Cognitive Achievement and Peer Victimization in the United Arab Emirates: Exploring the Rural-Urban Divide
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1
Emirates College for Advanced Education, United Arab Emirates
Background: Closing the rural-urban cognitive achievement divide, resulting primarily from grave inequities in educational provisions and opportunities, is an inevitable prerequisite for ensuring quality education for all. The alarmingly high rural-urban disparities in educational achievement and attainment may jeopardize children’s healthy physical, social, emotional, and intellectual functioning. Hence, the purpose of this study was three-fold: first, to examine the rural-urban gap in cognitive achievement among early adolescents in the United Arab Emirates (UAE); second, to investigate the rural-urban divide in the frequency of peer victimization among early adolescents in the UAE; and third, to explore the links between cognitive differences in academic achievement and peer victimization among rural and urban early adolescents in the UAE.
Methods: Data for the study were drawn from the UAE’ Grade 8 sample of the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). The Emirates of Abu Dhabi (N = 4373, female = 2140, male = 2233; Mage = 13.80, SD = 0.80) and Dubai (N = 5571, female = 2698, male = 2873; Mage = 13.93, SD = 0.86) took part in the TIMSS 2011 surveys and cognitive assessments as benchmarking participants. The rest of the Emirates in the UAE (N = 14089, female = 7035, male = 7054; Mage = 13.86, SD = 0.84) participated as non-benchmarking entities. The TIMSS 2011 mathematics achievement scale (ranging from 0 to 1000) as well as the index of students bullied at school (ranging from 1 = almost never to 3 = about weekly) were employed to measure cognitive achievement and the frequency of peer victimization, respectively. The TIMSS 2011 school location variable was used to classify the location of schools across the UAE as follows: urban, suburban, medium-sized city, small town, and remote rural.
Results: In the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, early adolescents living in the urban as well as suburban areas, medium-sized cities, and small towns scored significantly higher on the TIMSS mathematics assessment than did their peers living in remote rural areas (Mdiff = 68.00, SE = 12.40, p = 0.000; Mdiff = 59.00, SE = 12.20, p = 0.000; Mdiff = 49.00, SE = 11.80, p = 0.000; Mdiff = 37.00, SE = 11.90, p = 0.007, respectively). Urban adolescents also scored significantly higher on the TIMSS mathematics assessment than did their small town counterparts (Mdiff = 37.00, SE = 13.70, p = 0.02). In the Emirate of Dubai, early adolescents belonging to urban, suburban, and medium-sized cities scored significantly higher on the TIMSS mathematics assessment than did their small town peers (Mdiff = 59.00, SE = 7.60, p = 0.000; Mdiff = 56.00, SE = 8.60, p = 0.000; Mdiff = 35.00, SE = 9.10, p = 0.000). Urban and suburban adolescents in the Emirate of Dubai also performed significantly better than did their peers living in medium-sized cities (Mdiff = 24.00, SE = 6.40, p = 0.000; Mdiff = 20.00, SE = 5.10, p = 0.006).
Urban early adolescents in the rest of the UAE scored significantly higher on the TIMSS mathematics assessment than did their peers in medium-sized cities (Mdiff = 12.00, SE = 5.90, p = 0.04), small towns (Mdiff = 45.00, SE = 6.40, p = 0.000), and remote rural areas (Mdiff = 63.00, SE = 8.10, p = 0.000). Early adolescents in suburban areas and medium-sized cities also scored significantly higher on the TIMSS mathematics assessment than did their peers in small towns (Mdiff = 40.00, SE = 7.60, p = 0.000; Mdiff = 33.00, SE = 6.80, p = 0.000) and remote rural areas (Mdiff = 58.00, SE = 8.10, p = 0.000; Mdiff = 51.00, SE = 8.40, p = 0.000). Further, early adolescents in small towns as well scored significantly higher on the TIMSS mathematics assessment than did their counterparts in remote rural areas (Mdiff = 18.00, SE = 8.80, p = 0.04).
The five groups of adolescents in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi did not differ significantly from one another in terms of the frequency of peer victimization. In the Emirate of Dubai, early adolescents living in medium-sized cities were significantly more often subjected to peer victimization than did their urban as well as suburban counterparts (Mdiff = 14.00, SE = 0.03, p = 0.000; Mdiff = 13.00, SE = 0.03, p = 0.003). Early adolescents hailing from suburban areas, medium-sized cities, small towns, and remote rural areas in the rest of the UAE were significantly more frequently peer victimized at schools than did their urban counterparts (Mdiff = 03.00, SE = 0.02, p = 0.015; Mdiff = 06.00, SE = 0.02, p = 0.004; Mdiff = 13.00, SE = 0.03, p = 0.000; Mdiff = 11.00, SE = 0.03, p = 0.002).
Early adolescents belonging to urban and suburban areas as well as small towns in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi who were subjected peer victimization on a weekly basis scored significantly higher on the TIMSS mathematics assessment than did their remote rural counterparts who were victimized by peers on a weekly basis at schools (Mdiff = 74.00, SE = 12.80, p = 0.000; Mdiff = 67.00, SE = 15.08, p = 0.000; Mdiff = 65.00, SE = 13.60, p = 0.000). Urban early adolescents in the Emirate of Dubai who were victimized by peers on a weekly basis scored significantly higher on the TIMSS mathematics assessment than did their medium-sized city counterparts who were also peer victimized about weekly (Mdiff = 28.00, SE = 12.20, p = 0.02). Early adolescents, hailing from small towns and remote rural areas in the rest of the UAE, who were subjected to peer victimization more frequently scored significantly lower on the TIMSS mathematics assessment than did their urban, suburban, and medium-sized city counterparts who were peer victimized at schools on a weekly basis as well.
Conclusions: These findings suggest some glaring disparities that exist between rural and urban early adolescents in the UAE in regards to their cognitive achievement. They also demonstrate, to a certain extent, how peer victimization further exacerbates such disparities.
Keywords:
Rural-urban divide,
Cognitive achievement,
Peer victimization,
United Arab Emirates,
TIMSS
Conference:
2nd International Conference on Educational Neuroscience, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 5 Mar - 6 Mar, 2017.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Educational Neuroscience
Citation:
Fahim
MA,
Areepattamannil
S,
Seghier
M and
Habak
C
(2017). Cognitive Achievement and Peer Victimization in the United Arab Emirates: Exploring the Rural-Urban Divide.
Conference Abstract:
2nd International Conference on Educational Neuroscience.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2017.222.00018
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Received:
10 Feb 2017;
Published Online:
11 Dec 2017.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Shaljan Areepattamannil, Emirates College for Advanced Education, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, sareepattamannil@ecae.ac.ae