Bullying in Pesantren (Islamic Boarding School): A Systematic Review of Its Psychological Effects, Influencing Factors, and Intervention Strategies

Pesantren or Islamic boarding school is an educational institution that prioritizes teaching Islamic moral values. However, cases of bullying among santris (students) are common in these schools, and there is a need for conducting a systematic literature review to help pesantren overcome cases of bullying among santris. This study used a systematic review approach following PRISMA protocols to qualitatively synthesize studies on bullying among santris. The databases used in this study included Google Scholar, Scopus, JSTOR, ScienceDirect, Springer Link, and Sage Journals, with 21 studies included in the final analysis. These studies used qualitative or quantitative designs with participants ranging from 5 to 556. It focused on studies relevant to the topic, based on empirical data, with accessible full texts, covering broad aspects of bullying, published in reputable journals, providing sufficient information, with a theoretical background, using relevant research methods, and showing consistency between theoretical foundation and analytical outcomes. Studies were excluded if they do not meet the inclusion criteria. The results showed that bullying harms the psychology of santri. Influencing factors include environmental factors (e.g. peers, teachers, parents, digital media, and non-physical environment) and personal factors (i.e. personal attributes and personal social-contextual). Prevention and intervention strategies have targeted both the internal (person-focused) and external (environment-focused) influences of bullying; however, in terms of intervention strategies tend to be limited to targeting internal influences. This review has several weaknesses: it focuses only on bullying without considering related constructs such as harassment, exclusion of grey literature, and is limited to pesantren.