Bullying in Schools

Bullying in Schools

 Bullying refers to the unwanted aggressive behavior that involved=s a real or perceived power imbalance among the school-aged children. It is any situation in which children, adolescents, and even adults engage in behaviors that intends to harm other people. In the United States, 20-28% of children in grades between 6 and 12 have reported having been bullied at least once in their lifetime. Often, bullying is related to childhood. However, the behavior does not necessarily change once one becomes an adult. Bullying among children in school is caused by various socio-economic factors that result in individual as well as community harm. Schools need to come up with more strategies to reduce the occurrence of violence and the effect it brings on children.

Bullying by Peers

Globally, one in every three students has experienced bullying in the past month. In the United States, 90% of the students in grades 4-8 have been harassed or bullied by their peers. Over 160,000 students in the United States refuse to go to school because they are afraid of being bullied (Al-Ali & Shattnawi, 2018).  Additionally, 70.6% of students in America have reported witnessing other children being bullied by their peers. Among the students who choose to drop out of school, 10% choose to decline because of bullying in schools (Al-Ali & Shattnawi, 2018). A total of 282,000 students in secondary schools in the United States have experienced physical assaults. This number continues to rise, thus putting the lives of many children at risk.

Types of Bullying

            Bullying among children can be categorized into various groups. These include physical bullying, which involves kicking, hitting, pinching, tripping, and punching. Physical bullying can as well involve pushing and damaging property, thus causing both short and long term damages to the student. Another form of bullying is verbal, where students call others names, tease others, intimidate, insult, and even abusing their peers using the words of mouth. Usually, verbal bullying begins as a harmless issue but later escalate to levels, thus affecting the individual’s target in life. Social buying is always conducted behind the victim’s back to destroy their reputation (Bakema, 2010). This could include spreading rumors and lying about other students, mimicking unkindly, encouraging other people to exclude someone, as well as playing nasty jokes on the person with the intent of embarrassing and humiliating them.

Socio-economic Causes of Bullying in Schools

            There are several factors associated with the increased number of bullying among children in schools in the United School. The influence of these factors on students can significantly influence a student’s attitude towards others to the extent of bullying them. These factors include education achievement, income, wealth, occupation, as well as deprivation.

Education achievement is considered one of the determinants of social status in life. Essentially, the level of education determines people’s social status as well as the kind of job they engage in. Quality education is said to influence the type of job they attract in life. Besides, they are also considered intelligent. In this case, children from well-educated families may tend to look down on students with low-educated parents (Baldwin et al., 2015). On income, it is usually the determinant of the quality of life. Good income determines the type of experience they live. Often, people can be categorized in low income, middle, and upper income. Income earned determines their status in life. In the United States, those from the low class are always discriminated against by those from the high class. This goes to the extent of taking their children to different schools. It is likely for children from the upper society to learn to discriminate against those on the lower status. The difference in lifestyle can cause kids from wealthy families to bully their peers from poor families.

According to Bakema  (2010), occupation, income, and wealth are all interconnected to influence the status of people in society. Usually, people with great occupations in the community always attract a good income and therefore enabling them to live a good life. Similarly, people with poor jobs earning little salary and wages are less likely to have enough income to accumulate and make good wealth (Bakema, 2010). For that reason, they tend to live different lives. People from humble families are often bullied due to few chances that they are likely to have in life. Usually, bullying and disrespect among students are fueled by the differences and discrimination between them.

Health Effects of Student Bullying

Bullying in schools is hugely harmful to the victims, perpetrators, and those around it. Physical and emotional health have both short-term and long-term effects on the victims.  Technically, bullying can result in physical injuries, social problems, emotional problems, and even death (Rivara et al., 2016). Usually, bullied students are always at risk of developing mental health problems. They also experience headaches and significant difficulties in trying to adjust to the school and the entire environment.  Often, bullying results in long terms of damage to self-esteem.

Another health-related effect is the possibility of bullied victims turning to substance abuse. It also tends to influence people to be towards others. It also increases the chances of developing depression among the victims (Salmivalli & Peets, 2018). It affects the health department, with many people requiring healthcare services.  Adverse health effects among children can cause their parents to spend more time caring for them than when they are supposed to be working.

Bullying victims are reported to have poor mental and physical health. Among the symptoms shown by the victims include depression, feeling of sadness, anxiety, the feeling of loneliness, body ache, abdominal pain, nightmares, and frequent illnesses (Al-Ali & Shattnawi, 2018). Absenteeism from school is also said to have a direct physical or indirect psychological impact.  Additionally, bullying is also said to report cases of suicidal behavior.

How to Prevent Bullying

            School bullying is quite rampant in the United States, and schools are certainly in the best position to provide a significant role in handling bullying among school children. The school should be in a position to provide protection and support for both parents and students. The school should develop a curriculum where students are taught how to identify when bullying is about to take place and protect themselves. They should be in a position to identify the bullying language as well as the actions hence avoiding them before it takes place. Besides, students should be trained in maintaining positive communication skills that can create and maintain a positive environment that cannot promote bullying but instead help students to get along with one another (Salmivalli & Peets, 2018).

Schools should also establish a system that allows learners to report when they are being bullied or when they are identifying bullying on other students. Professionals and counselors should be made available to help the students deal with the issues, including dealing with mental issues—other issues, including the impact of bullying on the students. Self-awareness and motivation should be enhanced among the students to ensure that they avoid being aggressive and in the worst of their behaviors (Menesini, E., & Salmivalli, 2017). Education can always help students to see things.

Parents as well have a significant role to play concerning preventing bullying among their children. Parents need to come up with an excellent way to relate with their children and ensure that they keep them away from the violent environment that might cause them to engage in bullying activities.  Generally, the entire society should engage in preventing bullying in schools. Developing institutions to help students going through depression and other health issues should be established. Promoting public awareness of bullying is also an excellent way to protect school children from such harm and also educate the entire community on the adverse effects of bullying.

Conclusion and Suggestions for the Future

            Conclusively, bullying in schools has become challenging not only in the United States but also in all other parts of the world. Most of the students who go through bullying are always vulnerable. Usually, the majority of children who engage in bullying tend to have issues with self-esteem, and they are still out of power. Therefore, kids need to be taught to be in control of their power and ensure that they get along with one another. Eliminating cases of bullying can help prevent the occurrence of depression and anxiety among students.

For further research in the future, there are particular recommendations that researchers should put into consideration. First, it would be excellent for the researcher to involve students as a source of their information. This could help enhance the credibility and accuracy of the information and ensure that the actual causes of bullying were established. Another recommendation is for researchers to follow the ethical principles to ensure that they maintain respect. Considering the majority of students are minors, researchers should seek permission from their parents to allow them to participate in the study. Lastly, more emphasis should be put on the causes of bullying and the appropriate measures that can help alleviate the problem. Technically, the best wat to deal with a challenge is dealing with the root causes and prevent its occurrence.

References

Al-Ali, N. M., & Shattnawi, K. K. (2018). Bullying in school. Health and Academic Achievement, 47-58.

Bakema, C. (2010). How to stop bullying in schools in a Dutch way. Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov• Vol, 3, 52.

Baldwin, J., Arseneault, L., & Danese, A. (2015). Childhood bullying and adiposity in young adulthood: Findings from the E-Risk Longitudinal Twin Study. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 61, 16-16.

Menesini, E., & Salmivalli, C. (2017). Bullying in schools: the state of knowledge and effective interventions. Psychology, health & medicine, 22(sup1), 240-253.

Rivara, F., Le Menestrel, S., on the Biological, C., on Law, C., Sciences, S., & National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2016). Consequences of Bullying Behavior. In Preventing Bullying Through Science, Policy, and Practice. National Academies Press (US).

Salmivalli, C., & Peets, K. (2018). Bullying and victimization. In W. M. Bukowski, B. Laursen, & K. H. Rubin (Eds.), Handbook of peer interactions, relationships, and groups (p. 302–321). The Guilford Press.