Adolescent Bullying : A Survey Measuring Adolescent 's Responses Regarding Self Confidence

Bullying is a situation where one person abuses power over another. Bullying is about power, control and abuse. Bully’s come in all shapes, sizes and forms. Bullying occurs throughout a human’s life span. The most-critical development stage of one’s personality is adolescence. Bullying during adolescence has been a major issue in every community. Bullying can happen in three known forms; direct, indirect, and cyber. Both gender and sexual orientation are associated with all forms of bullying. Bullying affects self-esteem and family cohesion.

Bullying is one of the leading causes in teen suicide today. People bullied in the past or present have been studied and it has shown that they have a lower quality of life. Though they have a lower quality of life, the have better physical and mental health. (“Seaman” 1). Studies have shown that most bullying happens in middle school and high school. There is bullying in elementary school but it is minimal and less serious (“Bullying Statistics” 1). Most kids refuse to speak up while being bullied in fear that the bully will just taunt them more (“Cyber-Safety Act” 2). Bullying has become a very serious issue regarding our society today.

Bullying is seen and unseen, noticed by others and unnoticed, it’s a problem not just in our little communities, towns, cities or states but all over our country, bullying is a worldwide problem. As the internet has roared up so has forms of bullying throughout the web. Cyber bullying has become a problem that has never been thought of before. Although it is less physical than traditional forms of bullying, it can have more devastating and longer-lasting effects. It is rapidly becoming a major problem. Now, a small physically weak child can be as much of a bully as the big brute but with more impact. Educators definitely need to understand how powerful and dangerous this new type of bullying has become as it has greatly impacted the classroom.

The word 'bullying' has developed a very traditional definition amongst society: a face-to-face interaction involving either verbal abuse and/or physical abuse. With the technological advances that have occurred within the past 15 years, bullying has become anything but traditional. Children and teens have more access to the Internet and to social media platforms more than ever before, thus allowing them to avoid face-to-face interaction. Within the past 15 years, there has been a significant rise of cyberbullying in the youth demographic (ages 12-18) (Slonje, Smith, & Frisén, 2013). In order to understand what the difference between traditional bullying and cyberbullying is, one must familiarize themselves with the definition of cyberbullying.

The current paper is a review of the literature on the effect of bullying on adolescent development. There are a range of definitions of bullying but the most widely accepted one is the definition put forth by Olweus (1978), who was one of the first to apply a system wide successful intervention in Norway. He states

“Nationwide, one out of four students from the ages twelve to eighteen have been bullied. That is twenty five percent to the teenage/young adult population and these numbers are continuously to rise every day” (Wassdorp, Bradshaw, and Leaf 116, 149-156). Bullying is the action of repeated harmful acts or harassing another in various forms. Many situations fall under one or even multiple of these categories: physical, verbal, indirect, and cyber. What this does is strips the victim down from their identity and leaves them to pity themselves for being the way they are. Bullying is an issue in this nation because it tears apart the teenage/young adult population, and it is causing an increase in risk of suicide among these groups. Bullying is

Bullying has become a major issue in the United States and around the world. What brought the attention to people about bullying is the number of suicides that are committed by adolescents and the stories they share online or live television. Bullying is categorized to be direct verbal, direct physical, and indirect forms. Not every person has an idea how terrible bullying can be and how harmful it is to the victim. Bullying has driven students to commit actions they have never done before such as cutting themselves, suicidal thoughts, health disorders, and bad behavior. Bullying must be taken seriously, because it results in negative effects on its victims and may drive students to commit horrific actions. Lawmakers should draft anti-bullying legislation, students should stand up for one another, and society should work out what can be done to combat this problem.

Seals and Young (2003) studied the prevalence of bullying and its relationship to grade-level, gender, ethnicity, self-esteem, and depression. Participants in their study consisted of 454 seventh- and eighth-graders in five school districts in the Northern Delta area. These students were primarily African American (79%) and Caucasian (18%). Researchers gave these students three questionnaires to assess exposure to and effects of bullying/victimization: the Peer Relations Questionnaire, which assessed bully, victim, and prosocial behaviors; the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale; and the Children’s Depression Inventory. This study found that 24% of respondents reported being directly involved in bullying activities, of which 10% reported doing the bullying, and 13% reported being victims of bullying. The results also suggested that males were significantly more involved in bullying than females, and were twice as likely to be identified as a bully. Both genders, however,

Bullying is defined as the prolonged malicious act of harming peers by abusing their own--or an existing imbalance of--power, and has become one of the most common sources of trauma among adolescents. One report shows that one of three children were victims of bullying during some point in their life, and that 10-14% of all adolescents were victims of chronic bullying for at least six months prior to conducting the survey. Children who were victims of bullying are also found to be at a higher risk of diagnoses for anxiety disorders and depression during young and middle adulthood. These victims are reported to be more likely to have lower levels of general/physical health and lower educational acquirements than young and middle aged adults who were not bullied (Wolke & Lereya, 2015). Because bullying is such a prominent problem, citizens, policymakers, and social scientists alike, should feel or have some social and moral obligation to address, and hopefully avert bullying.

These days bullying isn’t just taking place at school on the playground, or in the hallways, it is taking place online. Today, and in recent years kids and young teens will only face more and more bullying as things evolve with social media, things like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are only going to become increasingly popular and new platforms will be made as well. Bullying affects people so much that it can

Over the past couple of years, bullying has reached an all-time high around the world. Bullying is an act of someone treated another person poorly either through actions or words. It is something that can be found anywhere and it can happen to people of all ages. It is most commonly found in students’ that attend elementary school, junior high, and high school. In this essay, it discusses a study performed on students grades five through eight on bullying in elementary and junior high.

“Adolescent Bullying Involvement and Perceived Family, Peer and School Relations: Commonalities and Differences Across Race/Ethnicity” by Aubrey L Spriggs’ purpose is to examine the negative effects of peers and family members have on children of different ethnical backgrounds. This study focus on three in particular which are African Americans, Hispanics, and Caucasians adolescents. Spriggs uses a survey conducted by Health Behaviors in Schools- Aged Children survey in 2001 (Spriggs, 2007) which was among 11,033 adolescents ages 6-10.

Recognizing the complex variables, researchers have modified existing psychological inventory tools such as the Rutter scales and the Child Depression Inventory, to better measure and assess the long-term victim outcomes (Vaillancourt, Hymel, & McDougall, 2003). One area of increasing concern among researchers is the inadequacy of the survey tools that may be impeding our understanding of the scope of the victimization, most prior research efforts have relied on survey based models that were either self-reported or provided by educators or parents, this may have diminished the sample quality and reduced the validity of the measurements (Hawker & Boulton, 2000). Acknowledging that bullying victimizations extend across a wide spectrum of the population and is not merely limited to adolescent experiences; researchers are striving to explore a number of overlapping social environments, including the workplace and social media where these types of victimizations also occur. Bullying victimizations represent a large class of victims that deserve the attention and efforts of researchers to minimize the effects of past abuse and help prevent future or continual abuse. The next paragraph introduces three specific theories of victimology as they are applied to bullying victimizations.

The importance of developing peer relationships is crucial to adolescent development. Adolescents growing up in a safe and healthy environment among their peers helps foster a positive growth, development, and well-being (Dresler-Hawke et. al., 2009, p. 196). Barbara Jones Warren (2011, p. 22) states that “a primary goal of bullying is to socially exclude or isolate individuals from others with a school or workplace setting.” Relational bullying has a negative impact as adolescents become socially withdrawn from their peers and experience feelings of loneliness and rejection. As a result, this impacts their academic performance and attendance, causing them to withdraw from

In the 2014-2015 school years, 292,400 students reported being bullied out of a total of 763,000 students (Student Reports of Bullying: results From the 2015 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey, National Center for Education statistics(NCES)). Bullying does not affect only children in school, but can also happen to adults. Bullying has an immense effect on people of all ages. Whether it is an adolescent at school, or an adult in their workplace environment, some form of bullying may be present. There are many types and forms of bullying, such as, physical, verbal, and cyber, which is over the internet. Not only can bullying affect a person’s physical appearance, but some forms of