Understanding the patterns of bullying and it’s mental health effects among the youth with physical disability in Bangladesh

Abstract

Bullying is a current major concern in the world. The majority of research are focused on children, adolescents, and the workplace. Internationally mental health disability gets attention in the issues of bullying but the study is limited to physical disability and no national data is available on the prevalence of bullying among youth with physical disability. The purpose of this study is to identify the extent of bullying according to different types of bullying, also identify the reason and the mental health effects of bullying. A quantitative, cross-sectional design is used to conduct the study. This study used snowball sampling to collect data. Analysis of data from a sample of 70 participants throughout the Savar Upazila. The participant group was a youth with a physical disability. A total of 72% are reported they faced bullying within their lifetime but the frequency of bullying was low. Relational bullying (M=1.60) was the common type of bullying behavior. Bullying mostly occurred in the community (49%) and market (51%).The youth with disability mostly faced bullying due to their limited physical ability, poor economic status, and being different from others. This present study identified that bullying creates mental health effects, youth with disability who were victims of bullying had reported they felt sad, angry, sleeping problem and faced trouble to make a friend and concentrate in work. Bullying has a serious mental impact and person with physical disabilities are at higher risk of being bullied. Further research needs to include the rural area and preventive intervention. Key word: Bullying,Physical disability,Youth,Mental health Abstract