Impact of School Bullying on Emotional Intelligence of Teenagers

Arvind Kumar

Independent Researcher

India

Abstract

School bullying represents one of the most pervasive and damaging social phenomena affecting adolescents worldwide. Characterized by repeated aggressive behaviors—be they physical, verbal, or relational—bullying creates an environment of fear and powerlessness that can profoundly disrupt emotional development. Emotional intelligence (EI), the set of competencies enabling individuals to recognize, understand, and manage both their own emotions and those of others, is critical during adolescence for healthy social integration, academic success, and psychological resilience. Yet the relationship between bullying involvement and EI remains underexplored in a comprehensive, mixed-methods framework. This study draws on a sample of 500 urban secondary-school students aged 13 to 17, employing both the Emotional Quotient Inventory: Youth Version (EQ-I:YV) to quantify EI dimensions (self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills) and semi-structured interviews with a purposive subsample of 40 participants (20 victims, 20 perpetrators) to capture nuanced personal narratives. Quantitative analyses reveal that victims of bullying score on average 9–10 points lower in self-regulation and empathy compared to non-victims, with these deficits explaining roughly 24% of the variance in self-regulatory functioning. Perpetrators exhibit marked weaknesses in self-awareness and social skills, accounting for approximately 18% of variance in these domains. Qualitative themes highlight how victims employ emotional numbing, hypervigilance, and social withdrawal as coping mechanisms, whereas perpetrators often rationalize aggression as a means to mask underlying insecurities, further stunting empathic capacity. These findings underscore a bidirectional erosion of emotional competencies: victims lose vital self-management and interpersonal attunement, while perpetrators fail to cultivate fundamental self-reflective and relational skills. Implications call for integrated anti-bullying interventions that combine policy enforcement with EI training curricula—targeting both victim support (e.g., emotion-regulation workshops, trauma-informed counseling) and perpetrator rehabilitation (e.g., empathy mentorship, social-skills coaching).

Keywords

Bullying, Emotional Intelligence, Adolescents, Self-Regulation, Empathy

References

• Arseneault, L., Bowes, L., & Shakoor, S. (2010). Bullying victimization in youths and mental health problems: “Much ado about nothing”? Psychological Medicine, 40(5), 717–729. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291709991383
• Bar-On, R., & Parker, J. D. A. (2000). Emotional Quotient Inventory: Youth Version (EQ-I:YV). Multi-Health Systems.
• Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
• Brackett, M. A., Rivers, S. E., & Salovey, P. (2011). Emotional intelligence: Implications for personal, social, academic, and workplace success. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5(1), 88–103. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2010.00334.x
• Crick, N. R., & Grotpeter, J. K. (1995). Relational aggression, gender, and social-psychological adjustment. Child Development, 66(3), 710–722. https://doi.org/10.2307/1131945
• Creswell, J. W., & Plano Clark, V. L. (2011). Designing and conducting mixed methods research (2nd ed.). SAGE.
• Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82(1), 405–432. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01564.x
• Frick, P. J., & White, S. F. (2008). Research review: The importance of callous-unemotional traits for developmental models of aggressive and antisocial behavior. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49(4), 359–375. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01862.x
• Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ. Bantam Books.
• Hawker, D. S. J., & Boulton, M. J. (2000). Twenty years’ research on peer victimization and psychosocial maladjustment: A meta-analytic review of cross-sectional studies. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 41(4), 441–455. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00629
• Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. R. (2004). Emotional intelligence: Theory, findings, and implications. Psychological Inquiry, 15(3), 197–215. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1503_02
• Olweus, D. (1996). The revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire. University of Bergen.
• Petrides, K. V., Frederickson, N., & Furnham, A. (2004). The role of trait emotional intelligence in academic performance and deviant behavior at school. Personality and Individual Differences, 36(2), 277–293. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(03)00084-9
• Rivers, I., Poteat, V. P., Noret, N., & Ashurst, N. (2009). Observing bullying at school: The mental health implications of witness status. School Psychology Quarterly, 24(4), 211–223. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018164
• Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 9(3), 185–211. https://doi.org/10.2190/DUGG-P24E-52WK-6CDG
• Schwartz, D., Proctor, L. J., & Chien, D. H. (2001). The aggressive victim of bullying: Emotional and behavioral dysregulation as a pathway to victimization by peers. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 30(6), 517–532. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010393621923
• Sutton, J., Smith, P. K., & Swettenham, J. (1999). Social cognition and bullying: Social inadequacy or skilled manipulation? British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 17(3), 435–450. https://doi.org/10.1348/026151099165384
• Takizawa, R., Maughan, B., & Arseneault, L. (2014). Adult health outcomes of childhood bullying victimization: Evidence from a five-decade longitudinal British birth cohort. American Journal of Psychiatry, 171(7), 777–784. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2014.13101401
• UN Sustainable Development. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 agenda for sustainable development. United Nations.
• (2019). Hidden in plain sight: A statistical analysis of violence against children. UNICEF.
• World Health Organization. (2016). Global school-based student health survey (GSHS). WHO Publications.