Child and Adolescent Development: Bullying and Victimization Essay

As more and more children go to school, the rates of bullying go up as time goes by. there are many times at which students suffer all the bullying that occurs within their lives. As more schools become aware of the magnitude of the bullying occurring right under their noses, there are rules created to aid the victim. There are various types of bullying and these are created to do one thing, instill superiority among the “stronger” and place a feeling of inferiority. Bullies are the ones who are detrimental to a child’s development.

Bullying by definition is a form of aggressive behavior in which someone intentionally and repeatedly causes another person injury or discomfort. Bullying can take the form of physical contact, words or more subtle actions. [Why] Bullying has grown new outlets over the last decade. With social media outlets and text messaging added to the game, bullying is not just about getting tormented face to face anymore. Cyber bullying can include sending out mean or threatening emails and instant messages about a person, spreading rumors about someone and also include photos that a person would consider to be humiliating. [Chamberlin] Bullying can have many outlets. The most common form of bullying is still face to face confrontation. But

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 participating in 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. The state of bullying, and how it is enacted, is constantly changing and adapting to social frameworks. Because bullies can adapt to social changes and regulations, we, as a society, should be equally adaptive in how we perceive, address, prevent, and punish bullying.

The first study in this section was conducted by Cornell, Gregory, Huang, and Fan (2013). The participants of the study include ninth-grade students and teachers. Students provided reports of bullying victimization, and both students and teachers reported their perceptions of the prevalence of teasing and bullying at school, using the Prevalence of Teasing and Bullying (PTB) scale (Bandyopadhyay, Cornell, & Konold, 2009). Measures of peer victimization were obtained from 25 ninth-grade students and 10 ninth-grade teachers from Virginia public high schools. The study revealed that bullying, as perceived by both students and teachers, was predictive of dropout rates four years later (Cornell et al., 2013). The results of the study provided evidence that peer victimization in high school is an important factor in high school academic performance. The results of the study also contributed to knowledge about predicting dropout rates of high school students who have been exposed to bullying (Cornell et al.,

According to an article about bullying and victimization, it was noted that male victimization rates for bullies was among the highest and because bullying became more detrimental in the later stages of middle to late adolescents, due to self-blame, loneliness, anxiety and low self-esteem (Graham and Juvonen 1998). Also, peer victimization may lead to depression, low self-evaluation, anxiety and other different mental health problems (Crick &

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

Bullying victimization experiences are linked with many problems such as mental health , anti- social and addictive problems in the adulthood . In addition , it also creates problems with the socioeconomic development for the adults , for example , finishing school or college , marital disruption and unemployment . However , type of bullying victimization is different to/from men and women , which create different outcomes of each victim . For example , females are more likely to suffer negative and psychological impacts on the indirect bullying victimization than males . While males are more likely to engage in anti-social and addictive behavior than females due to the direct bullying victimization . Thus , prevention programs neglected addressing

Bullying in Australian primary schools has become an epidemic, having a negative effect on children’s learning and development (Lodge, 2014). Therefore, it is crucial that schools and teachers are aware, understand and educated on how bullying can impact children’s learning and development; to be able to effectively implement policies, respond, educate and eliminate bullying in the school environment.

In today’s contemporary educational environments, students encounter more than just reading and writing. For some, they unfortunately witness and become victims by continuously being tyrannised and are practically inferior to the perpetrators that are engaged in carrying out various forms of bullying at an alarming rate. In the recent, tragic stories about bullying have not only instilled fear among parents but remained a significant concern to the entire educational system. Safety in schools across the United Kingdom has become an important public policy issue. Various studies have hinted that this nature of adolescent victimization is frequent more so in secondary school levels which can potentially result in negative consequences to both the victim and bully.

Michael Turner stated that “during the past studies of victims of bullying looked at narrow periods of time, while previous research on the link between bullying and delinquency focused mainly on perpetrators”. The study compared people who reported being bullied in both childhood and the teen years with those who never experienced bullying, as well as those who suffered during only one of the two developmental stages.

Bullying can be hard to define, because research has shown that it comes in many forms which makes it difficult to find one set of characteristics that will describe a bully. Conclusively, studies have defined bullying as a set of repeated aggressive behavior that is intended to harm someone, which usually involves an imbalance of power between the victim and the perpetrator (Morgan, 2012, p. 174). Studies have shown that there are two distinct types of bullying, which is a direct form of verbal and physical aggression, and indirect, which often results in name calling, rumors and exclusion (Aluedse, 2006, p. 38). This form of peer victimization can have devastating effects on a child 's academic work and their physical and psychological well being (Limber, 2003, p. 23). In terms of gender, boys are more likely to be involved in physical bullying (direct) as for girls are more likely to be involved in indirect bullying (Wang et al, 2009, p. 371). Previous research indicates, that parents and friends are two important factors of social interaction associated with bullying and victimization among adolescences. Bullying is quite common among middle school children, because it is during this time that children go through puberty and hormonal changes. During this time students are looking to be accepted and fit into a specific group; however, when there is a lack of acceptance and esteem due to victimization, this can cause children to isolate themselves from those around them

Not only are bullied children anxious, depressed, and underachieving during the months and years of their torment, but even years later, they have lower self-esteem as well as painful memories. 7 The picture is somewhat different, but often more ominous, for bullies. Contrary to the public perception that bullies are actually insecure and lonely, at the peak of their bullying they usually have friends who abet, fear, and admire them, and they seem brashly unapologetic about the pain they have inflicted, as they often claim, "all in fun." But their popularity and school success fade over the years, and especially if they are boys, they run a high risk of ending up in prison. In one longitudinal study done by Olweus, by age 24, two-thirds of the boys who had been bullies in the second grade were convicted of at least one felony, and one- third of those who had been bullies in the sixth through the ninth grades were already convicted of three or more crimes, often violent ones. International research likewise finds that children who are allowed to regularly victimize other children are at high risk of becoming violent offenders as adolescents and adults. 8 Unfortunately, bullying during middle childhood seems to be universal: it occurs in every nation that has been studied, is as much a problem in small

Mistreatment and intimidation are common occurrences within childhood and adolescent peer groups. These actions can be detrimental to the social relationships of those involved, leaving an enduring impact on one’s ability to socialize and interact with those around them. Due to the severity of the potential harm bullying can cause, much research has been conducted on how bullying can influence the lives and actions of those associated with it. In order to better address the issue of bullying, one must first understand not only the impact it may have, but the factors that influence how those involved are affected. These factors include the role one plays in the bullying, the method through which the bullying occurs, the gender of the victim, and the level of support the victim receives from family, friends, and the other adults they interact with. This research has demonstrated how complex the relationship between victims of bullying and their fellow peers can be, as well as how damaging this phenomena potentially is on those who experience it.

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 alarming that students between the ages of 8 and 18 consider pressure to engage in sexual activity, AIDS, racism, alcohol and drug use to be less problematic than bullying. They consider the latter a far greater problem than the former (Domino, 2013). Bullying has been defined as a subcategory of interpersonal aggression characterized by intentionality, repetition, and imbalance of power, with abuse of power being a primary distinction between bullying and other forms of aggression. Moreover it is a unique but complex form of interpersonal aggression, which takes many forms, serves different functions, and is manifested in different patterns of relationships. Bullying is not simply a dyadic problem between a bully and a victim, but is recognized as a group phenomenon, occurring in a social context in which various factors serve to promote, maintain, and suppress such behavior (Hymel & Sweareer, 2015). There seems to be an array of definitions for bullying, but for the most part “research agrees that bullying is (1) chronic, (2) done with the intention to harm, (3) relational, and (4) is a form of exposure to violence that presents a major threat to healthy development through adolescence (Fitpatrick, Dulin, & Piko, 2010).”