Bullying is a universal epidemic that is affecting an extraordinary number of school aged adolescence children in countries of the United States to Japan (Elsea et al., 2003). The specific number of children being bullied may be greater than what is published by sources because many children fail to report these issues due to fear of embarrassment and rejection (Unnever & Cornell, 2004). It can also have drastic effects on the bully and victim which can appear to be life long consequences. Many researchers have labeled bullying a school related issue only. Bullying just recently began to gain attention from a system-wide of researchers in the 1980’s (Olewus, 1993). Some individuals are unaware that bullying is also a family…show more content… Olweus (1993) defined bullying as a behavior that leaves a child “exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part one or more other students” (p.9). He furthered explained a “negative action” as a behavior that “intentionally inflicts, or attempts to afflict, injury or discomfort upon another” (p.9). A negative action can be carried out verbally, as in teasing, name calling, or in physical forms such as pushing, hitting and making gestures. The behaviors listed above have been distinguished into two separate types of bullying, direct and indirect bullying. Direct bullying consists of open and physical attacks on a victim, while indirect bullying includes social isolation and intentional exclusion from groups. The three characteristics that must be present to label bullying, according to Olweus (1993) are harmful intent, imbalanced of power of strength, and repetition of negative actions.
Researchers Scaglione and Scaglione (2006) suggest for the particular generation, bullying doesn’t necessarily involve those three factors described by Olweus (1993). They believe that children bully other children with the same strength and power. Also, they mention children who bully may not have the intention of harming another individual.
CHARACTERISTICS OF BULLIES AND VICTIMS
Whereas, bullies may differ in the type of aggression they use, most bullies share