Bullying refers to the kind of aggressive conduct in which an individual causes injury or discomfort to another person intentionally and in a repeated manner. Bullying acts can take the form of abusive words, physical contact or even more subtle actions. The bullied person in most cases has difficulties defending him or herself and may have done nothing to deserve bullying. All types of bullying have been associated with a tremendous effect on the targeted children. A bullied child may feel anxious, depressed, have sleeping or eating disorders or have a hard time concentrating in school. Others may run away from home, be involved in stealing activities, and have issues making new friends, avoid school or consider committing suicide. The affected children may feel uncomfortable telling anyone about their experience. Long-term effects of bullying on bullies may include continued use of aggression and control in relationships such as in marriage when they are adults (Beran, 2012).
There are various measures that parents and the school can take to stop bullying in schools. One of the most obvious and best ways to end bullying in schools is for the parent to change the manner in which they offer parenting to their children at home. It has been shown that most bullies come from homes where parents employ physical punishment to discipline their children. These children have been shown that using physical violence is the best way to handle problems. Homes where there is a lot of fighting between the parents result in children from these homes becoming bullies. This is mainly because the children have been shown that violence is common and justified in life. It is thus important that such incidents of violence be eliminated or reduced to avoid modeling children in violent environments. Bullying may also be eliminated when parents take up their role in parenting their children and giving them love and warmth (Tamanini, 2013).
Parents can also be alert to detect signals that may show that there is something wrong with their children. This can be done by increasing time that the parent spends with the child and pointing out the observations to the child. This may also help the child to heal and at the same time enable the parent to get more information. Once the parent has noted that the child is being bullied, the parent may determine the extent of the behavior, and whether bullying is being repeated. In case of mild bullying, it is important that the child keep a distance from the bullying child since this may just be an incident of jealousy. In case the behavior is intolerable, it is important that the parent involve the school to resolve the situation (Beck, 2008).
The best and effective way to stop bullying is having an early intervention and offering effective discipline to children by the parents as well as setting boundaries for the children. Although the parents of the victim may fail to change the environment in their home, there are several measures that can be taken at school level to stop bullying. In most schools, cases of bullying are handled using a multi-faceted approach. This approach involves using the peers, teachers, school counselor, or principal to offering counseling to the victims. The school may give out questionnaires to every student and teachers to determine if there is bullying in school and the form it is taking. The school may also define in an exact manner what constitutes bullying at school (Tamanini, 2013).
The school may get the parents of those children who are involved in a bullying program. Such a program will bring all the affected parties together and form a team that will work together to stop bullying effectively. It is also important that bullying be discussed during meetings where all parents and teachers are present to offer awareness to the parents. In a classroom setup, it is important that all teachers work together with the students in eliminating bullying by providing programs to implement bullying teaching. This will enhance the understanding of children on modeling behavior, their role in bullying situations as well as how to act out in situations where bullying is involved. It is also important that the rules involving bullying behavior be clearly posted.
The school may also ensure that there is adequate adult supervision all around in order to reduce and prevent bullying incidents. Programs that enhance the self-esteem of the children may also help in stopping bullying. This is because a child who has low-esteem has a higher chance of being a bullying victim than a child who has a high self-esteem. Those children who bully others should be taught empathy for the feelings of other children and this may change their bullying behavior (Tamanini, 2013).
Bullying is usually taken differently by boys from how it is taken by girls. For instance, girls are bullied or bully other girls using relational aggression while physical bullying characterizes bullying from boys. This does not mean that girls cannot be physically aggressive or that boys cannot exclude others. There is, however, a strong tendency in bullying, which is influenced by gender. Due to the physical aggressiveness and being impulsive than girls, most boys attack others especially those who show weakness. Most boys result to bullying others as a way of maintaining the position they acquire in a group where they follow some alpha males. There are other male bullies who enjoy the status they get by fighting others and this may cause them to indulge in threatening behaviors. Boys bully both boys and girls and most of them tend to be open about their behavior. This makes it easy to spot male bullies (Gordon, 2013).
Generally, there is a higher tendency that more boys will be bullied and bully than girls. There is also more acceptances when bullying occur in boys than when it does in girls. This means that boys may have no problem being friends with a girl or a boy who bullies other people. There is also a tendency that bullying ends quickly among boys than among girls and, therefore, boys may let it go more easily than girls.
The manner in which the girls bully other girls is more indirectly although some may use relational aggression. Bullying among girls is mainly characterized by the use of verbal assaults, spreading rumors, ostracizing and gossiping (Ledwell & King, 2011). In addition, most girls disguise their bullying behavior and act in a passive aggressive way. This makes hard to spot bullying among girls. Just like boys, most girls form groups that have a leader. However, unlike in boy groups, the members of girl groups are always in a competition with the other members and this result in lack of trust within the clique. A leader in a group is always worried that she may lose her power to another member of the group who is seen to be more worthy than the current leader.
Bullying among girls occurs in groups where the followers of the group accompany the leader in order to support the behavior. The girls usually rally around the leader so that they may gain a higher social standing in their group. This provides the person bullying others with peer pressure and may enhance bullying even when it is very clear that the act is wrong. Other than the usual bullying, girls also experience sexual bullying at a higher rate than boys (Gordon, 2013).
Girls are more vulnerable to rumors about sexual activities that they have done regardless of their validity. Girls are more likely to receive sexual messages and sexual harassment from boys than men may receive from other boys or girls. Girls also tend to be more intentional in their bullying, and this may result in psychological bullying among girls since it requires planning (Marcum, Higgins, Freiburger, & Ricketts, 2012). On the other hand, boys usually bully based on the available opportunity. This result in boys receiving physical bullying since this kind of bullying is typically impulsive.
Bullying, just like other crimes, it is a violent as well as an abusive act. It is a barbarous assail on the body, mind, as well as spirit. The degree of its effects is seldom apprehended. As an act of crime, it needs to be dealt with more critically by the judicial systems. In my view, bullying is kindred to the psychic trauma caused by rape, torture, and sexual abuse. It breaks down the will, severances the heart and directs the mind into upheaval. This way it causes guilt, shame, self-loathing, seething anger, as well as isolation. It can damage relationships and bust up the life of a family. It opens up a Pandora's box of psychological occurrences, which include poor concentration, anxiety, obsessive ruminations, forgetfulness, insomnia, flashbacks, nightmares, social withdrawal, panic attacks, loss of libido, de-motivation, distrust, despair, loss of hope, suicidal thoughts and even suicide itself.
The body assumes a thrashing weight loss, fatigue, chest pain, hypertension, asthma, irritable bowel, stomach ulceration, nausea, period problems, diarrhea, joint as well as ligament pains, eczema, psoriasis, among others. The unavoidable immune system suppression opens up the path to a collection of diseases as well as the likelihood of cancer cells settling down.
As grounded by research studies in Scandinavian nations, there appears to be a strong relationship between bullying fellow students in the course of school years and going through criminal or legal problems as grownups. In one survey, 60% of the persons described as bullies in between grades 6 and 9 had at least a single conviction of crime by the age 24 (Olweus, 1993). Inveterate bullies appear to keep their conducts into maturity, and this has a negative influence on their capability to make and keep positive relationships (Oliver, Hoover, & Hazler, 1994). Victims of bullying frequently develop fear for school and regard school as an unhappy and unsafe place. Up to 7% of eighth-graders in America remain home at least one time in a month due to bullies. The act of being bullied has a tendency of raising a number of students' closing off due to the fact that their peers fear losing their status through relating with them or they do not want to raise the jeopardy of being browbeaten themselves. Bullying results in low self-esteem as well as depression, problems that may be carried into maturity (Olweus, 1993; Batsche & Knoff, 1994).
Another research shows that about one out of six students did report being bullied on a weekly basis. A number of developmental, as well as differences in gender, are recognizable as part of the experience of bullying. A variety of studies in Australia has keyed out the harmful abnormalities to bullying (Rigby, 1997). The most recent research study points a connection between poor health and suicide. The social effects of bullying are reflected in its connection with poor peer relations quality. Regarding well-being psychologically, it has important negative relation with loneliness, depression and anxiety. In yet another study, there is an argument that bullying is a recognizable type of aggressive conduct. The research evidently shows that bullying is psychologically detrimental, physically harmful, socially insulating and linked to poor adjustment in school (Rigby, 1997). Prove is demonstrated that interventions programs have been exhibited to be efficient in cutting down, if not ridding of bullying in school. Further, there reviewed literature that strongly proposes that in the face of such proves schools are under significant pressure to take action to deal with the bullying issue (Rigby, 1997).
Victims of bullying have a particular exposure that can draw in extra trauma, exploitation as well as intimidation. The same is admittedly of the persons who are abused sexually. There exists a black hole in awareness with regard to the early recognition and special needs of the victims of bullying, both psychologically as well as legally. With this regard, bullying ought to be considered and treated as criminal behavior.
Reference List
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Beck, E. (2008). Bullying: How Parents Can Fight Back. Retrieved October 15, 2013, from http://www.schoolfamily.com/school-family-articles/article/818-bullying-how-parents-fight-back
Gordon, S. (2013). Do Girls and Boys Bully Differently? Retrieved October 15, 2013, from http://bullying.about.com/od/Basics/a/Do-Girls-And-Boys-Bully-Differently.htm
Ledwell, M., & King, V. (2011). Gender Differences in the Impact of Experiencing Bullying: Who’s Worse Off? Retrieved October 15, 2013, from http://paa2012.princeton.edu/papers/121148
Marcum, C. D., Higgins, G. E., Freiburger, T. L., & Ricketts, M. L. (2012). Battle of the sexes: An examination of male and female cyber bullying. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 6(1), 904-911.
Oliver, R., Hoover, J. H., & Hazler, R. (1994). The Perceived Roles of Bullying in Small-Town Midwestern Schools. Journal of Counseling and Development, 72(4), 416-419.
Olweus, D. (1993). Bullying at School: What We Know and What We Can Do. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Rigby, K. (1997). What children tell us about bullying in schools. Children Australia, 22(2), 28-34.
Tamanini, K. (2013). How Do We Stop Bullying in Schools? Retrieved October 15, 2013, from Psych Central: http://psychcentral.com/lib/how-do-we-stop-bullying-in-schools/0002371
