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Bullying And Self-Harm

Decent Essays

Bullying is a controversial issue that is often dealt with on a daily basis. Bullying is not only seen as misguided and harmless actions towards another, but is also seen as a violation of human rights. Whether it is serious or not, bullying can be found just about anywhere, primarily in places such as schools and daycares. But even though many people can brush off something like bullying, this hurtful act can actually take a toll on the victim, especially since most victims are children that can easily overreact to emotional and physical harassment. These individuals are usually embarrassed, as well as intimidated from being bullied, which in turn can make them do something that they might eventually regret. In other words, children that are …show more content…

According to Dr. Rick Nauert, an associate professor for Rocky Mountain University, self-harm behaviors usually stem from an overall desire to relieve things such as stiffness or stress, and in the most dangerous of cases may even represent a form of suicidal intent in the individual. (Nauert, “Being Bullied Increases Likelihood of Self-Harm”). Through an extensive amount of research it can be proven that bullying does in fact result in self-harm. For example, in Carter Hay and Ryan Meldrum’s journal entry, “Bullying Victimization and Adolescent Self-Harm: Testing Hypotheses from General Strain Theory,” it is suggested that if we were to draw from, “Agnew’s 1992 social psychological strain theory of deviance, this study considers this issue by testing three hypotheses about the effects of traditional and cyber bullying victimization on deliberate self-harm and suicidal ideation. The data come from a school-based survey of adolescents in a rural county of a southeastern state (n = 426); 50% of subjects are female, their mean age was 15 years, and non-Hispanic whites represent 66% of the sample.”(Hay, Meldrum, 446). This type of research, as well as the various statistics that go along with it prove that bullying, whether it be …show more content…

Some people may even say that bullying can often be seen as a good thing in a child’s development and not just as a gateway to self-harm. The act of bullying, despite leading towards many negative repercussions, can introduce children to rather early, but harsh, lessons that not everybody in life is going to treat them as nice as they think. David Derbyshire’s article, “Why it’s not bad to be bullied,” states that that the mutual detestation of two individuals can actually help students in developing things such as healthy social and emotional skills, as well as sometimes having an even bigger impact on their development towards making friendships.”(Derbyshire, “Why it’s not bad to be bullied”). Even though the study did not suggest that it was healthy to be the victim of bullying, it also found that negative experiences, such as bullying, could teach children about conflict

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