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Jamecia Lane

Mrs. Kenly

British Literature

27 April 2018

Bullying still exists today in society, and is still a well know factor. Bullying is an

unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children, also adults that involves a real or

perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over

time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully others may have serious, lasting problems. The

facts on bullying reveal it is a growing problem among teens and children. There are several

different types of bullying including cyber bullying, bullying in schools as well as other forms of

harassing. In recent years, more than out of every five (20.8%) report being bullied by the

National Center for Educational statistics. There are about 4,400 deaths recorder per year.

Bullying is a very negative factor, that can lead to harmful events such as violence, suicides, and

deaths, bullying is called by so many things.

To some bullying may be considered very minor to them and they may think that it is a

very small factor that can be ignored. However, with bullying still existing today it is considered

to be a major problem because bullying can lead to negative things such as fatal events. There

are ways to prevent bullying from occurring so their will not be any effects.
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In order for a situation to be considered bullying, the behavior must be aggressive and

include: an imbalanced power, and repetition. Bullying includes actions such as making threats,

spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally and excluding someone from a

group on purpose. There are different types of bullying such as verbal bullying where things are

being said or written in a mean and disturbing order. Examples of verbal bullying include

teasing, name calling, inappropriate sexual comments, taunting, threatening to cause harm.

Bullying is a widespread issue describing relationships characterized by intentional,

aggressive behavior that is carried out repeatedly and involves an imbalance of power. Bullying

is risk factor for poor physical and mental health and the reduced ability to adapt to adult roles

including forming lasting relationships, merging into work and being economically independent.

Bullying can involve direct bullying, which includes physical and verbal acts of aggression such

as hitting, stealing or name calling, or indirect bullying, which involves social exclusion and

rumour spreading. (Wolke 2015) The three main roles associated with bullying include the bully,

the victim, and the bystanders.

The bully usually has a strong desire for power and undermines the victim in any way

possible, usually attacking their social status or their sense of personal security in order for the

bully to raise their self-esteem and status. Bullying usually occurs with an audience known as

bystanders that can either support the bully, defend the victim, or serve as a passive onlooker.

Victims with lower statuses than their bullies are likely to isolate themselves due to not being

able to defend or protect themselves. (Cantone 2015)

One in three children report having been bullied at some point in their lives, and 10–14%

experience chronic bullying lasting for more than 6 months. (Wolke 2015) Research also

indicates that bullying has critical long-term negative effects on bullies, victims, and victims who

turn to bullying as a coping strategy. Childhood bullying victimization have been linked to adult

mental health outcomes such as anxiety, depression, substance use, and conduct disorders.

(Smokowski 2005)

Children who were victims of bullying have been found to be at higher risk for colds,

headaches, stomach aches or sleeping problems, and are more likely to take up smoking. They

are also at significantly increased risk of self-harm or thinking about suicide in adolescence.

Comparison of monozygotic twins who are genetically identical and live in the same households

but were different for experiences of bullying showed that internalising problems was found to

have increased over time only in those who were bullied. Furthermore, being bullied in primary

school has been found to both predict borderline personality symptoms and psychotic

experiences by adolescence. Victims that were bullied over long period of time or experienced

several forms of bullying were more likely to show more unfavorable effects. (Wolke 2015)

As for ways to reduce bullying behavior, many schools have implemented and annually

enforced an anti bullying school policy along with counseling to ensure a lasting anti bullying

policy. In the Netherlands, several anti bullying measures have been developed to help schools

prevent and diminish bullying.

In 1995, schools, teachers, and parent organizations collaborated to develop national

standard anti bullying guidelines for schools. As a result, a new protocol was created for schools

to adopt anti bullying measures that are similar to many of the principles of the Olweus program,

one of the first systems to fight against bullying. The program tries to include teachers, bullied

children, bullies, non involved children, and parents in order to lower the occurrence of bullying

behavior. Some of the vital components of this program include teacher training and the

development of a written anti bullying policy that details planned school activities and measures

concerning how to deal with bullying incidents. (Fekkes 2006)

Along with the multitude of advances in communications technology, cyber crimes are

growing at an exponential pace. Cyber-bullying, a component of cyber-abuse, involves online

abusive interpersonal behaviors that are overly aggressive in nature. Recent research shows that

cyber-abuse of children and youth is growing dramatically in the U.S., with detrimental effects

on both psychological and educational functioning Studies show that students who experienced

cyberbullying, both as a victim and an offender, had significantly lower self-esteem than those

who had little or no experience with cyberbullying. (Notar 2013) Students who have been cyber-

bullied have reported negative emotional responses such as sadness, fear, anxiety, and

humiliation. As a result of this, they experience an increased inability to concentrate and study,

thus directly impacting grades and social relationships. Research shows that students that are

cyber-aggressive tend to be socially inept and have problems at home and with school authority.

They also display substance abuse patterns and delinquency. For these reasons, cyberbullying

has become a huge concern for parents and educators. (Piotrowski 2011)
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Cyberbullying, a term that is often cited as a contributor to various suicides of young

adolescents, can take many forms. It can include harassment (insults), impersonation, outing and

deception or exclusion. Cyberbullying can also take on the forms of: flaming (online, vulgar

fights); cyberstalking (repeated, intense harassment); denigration (spreading rumours that

damage reputation or friendships), etc. (Cantone 2015) These activities are often performed via

e-mail, instant messaging, text message, social networking sites such as Facebook or Tumblr,

and other websites. The prevalence of cyber bullying and victimization is difficult to accurately

determine. A US involving nearly 4,000 students in grades 6-8 showed that in the preceding two

months, 11% of the students had been cyberbully victims, 4% reported acting as cyberbullies,

and 7% had been both a cyberbully and a cyberbully victim. (Peebles 2014) In a study conducted

by the University of Maine, affected 56.1 percent of the students in this study, with a large

difference in the victimization of females and males (72.1 percent of the females reported they

had experienced cyberbullying compared to 27.9 percent for males).

The examples of cyberbullying incidents, experienced or known about, given by students

were clustered first into two broad categories: cyberbullying due to relationship issues (91

percent) and those not related to relationship issues (9 percent). In the second level of analysis,

the examples were sorted into four specific relationship tensions that came about in this study,

including: break‐ups (41 percent), envy (20 percent), intolerance (16 percent), or ganging up (14

percent). This analysis shows that students' inabilities to handle social tensions, particularly those

on relationship issues, was at the root of most cyberbullying among these teens. (Hoff 2009)

Regardless of the situation or cause, bullies usually pick on others as a way of dealing with their

own problems. Bullies often pick on others based on the need to have a victim, someone who
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seems emotionally or physically weaker, or because they crave acceptance and want to feel

more important, popular, or in control. (Aluede 2008)

Cyberbullying is different from traditional bullying in multiple ways. It requires some

form of technical expertise through computer, cell phone or video games, by both bullies and

victims. Cyberbullying also provides anonymity to bullies which ensures that they cannot see the

reactions of their victims and studies have shown that they feel less remorse. Cyberbullying is

causes harm with no physical interaction, little planning and small chance of being caught. In

spite of this, 40% to 50% of cyberbully victims report knowing who their tormentor is. (Peebles

2014) The distancing effect that technological devices have on today’s youth often leads them to

say and do crueler things compared to what is typical in a traditional face-to-face bullying

situation. (Donegan 2012)

As for the prevention of cyberbullying, the creation of a common definition along with a

wider recognition of the problem will make addressing this issue easier. As technology

progresses, local and national anti-bullying policies and laws must continue to evolve at the same

rate. Many of the issues faced by federal and state governments concerning cyberbullying are

avoidable for schools and communities at the local level through the implementation of

procedures to limit the effects of cyberbullying.

This process has already begun in some places. In the early 1970s, Dr. Dan Olweus, who

was credited with initiating the first systematic bullying research in Norway, is primarily known
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for his bullying prevention programs. The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program develops

methods of dealing with bullying on various of levels including school-level components,

individual-level components, classroom-level components, and community-level components.

According to a series of evaluations involving 40,000 students from 42 schools over a two and a

half year period, the program proved to be successful. The studies verified the program’s success

by reporting “reductions by 20 to 70 percent in student reports of being bullied and bullying

others,” “reductions in student reports of antisocial behavior, such as vandalism, fighting, theft,

and truancy” and “clear improvements in the classroom social climate”. (Donegan 2012)

Most bullies deal with low self esteem issues and problems, which is why they feel the

need to belittle others. They may see something that they lack in the person they’re bullying.

This causes the bully to become jealous leading to the non-stop turmoil. Another factor as to why

bullies start bullying is because of their home environment. Some parents of bullies do not show

love to the bully, and this mostly takes place in single parents home. With the parent not showing

love it rubs off on the bully which impacts the bully to take their anger out on others. In addition,

bullies are who they are because they feel like they are considered “a nobody”. When bullies see

others having things that they can not afford or just have, it makes them feel uncomfortable.

In a scenario of bullying, a friend of mine (Jazlyn Ashword) showed traits of bullying.

She was considered a cyber-bully. On a social media app (instagram) she would go on their and

talk about another female. Her and the female had an in school issue. Everyday afterschool, my
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friend would make her way to instagram and talk about the other female and pick on her. My

friend is a senior and the other female is a freshman. From someone else personal perspective it

will seem like Jazlyn would be a bully because she is older. I had to tell Jazlyn bullying is not

cool because it hurts the victim. Previously, I have been a victim of bullying, I know how it felt

to be bullied. Jazlyn received a bullying report from the school, the female reported Jazlyn to the

school administrator. Once Jazlyn received the bully report she changed and never bullied again.

In conclusion, bullying is still a nationwide problem today. Since its arrival, bullying has

increased and grown into different forms. It is an elusive issue, noted by its increasing effect on

the populations of many countries and the increased effort to diminish incidents of bullying due

to the negative effects that it has on an individual.

Works Cited

Aluede, Oyaziwo, et al. "A review of the extent, nature, characteristics and effects of bullying

behaviour in schools." Journal of Instructional Psychology, vol. 35, no. 2, 2008, p. 151+.

Academic OneFile

Cantone, Elisa et al. “ Interventions on Bullying and Cyberbullying in Schools: A Systematic

Review .” Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health : CP & EMH 11.Suppl 1

M4 (2015): 58–76. PMC. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4378064/

Donegan, Richard. “Bullying and Cyberbullying: History, Statistics, Law, Prevention and

Analysis.” The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, vol. 3, no.

1, 2012, pp. 33–40., www.elon.edu/u/academics/communications/journal/wp-

content/uploads/sites/153/2017/06/04DoneganEJSpring12.pdf

Fekkes M, Pijpers Verloove-Vanhorick . Effects of Anti Bullying School Program on Bullying

and Health Complaints. Arch Pediatric Adolescent Med. 2006;160(6):638–644.

doi:10.1001/archpedi.160.6.638

Hoff, Diane and Mitchell, Sidney. (2009) "Cyberbullying: causes, effects, and remedies",

Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 47 Issue: 5, pp.652-665,

https://doi.org/10.1108/09578230910981107

Notar, Carles E., et al. “Cyberbullying: Resources for Intervention and Prevention.” Universal

Journal of Educational Research , vol. 1, no. 3, 2013, pp. 133–145., doi:

10.13189/ujer.2013.010301.

Peebles, Erin. “Cyberbullying: Hiding behind the Screen.” Pediatrics & Child Health 19.10

(2014): 527–528. Print.

Piotrowski, Chris. Cyber-Bullying in School Settings: A Research Citation Analysis. University

of West Florida, Oct. 2011, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED525783.pdf

Smokowski, Paul R., and Kelly H. Kopasz. “Bullying in School: An Overview of Types, Effects,

Family Characteristics, and Intervention Strategies.” Children & Schools, vol. 27, no. 2,

ser. 1, Apr. 2005, pp. 101–110. 1, doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/cs/27.2.101.

Wolke, Dieter and Suzet, Lereya. “Long-Term Effects of Bullying.” Archives of Disease in

Childhood 100.9 (2015): 879–885. PMC.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4552909/.
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