Bullying is a habitual and often repeated behavior where individuals use a distinctive pattern to coerce, intimidate, abuse, force, and threaten peers verbally, physically, and emotionally over a period of time to aggressively dominate others. The act of bullying is not limited by age, gender, social standings or race. It affects individuals in all parts of the world; the difference occurs by the type of bullying and rate of occurrence. Bullying occurs in all levels of life and institutions. (Barlett, Christopher , and Michelle, 2) The most common place where bullying occurs is in schools where about 30% of students have undergone bullying worldwide. It is often confused by peer pressure or rather bystanders term bullying as peer pressure to support the act and fearing of becoming victims. Teachers often underestimate the occurrence of bullying in schools because cases of bullying are rarely reported. When a victim reports bullying in school he or she tends to be bullied more, so they prefer to stay in silence due to fear of stigma. Parents and guardians are aware their child undergoes bullying half of the time in developed nations and about 22% in developing nations (Barlett, Christopher , and Michelle 7). Bullies tend to have high self-esteem while the bullied have very low self-esteem, the more bullying happens the more the self esteem and courage of the bully grows, so bullying is somewhat a parasitic interaction where the bullies feed on the self esteem of the bullied . The above mentioned adverse behavior tends to function in people of over time irrespective of age, gender, and disposition.. At this juncture, there is need also to mention that the effect of the above as continued to increase in today’s society. Hence this study is developed as augmentative inform on bullying, its facts, causes, statistics, types, and effects on the community. In the end, a conclusion will be established to sum up the ideas of the study.
Body
Having provided a base of the study, there is a need to begin by carrying out a profound view of this social adverse behavioral tendency. As mention earlier, bullying is an aggressive behavior directed to an individual with the aim of achieving a couple of motives which includes domination and continued control of the subjects. It is important to note that the above-mentioned behavior is a problem that must be eradicated from the society based on the fact that it depends on the use of force to gain control over an individual intimidated them, and most often than not it forces them to act against their will. (Barlett, Christopher , and Michelle,3) In contemporary time, bullying has been used to assert domination over people and this action has included the use of threats coercion, physical assaults, and verbal harassment. Bullying can be defined in many ways could mean specific things to different people. However there is a general notion regarding bullying as an adverse behavior with detrimental effects on members of the community. Bullying is action carried out with a couple of motives in mind including the forceful imposition of personal believes, region ideology and orientation on other the use of force.
Types of bullying
Different countries have divided and described bullying into distinct categories based on the importance and damaging effects. In the United States for instance, by law bullying is divided into four different groups.
1. Emotional or rational bulling this occurs when action is intentionally carried out to breach on the emotional comfort of a person.
2. Verbal bullying this is when an individual is constantly victimized orally by use of hurting words regularly.
3. Physical bullying is the continuous physical harm towards an individual and cannot control or prevent such action.
4. Cyber bullying this kind of bullying happens through the worldwide web or digital communication devices is where a victim is harassed through texts, images, and videos. It is gaining popularity because of the digital revolution in the world. Microsoft Corporation in 2012 commissioned a study in 25 countries, participants were individuals aged 8-17 years on cyber-bullying. 37% claimed to have been victims, 24% to have bullied. In Pakistan (22nd worldwide in cyber-bullying) 26% of the survey had experienced online bullying, 38% had participated in online bullying. In cyber-bullying 3 of 10 girls have been victims while 2 0f 10 boys have been victims(Damanjit and Shubhdip 385). Parents of cyber bullied victims in Pakistan take 1.0 steps to safeguard their children against victimization compared to a worldwide average of 3.3 and are less likely to take measures to protect their children. In India (3rd
in the 25 surveyed countries) 53% of the study participants have been victims of cyber-bullying and 50% admitted to participate in online bullying. 53% of girls are likely to be victims while boys are at 50%. Parents of victims in India take 3.7 steps to protect their children from online harassment.( Damanjit and Shubhdip. 385)
Causes of bullying
1. Sexual orientation- members of the LGBTQ community have higher possibility of being targeted by bully’s (prevention 23). In a study 84% of the LGBTQ community claimed to have undergone harassment on the basis of sexual orientation, 63% based on gender identity, 40 % physical harassment, 18% physical assault.
2. Socioeconomic status and disability- a study conducted in the Netherlands (SeriaShia and Carlos, 23) showed a correlation between bullying and socioeconomic status. Individuals from families with a low socioeconomic status or in schools from poor neighbourhoods have a high probability of being victims of bullying compared to individuals from higher socioeconomic status.
3. Race- the human rights campaign conducted a survey and the results showed about 70% of the surveyed youths have witnessed bullying of individuals based on their race. In the USA Latinos have 20% higher chance of bullying compared to the other races. (SeriaShia and Carlos 22)
4. Physical differences- preadolescent individuals indicated, in a study conducted by Joscelyne and Holttum in 2006, that physical difference among children is a major contributor to bullying. The children surveyed termed the victims as weak and deserved ill treatment because of their physical differences from the majority. (SeriaShia and Carlos 22)
Effects of bullying
Bullying affects both the victims and the perpetrators, the effects are negative. Over the years and in recent time couple of impact have been associated with the act of bullying, it is significant to note that the effect of this action cuts across those who are bullied and the bullies themselves.
1. Fear- in cyber bullying there is offline fear caused by threats and harassments, this results to victims self guarding from problematic encounters hence ignoring studies, responsibilities and family matters. The end result are usually feeling of frustration, anger, depression, and suicide.( Damanjit and Shubhdip. 385)
2. Delinquency- perpetrators of bullying aged 12 to 19 years are a higher rate of experiencing delinquency, drug abuse, poor relations and suicide. They later show low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts and behaviours. These groups of people have tendencies of being involved in crimes at later stages of life. Bullies are also at the risk of dropping out of school with tendencies of remaining part of societal sociopaths.
3. The victim of bullying on the other hand also experience many detrimental effects of as a result of these acts. This group of people are said to develop an increased level of anxiety and worry; they tend to experience depression more than their peers who were not being bullied.
4. The victims of bullying tend to spend considerable time alone and away from others which could lead to social isolation and loneliness. People who experienced bullying at one point or other during their childhood have the tendencies of developing lower social support and association during their adulthood.
5. This group of people could also have poorer mental and financial status in future based on their past experiences. As mention the course of this study, bullying also occur in work settings hence it is essential to state that victims of bullying at work are usually lower performers, they are always absent from work and in most case, the ultimate effects of bullying in work settings is a high rate of employee turnover.
6. The victims of bullying also end up becoming bullies. In such cases, this group of people is said to be more vulnerable and exhibit the advanced stages of adverse behavioral tendencies such as anxiety, loneliness, and depression. (Damanjit and Shubhdip 386)
Conclusion
Having provided a convincing analysis of the concept of bullying, the study notes that it is an act of violence directed at individuals with specific aims such as intimidation, suppression, and the desire to coerce people into carrying out actions against their will. The paper also mentions that bullying could result based on factors such as adverse environmental attributes, poor parenting, and adverse societal orientation. Based on the findings of the study, it was pointed out the effects of bullying are unpleasant and in detriments to any community, such effects include depression and low self-esteem. Based on the dexterity of the research carried out by this study, is was also discover that there some negative impact for individuals who were both victims and perpetrators of acts of bullying such effects include adverse antisocial tendencies and increased signs depression. Conclusively, it is important to point out that of bullying remains and an adverse action that is contrary to the norms and values of a functional society. Hence it should be discouraged at all times. Based on the concepts and ideas portrayed by this study, there is need to refute any arguments that have been developed in support of bullying in the past, and uphold the notion that bullying should be discarded form any society. It is therefore recommended that members of any community should be provided with an adequate orientation regarding the types, causes and effects of bullying, the government of nations should put laws and actions in place to discourage, punish, and prevent acts of bullying within their domain.
Works Cited
Barlett, Christopher P., and Michelle F. Wright. "Longitudinal relations among cyber, physical,
and relational bullying and victimization: comparing majority and minority ethnic youth." Journal of Child " Adolescent Trauma (2017): 1-11.
Damanjit and Shubhdip “Reducing Cyber-bullying and Problem Behaviors among Students through Parental Group Therapy” Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research, 2016, Vol. 31, No. 2, 383-401
SeriaShia and Carlos “Bullying Prevention and Prejudice Reduction: Assessing the Outcome of an Integrative Training Program” The Journal of Individual Psychology, Vol. 74, No. 1, Spring 2018
