well as describing how twice, students were not able to take their surveys in a silent library room and how parental consent forms prevented some students from participating in the study.
Another strength was Koh and Wong’s statistical analysis and descriptive statistics sections of the paper. Even though there were not many different categories, by splitting up the results based on gender, grade level, and ethnicity, readers are able to clearly see differences and draw conclusions off theses results, comparing them to the original research question.
However, while there were strengths, the study had a few weaknesses as well with the design of the study. One weakness was the small sample size. Having a small sample size can have significant impacts on results. It can skew the data one way or the other, or it can result in no statistical significance. Conducting this study at more schools to gain a larger sample size would have been ideal in this
Bullies exhibited the lowest levels of depression among the four groups, but the results were not statistically significant. For self-esteem, the researchers’ hypothesis was confirmed as bullies exhibited the highest levels of self-esteem, and the results were statistically significant. From these two findings, the researchers concluded that bullying promotes better mental health. For the second main question of the study, the researchers’ hypothesis that adolescent bullying confers social hierarchy advantages to bullies, and it may have evolved through sexual selection was confirmed. Bullies had a significantly higher social status than any other group as well as self-esteem. However, for social anxiety, no statistically significant differences were found among the groups involved in bullying. Overall, this study contributes evidence that adolescent bullying is an adaptive behavior that emerges from evolutionary development. It is important to gather more information on why adolescents bully, so parents and teachers are able to develop prevention …show more content…
The procedure the researchers followed is clearly stated, as well as any complications they had. They described where the study was conducted, when it was conducted, and how it was conducted as well as describing how twice, students were not able to take their surveys in a silent library room and how parental consent forms prevented some students from participating in the study.
Another strength was Koh and Wong’s statistical analysis and descriptive statistics sections of the paper. Even though there were not many different categories, by splitting up the results based on gender, grade level, and ethnicity, readers are able to clearly see differences and draw conclusions off theses results, comparing them to the original research question.
However, while there were strengths, the study had a few weaknesses as well with the design of the study. One weakness was the small sample size. Having a small sample size can have significant impacts on results. It can skew the data one way or the other, or it can result in no statistical significance. Conducting this study at more schools to gain a larger sample size would have been ideal in this