The Effects Of Bullying On Mental Health And Safety Of Adolescents

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.

In 2014, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) did a study on bullying and the found that 19.4% of all the students interviewed had been bullied at school. This may not seem very surprising, bullying has been going on for decades. Generations of men and women have come to fear the people who walk the halls, stealing lunch money from those weaker than them. However, it is interesting to note that 14.8% of that 19.4% had reported being cyber bullied. Unlike the standard physical bullying, cyberbullying is a slightly more recent development, but it has evolved to become much more deadly. It gives bullies a better tool for creating more widespread pain. The awareness for cyber bullying needs to increase and ultimately, cyberbullying needs to be abolished completely due to its destructive capabilities.

1. This article was written based on a study of cyber bullying behaviors in a large group of middle and high school students. Increases in technology, and access to that technology have increased student ability to bully using an online forum. Not a lot of research had been done into this subject at the time of this article. Taking this into consideration there had been a few large scale studies done that corroborated the belief that cyber bullying is a significant problem. Researchers believed that due to the potential for exposure to this type of bullying, more studies needed to be done. With increased research there was the hope of diminishing the number of incidents of cyber bullying and the effects of those incidents. The research that had been completed also pointed to additional issues, including behavior problems, suspensions, substance abuse and depression among students who had experienced cyber bullying. The other side of previous research showed that the students who used cyber bullying as a weapon were more aggressive in their behaviors.

In “Cyberbullying Is Serious but Not an Epidemic” Larry Magid argues that there is a problem with cyber bullying, but maybe we shouldn’t make such a big about it. He states that cyber bullying is an aspect that leads adolescents to suicide, but there are also other factors as well. Some factors could include existing depression, issues at home, or issues with self-esteem. Magid goes on to say that bullying isn’t as harmful as we all make it out to be. We should take action when it comes to children being bullied but maybe not overreact like we tend to.

“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 is all over the world. Each year there is over 3.2 million victims being bullied. Approximately 160,000 teens skip school every day because of bullying.17% of American students report being bullied 2 to 3 times a month in a year. To many within a school semester. Since 2002, fighting behaviour has increased, especially in grades six to eight. Boys are more likely to start bullying because of being bullied in their past. Girls are most likely to cyberbully. Nearly 43% of kids have been bullied online. According to Gale, cyberbullying is the use of the Internet, smartphones, or other electronic communication devices to spread harmful or embarrassing information about another person, such as talking about people, telling other people’s

Bullying is a form of social interaction that is shaped by social norms of youths and adults as well schools and broader society. Bullying used to be thought of a playground hazard, perhaps even an essential rite of the passage. Most of the time have changed and there is increasing recognition that bullying can affect anyone, of any age, from childhood to adulthood, and that it makes lives miserable and unpleasant. Online and offline bullying are often related. A bullying relationship in school often extends to technology devices. Offline bullying is more prevalent among middle school students, where cyber bullying is more common among high school students. Youth involved in bullying whether they are the perpetrator or the victim tend to have

In the 21st century technology has led to a new form of bullying, cyber bullying (Dhariff & Hoff, 2007). Over the past 30 years bullying have incremented rapidly worldwide, affecting people of all ages. Whether it’s done via the internet or the traditional way, bullying has always being around, affecting more than 200 million children worldwide (Kandersteg Declaration Against Bullying in Children and Youth, 2007). According to a research study conducted by Juvonen & Gross (2008) and Patchin & Hinduja (2009), cyber bullying and bullying are often interdepended (Beran & Li, 2007; Willard, 2007b.). Recent studies on cyber bullying showed that in every 10 Australian kids who were bullied online, 84% of them were also bullied in school (No Bullying, 2014). Bullying is referred to the repeated verbal, social,

In recent years, we have heard more and more about bullying and the alarming effects it has on our society. Bullying is defined by the Center for Disease and Control (CDC) as “any unwanted aggressive behavior(s) by another youth or group of youths who are not siblings or current dating partners that involves an observed or perceived power imbalance and is repeated multiple times or is highly likely to be repeated.” (“Featured Topic: Bullying Research” ) There are many forms of bullying, including but not limited to physical bullying, verbal bullying, and cyber and text bullying. The adverse effects can cause severe damage to the victim, including both physical and mental health issues as well as academic issues. Numerous studies

Bullying has changed and become a more frequent trend over the years. Adolescents get bullied through social media and in person. In some cases there are not many people who speak out and help the person being bullied. While there might be some peers who hesitate to speak up, “[i]f no one speaks out against the bully, the bystanders interpret the lack of response as an acceptance of the behavior” (Finkelstein). When no one stands up for the victim, silence is an encouragement for the bullying to continue. Students don’t realize how speaking up for someone can make a great difference, even if it’s only one person. While children are mostly aware of what bullying is, they don’t completely understand it “[b]ullying can take many forms, including

In addition, Martin makes the subtle claim that technology accelerates the rate of bullying, to the point where it is replacing physical bullying. It is noted that cyber bullying is nearly impossible to oversee due to the fact that children are not only intimidated of the social repercussions they will face from exposing their cyber bullies, but because they also fear that they will no longer have access to the internet. Finally, Martin claims that implementing anti-bully policies is not enough to combat bullying. Martin believes that the quality of these policies must be thoroughly regulated and consistently reinforced in order to have any legitimate effects in practice. The author concludes by repeating the statement that bullies and victims are considerably likely to have behavior problems, and briefly mentioning that a combination of being both victimized at school and home produces a significant chance of developing clinically defined sociopathic characteristics.

First, this social issue affects adolescences on a micro level, as it involves the individual and their mental, emotional, social, and behavioral implications. As a result of bullying, it may negatively impact the person’s sense of happiness and quality of life (https://www.onlinemswprograms.com/faqs/micro-vs-mezzo-vs-macro-social-work.html). Bullying can occur at any point within a school setting or affiliated event. An adolescent’s classmates, peers and teachers can partake in bullying behavior. There could be multiple notions as to why an adolescent may be bullied. During this developmental stage of a person’s life, the individual is changing either physically, developmentally or socially while transitioning from childhood into adulthood.

Internet usage in children and adolescents has been increasing in a steadily fashion in the past number of years and with the increase in internet usage, a new form of bullying has developed – Cyber bullying. Cyber bullying can be defined as “the electronic posting of mean-spirited messages about a person,” (Merriam-Webster, 2012). This form of bullying can come through various mediums including but not limited to text messages, emails, videos, and social networking sites. There is an overwhelming amount of information that defines cyber bullying, identifies the demographics of bullies and victims of cyber bullying, and identifies the outcomes of cyber bullying on victims. More focus needs to be placed on who the perpetrators

While cyberbullying affects each child differently, there has been a clear correlation between victims and non-victims and their self-esteem. In one study, bullied victims had less self-esteem than those who were not bullied online. Additionally, it was reported that victims of cyberbullying were thirty percent more likely to think about committing suicide (Cyberbullying Research Center, 2012). With the lack of parent supervision, it was found that those who spent more than three hours per school day on social networks were 110% more at risk to be a cyberbully victim as compared those who do not spend as much time online (Gilkerson, 2012). What may be worse is the fact that majority of those bullied online do not tell their parents or an adult about what occurred. Despite the fact that most adolescents state that bullying occurs more offline then online, cyberbullying is still a real and large threat to the youth of America (Lenhart, 2007).