Children Bullying and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
What is bullying? Bullying is a habit of maintaining power over someone by repeatedly using aggressive behaviors that are intended to hurt, control, intimidate, or humiliate the target. Bullying is a pattern of behavior that continues or escalates over a period of time. School bullying includes several key components: excessive teasing, to cause fear and suffering, harm to the victim, insulting remarks, name calling, embarrassing jokes, casting someone out of a group, emailing inappropriate sexual comments and revealing intimate information via social media.
Bullying is a prevalent problem in our schools and communities and has a damaging impact on school climate and on student’s right
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Researchers Merrell et al., 2008, J.D Smith et al., 2004: Vreeman & Carroll, 2007 have reviewed various research studies on school bullying intervention programs. J.D Smith and his colleagues (2004) comprised a research study across several countries and identified no significant program effects on measures of self-reported victimization and bullying. However, the team identified evidence of positive outcomes that coincide with a minimal number of bullying programs. Overall, Smith and his colleagues concluded, whole school bullying programs have resulted in a reduction of bullying in a number of the identified schools however; the results of the 14 identified schools across several countries are too inconsistent to grant the acceptance of these programs exclusively over other whole-school bullying …show more content…
For example, in one study of a fatal sniper attack that occurred at an elementary school proximity to the shooting was directly related to the percentage of children who developed PTSD. Of those children who directly witnessed the shooting on the playground, 77% had moderate to severe PTSD symptoms, whereas 67% of those in the school building at the time and only 26% of the children who had gone home for the day had moderate or severe symptoms. Further studies, show PTSD in children and teenagers requires the presence of re-occurring, avoidance and numbing, and arousal symptoms. However, researchers Pynoos, R. et al. (1987) are beginning to recognize that PTSD may not present itself in children the same way it does in adults. Criteria for PTSD include age-specific features for some symptoms. Reports suggest that elementary school-aged children may not experience visual flashbacks or amnesia for aspects of the trauma. However, they may encounter a state of time skew and omen formation, which are not usually seen in adults. Time skew means a child is mis-sequencing the trauma-related events when remembering the memory. Omen formation is a belief that there were warning signs that predicted the trauma. As a result, children often believe, if they are alert enough, they will recognize warning signs and avoid future traumas. In adolescents, PTSD
Bullying is still in fact a major source of predicaments among many children, adolescents, and young adults; in the cases of schools in particular, “[o]ne out of every four students (22%) report[ed] being bullied during the school year” (US Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics, 2015, ¶ 1). Concomitantly, one must accept the fact that bullying is a constant problem that requires more solicitude and awareness from the general public in order to further aid in its prevention. Nonetheless, studies conducted by Hawkins, Pepler, and Craig (2001) have also revealed that more than half of
This group therapy program seeks to address the four main elements of bullying prevention. These are finding effective interventions, providing psychoeducation, developing coping skills, and establishing problem solving skills. In addressing these issues, parents and teachers will be more aware about bullying, proper interventions will be used, parents and teachers will be able to provide coping skills to victims, negative effects of bullying will be reduced or eliminated, teachers and parents will be more knowledgeable about bullying, and parents and teachers will be able to reduce bullying in the school systems. The next section of this paper will provide a session-by-session breakdown of my bullying group therapy program.
The purpose of this study is to identify the most prevalent forms of bullying on a high school campus and identify which strategies are most effective to prevent or respond to bullying. The study will also identify the most effective strategies to improve student achievement and attendance for those students who have experienced bullying. Students must feel safe to learn. Students who are bullied have a propensity to avoid the bullies; therefore, they choose not to attend school. Poor attendance often will result in poor grades and even dropping out of school.
Bullying at school is a big problem that is found in all the schools in the United States and across the world. Since the late 1990s there have been several fatal school shootings committed by victims of bullying that have brought bullying major media attention. This has resulted in an increase of awareness about the harmful effects on the kids being bullied as well as the bullies themselves. This has brought a large amount of local, state, and nationwide programs designed to try to prevent bullying or to at least try to contain the problem. “In an effort to adequately address the problem, many schools are taking a proactive approach through prevention and intervention, but how do we know if and when such intervention is effective? First and foremost, we must have an accurate understanding of the dynamic and complex phenomenon of bullying across development and as it spans the multiple levels of the social ecology” (Casper, Meter, & Card, 2015, par 2). Many psychologists, sociologists, and school administrators have been publishing research on school bullying. Bullying is a significant threat to many children because it causes psychological problems not only for those who get bullied but also those who do the bullying. Even though bullying is a significant problem the are few solutions that can help prevent or significantly reducing bullying like reporting bullying, know the characteristics, and passing laws.
“Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on
Over the past couple of decades, schools all across the nation have noticed a significant rise in the amount of bullying taking place among their students. “Two decades ago, bullying was often seen as a rare occurrence, where small groups of parents sought protection for their children with the school district”, stated by Vikki Healy Ortiz, writer of the article “New inclusive approach helps schools fight bullying”. However, the same cannot be said for our society in today’s world. Our modern world has advanced tremendously over the past few decades and there are even more opportunities for children to be susceptible to feeling isolated from others because they are simply unique. In today’s society, children have the potential to bully each other outside of the classroom as well.
Bullying is any kind of repeated aggressive, mean, or hurtful behavior that scares or upsets someone else, sometimes to the point of suicide. It is spreading rumors, posting inappropriate pictures, verbal threats, even excluding someone on purpose. Bullying can happen to anyone, it can be in person or online, and it is always serious.
Bullying is aggressive behaviour that generally occurs among school children. It is a repeated behaviour, sometimes repeated over time. (StopBullying, n.d.) Bullying is the misuse of power by a group of people or an individual towards another person. Bullying can be physical, verbal or emotional.
One of every five students is bullied each year (Bullying Basics,2017). Knowing that the problem of bullying is a large possibility in their classrooms, administrators’ and teachers’ main goal must be to offer a safe classroom and a positive, supportive learning environment to their students. If they work together to reach this goal, bullying can be
In terms of self-nominations and peer-nominations of bullying, 35% of participants were found to be victims, 11% were found to be bullies, and 5% were found to be bullies and victims. Bullying appeared to occur very frequently during the two weeks prior to the survey with frequent observations of physical bullying as well as verbal bullying, relational bullying, and attacks on others’ property. Also, the frequency of bullying failed to significantly change after the implementation of Bullyproof. Furthermore, most students reported attitudes against bullying during the pretest. While 80% of participants either agreed or strongly agreed that helping victims of bullying is necessary, 28% agreed or strongly agreed that victims essentially bring bullying on themselves. Less than half of students in the sample agreed/strongly agreed that they could impact bullying in their classroom. In addition, results showed a general rise in perceived power and anti-bullying attitudes. The most significant increase took place among female participants and fifth graders. Also, the program evaluation results showed that, on a scale of 0-30, the effectiveness averaged 18.99 with a standard deviation of
What is bullying actually? "Bullying is the general term applied to a pattern of behavior whereby one person with a lot of internal anger, resentment and aggression and lacking interpersonal skills chooses to displace their aggression onto another person or a person who is habitually cruel or overbearing, especially to smaller or weaker people" ( Craft, 2006, para.2 ). It is usually regularly repeating action which can take many forms, such as assault, tripping, intimidation, rumor-spreading and
Bullying is defined as unwanted or aggressive behavior that causes someone to feel afraid or intimidated. This behavior could be something physical, verbal, or something done electronically or through social media. If someone feels threatened by someone’s actions or words, it could be considered bullying, even if that was not the intent.There are many types of bullying, how to recognize bullying, how to report bullying, what to do if you see incidents of bullying, and what resources are available to persons who have been bullied.
Olweus, D. & Limber, S. (2009) The International Handbook of School Bullying. Edited by Shane
School bullying and bullying as a whole has become a growing concern. The need for more intervention is more recognized, as incidents of bullying and inappropriate acts towards others occur in places outside of the classroom. This literature takes a closer look at bullying in schools. Olwesus (2013) states “the field of bullying research is to some extent plagued by problems, disagreements, and unresolved issues” (p.752). Whether if anyone will agree on the root of bullying, the fact remains that bullying has to be examined at its very core to remedy the matter before it becomes a bigger concern. There is a dire need for intervention based programs to be set in place to address the fact the act of bullying has lasting effects on the bully and the victim. When intervention programs are put into place to address bullying, the act of bullying decreases due to the gained understanding of the effects.
It is only in the recent years that attention has turned toward the widespread problem of bullying, especially in schools, and that bullying is identified as a serious problem that merits intervention and research (Coy). Therefore, relatively little effort has been made to overcome or address the problem, which still remains a widespread social vice. This paper purports to illustrate how, despite efforts made to rectify the situation, bullying still remains rampant, and is getting worse.