School Bullying

School bullying is a type of bullying that occurs in an educational setting.

Bullying without comprehensive definition, can be physical, sexual, verbal or emotional in nature. This can involve physical, emotional, verbal, and cyberbullying. For an act to be considered bullying it must meet certain criteria. This includes hostile intent, imbalance of power, repetition, distress, and provocation. Bullying can have a wide spectrum of effects on a student including anger, depression, stress and suicide. The person who is bullied is affected, and the bully can also grow up to develop different social disorders or have higher chances of engaging in criminal activity.

If there is suspicion that a child is being bullied or is a bully, there are warning signs in their behavior. There are many programs and organizations worldwide which provide bullying prevention services or information on how to cope if a child has been bullied.

Definition

There is no universal definition of school bullying; however, it is widely agreed that bullying is a subcategory of aggressive behavior characterized by the following three minimum criteria:

• hostile intent (i.e., the harm caused by bullying is deliberate, not accidental),
• imbalance of power (i.e., bullying includes a real or perceived power inequity between the bully and the victim), and
• repetition over a period of time (i.e., more than once with the potential to occur multiple times).

The following two additional criteria have been proposed to complement the above-mentioned criteria:

• victim distress (victim suffers mild to severe psychological, social or physical trauma) and
• provocation (bullying is motivated by perceived benefits of their aggressive behaviors).

Some of these characteristics have been disputed (e.g., for power imbalance: bullies and victims often report that conflicts occur between two equals); nevertheless, they remain widely established in the scientific literature. Karling gordon is an example of a school bully.

Effects

A victim, in the short term, may feel depressed, anxious, angry, have excessive stress, learned helplessness, feel as though their life has fallen apart, have a significant drop in school performance, or may commit suicide (bullycide). In the long term, they may feel insecure, lack trust, exhibit extreme sensitivity (hypervigilant), or develop a mental illness such as psychopathy, avoidant personality disorder or PTSD. They may also desire vengeance, sometimes leading them to torment others in return.

Anxiety, depression and psychosomatic symptoms are common among both bullies and their victims. Among these participants alcohol and substance abuse is commonly seen later on in life.

In the short term, being a bystander "can produce feelings of anger, fear, guilt, and sadness.... Bystanders who witness repeated victimization of peers can experience negative effects similar to the victimized children themselves."

While most bullies, in the long term, grow to be emotionally functional adults, many have an increased risk of developing antisocial personality disorder, which is linked with increased risk of committing criminal acts (including domestic violence).

Statistics

According to the American Psychological Association, "40% to 80% of school-age children experience bullying at some point during their school careers." Various studies show that students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds experience bullying more often than other students. The following statistics help illustrate the severity of bullying within classrooms:

Victims

• Statistics show that 1 in 3 children are effected by bullying in their lifetime in the U.S. school system, and 30% report being involved in some manner.
• A nationwide survey of bullying in first and second level schools conducted by Trinity College Dublin estimates that some 31% of primary and 16% of secondary students have been bullied at some time.
• In a 1997 study of five Seattle high schools, students recorded their peers' hallway and classroom conversations. It was discovered that the average high school student hears about 25 anti-gay remarks a day.
• In a study conducted across 32 Dutch elementary schools, 16.2% of the 2,766 participating children reported being bullied regularly (at least several times a month).
• At least 1 in 3 adolescent students in Canada has reported being bullied.
• 47% of Canadian parents report having a child who is a victim of bullying.
• Students who are homosexual, bisexual, or transgender are five times as likely to miss school because they feel unsafe after being bullied due to their sexual orientation.
• According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of gay, lesbian, and bisexual students who did not go to school at least one day during the 30 days preceding the survey due to safety concerns ranged from 11% to 30% for gay and lesbian students and 12% to 25% for bisexual students.
• 61.1% of LGBT middle- or high-school students were more likely than their non-LGBT peers to feel unsafe or uncomfortable as a result of their sexual orientation.
• In a Canadian study that surveyed 2,186 students across 33 middle and high schools, 49.5% reported being bullied online in the previous three months. 33.7% of the sample reported being the perpetrator of cyberbullying.
• The most common form of cyberbullying involved receiving threatening or aggressive emails or instant messages, reported by 73% of victims.
• In the United States, a 2013 nationwide survey indicated that 20% of high school students were bullied on school property in the past year, 15% of the students were bullied electronically, and 8% of students ages 12–18 reported ongoing bullying on a weekly basis.

Statistics referencing the prevalence of bullying in schools may be inaccurate and tend to fluctuate. In a U.S. study of 5,621 students ages 12–18, 64% of the students had experienced bullying and did not report it.

Bullies

Proactive aggression is a behavior that expects a reward. With bullying each individual has a role to defend. Some children act proactively but will show aggression to defend themselves if provoked. These children will react aggressively but tend to never be the ones to attack first.

There have been two subtypes created in bully classification; popular aggressive and unpopular aggressive. Popular aggressive bullies are social and do not encounter a great deal of social stigma from their aggression. Unpopular aggressive bullies, however, are most often rejected by other students and use aggression to seek attention.

• In a recent national survey 3,708,284 students reported being a perpetrator of bullying in the U.S. school system.
• Studies have shown bullies actually report more success in making friends than other children.
• Bullying behavior in perpatrators is shown to decrease with age.
• Developmental research suggests bullies are often morally disengaged and use egocentric reasoning strategies.
• Adolescents who experience violence or aggression in the home, or are influenced by negative peer relationships, are more likely to bully. This suggests that positive social relationships reduce the likelihood of bullying.
• The diagnosis of a mental health disorder is strongly associated with being a bully. This trend is most evident in adolescents diagnosed with depression, anxiety, or ADHD.
• Poor theory of mind is associated with bullying.
• 25% of students encourage bullying if not given proper education and information about the consequences of bullying.
• A study by Lisa Garby shows that 60% of bullies in middle school will have at least one criminal conviction by the age of 24.

In a survey by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), students were asked to complete a questionnaire.

A total of 10.6% of the children replied that they had sometimes bullied other children, a response category defined as moderate bullying. An additional 8.8% said they had bullied others once a week or more, defined as frequent bullying. Similarly, 8.5% said they had been targets of moderate bullying, and 8.4% said they were bullied frequently. Out of all the students, 13% said they had engaged in moderate or frequent bullying of others, while 10.6% said they had been bullied either moderately or frequently. Some students — 6.3% — had both bullied others and been bullied themselves. In all, 29% of the students who responded to the survey had been involved in some aspect of bullying, either as a bully, as the target of bullying or both.

According to Tara Kuther, an associate professor of psychology at Western Connecticut State University, "...bullying gets so much more sophisticated and subtle in high school. It's more relational. It becomes more difficult for teens to know when to intervene; whereas with younger kids, bullying is more physical and, therefore, more clear-cut."

Types of Bullying

There are four basic types of bullying: verbal, physical, psychological, and cyber. Cyberbullying is becoming one of the most common types. While victims can experience bullying at any age, it is witnessed most often in school-aged children.

Direct bullying is a relatively open attack on a victim that is physical and/or verbal in nature. Indirect bullying is more subtle and harder to detect, but involves one or more forms of relational aggression, including social isolation via intentional exclusion, spreading rumors to defame one's character or reputation, making faces or obscene gestures behind someone's back, and manipulating friendships or other relationships.

Pack bullying is bullying undertaken by a group. The 2009 Wesley Report on bullying found that pack bullying was more prominent in high schools and lasted longer than bullying undertaken by individuals.

Common Misconceptions

Researchers have identified many misconceptions regarding bullying:

• Bullying is a consequence of large class or school size.
• Bullying is a consequence of competition for grades and failure in school.
• Bullying is a consequence of poor self-esteem and insecurity.
• Bullying is just teasing.
• Some people deserve to be bullied.
• Only boys are bullies.
• Bullying is a normal part of growing up.
• Bullies will go away if ignored.
• The best way to deal with a bully is by fighting or trying to get even.
• People who are bullied will only hurt for a while before recovering.
  
  

Prevention

Studies have shown that bullying programs set up in schools with the help and engagements of staff and faculty have been shown to reduce peer victimization and bullying. Incidences of bullying are noticeably reduced when the students themselves disapprove of bullying. Measures such as increasing awareness, instituting zero tolerance for fighting, or placing troubled students in the same group or classroom are actually ineffective in reducing bullying; methods that are effective include increasing empathy for victims; adopting a program that includes teachers, students, and parents; and having students lead anti-bullying efforts. Success is most associated with beginning interventions at an early age, constantly evaluating programs for effectiveness, and having some students simply take online classes to avoid bullies at school. One possible prevention and intervention for bullying is PBIS/Positive behavioral interventions and supports it is defined as a "framework for enhancing adoption of a continuum of evidence based interventions to achieve academically and behaviorally important outcomes for all students. PBIS seeks to improve school climate, reduce discipline issues, and support academic achievement."

Source: School Bullying