School Bullying, Research Paper Example

Executive Summary

In recent years, efforts have been made to increase awareness about the dreadful effects of bullying. The bullying phenomenon is widespread, with no areas being left out. The suicide rates due to bullying during the early 1990’s lead to the launching of many anti-bullying programs to be put in place for school systems around the world. Consequently, over the past decade or so much research has been completed to increase knowledge about bullying. The most notable case of school bullying during the 1990’s was the Columbine High School Shooting in April of 1999. As a result, to date, many states have laws that require schools to provide services geared to preventing bullying.  Bullied children have both physical and mental issued due to their ordeal. More attention needs to be paid to the mental issues that bullying may cause or intensify. Most importantly, to schools systems, students who are bullied perform poorly academically. This fact has lead systems to believe that eliminating bulling could possible produce better academic students or that schools that are performing poorly as a whole may be victim of severe bullying within its walls.  Society has a great task at hand in trying to resolve the issue of bullying in the school systems. Some many factors contribute to bullying behaviors. When addressing bullying, it is important to examine the factors that lead to bullying. In order to stop bullying, the root causes of the bullying must be addressed. One strong link to eradicating bullying is ensuring strong family environments that are nurturing and provide constructive discipline. Parents have strong influence on their children. When used properly, this influence can help to eradicate bullying behaviors. Positive home lives and strong family foundations are very important. The purpose of this paper is to identify the elements that contribute to bullying and to examine how bullying can affect all aspects of one’s childhood and possibly adult life. Research has proven that children who have poor family relationships are more likely to engage in bullying behaviors.

Defining Bullying

Placing a clear definition on bullying can be difficult because students, parents, teachers, and administrators often define bullying in different terms. What a child may perceive as bullying and what a school system defines as bullying is often different. Consequently, students who are being bullied often feel they have no one to turn to. Sadly, these students often take matters into their own hands. Hence, there are so many acts of violence that stem from bullying.  For example,

“Teachers and administrators need to be able to evaluate if students are bullying one-on-one or as a group, since there are differences in the type of bullying that may occur in either situation. Students may not define bullying in the same ways that teachers do; thus, development of common understandings on the part of teachers and students may lead to meaningful solutions to a problem that has captured the attention of educators, parents, and the media.” (Naylor, P., Cowie, H., Cossin, F., de Bettencourt, R., & Lemme, F. (2006)

Many researchers have defined bullying as any unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. Again, even this definition can be blurred because some children are able to tolerate more than others. While one act may bother one student, that same act may not affect another.

Types of Bullying

The term bullying has many definitions. Generally, bullying has been divided into sub-categories. First, there is overt bullying. This is consistent with physical contact or verbal abuse. Next, physical bullying is categorized as physical contact only. They victim could be hit, kicked, or punched. Finally, verbal bullying is categorized by name calling, teasing, and threatening. This is directly linked to relational bullying. In this type of bullying, the bully is purposeful and intentionally attempting to manipulate and damage peer relationships. The victim may have rumors spread on them, be excluded from social activities, and have none or few friends due to fear of being retaliated by the bully. This form of bullying is more likely to cause emotional distress than any other form of bullying. Nonetheless, physical bullying is taken more seriously within schools. Usually, physical bullying decreases with age, but relational bullying can continue throughout life. Reportedly, “relational bullying increases in schools where physical bullying has decreased”.  (Holt, M. K., & Espelage, D. L. (2007)  This is a possible outcome because schools usually do a good job of addressing physical bullying, while relational bullying seems to go undetected or is dismissed as a less serious matter.

With the advancement and access to technology in recent years, schools are now facing a new type of bullying-cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is the use of electronic contact to intimidate victims.  Cyber bullies may use the computer, cell phones, or social media as tools to aid them in bullying their victims. Cyber bullying can be difficult to detect because bullies may do it anonymously. For example, “This kind of bullying is hard for adults to detect because indirectness allows the bully to avoid face-to-face confrontation. Since it is usually hidden from adults, there is no physical behavior to see.” (Jonsberg, S. D. (2000) However, cyber bullying is easier to defend one’s self from than physical bullying. A victim of cyber bullying can easily block the bully from access to them using social media or cell phones. They could also change their phone number to avoid unwanted calls or messages from the bully.

Mental Impact

Physical, verbal, and cyber bullying can have the same negative result on victims’ mental health. Each individual will cope with bullying in different ways. How often the person is bullied, in what ways, the severity, and age of the victim can affect how well the victim may be able to cope. In so many instances, bullying goes unreported due to fear that the bully will become more aggressive if help is sought. High school students are less likely to report bullying than middle or elementary school students. Consequently, the severity and longevity of bullying in the high school setting is often more severe than other aged students. Being the victim of a bully can intensify any already existing mental or health issues. Being bullied is a traumatic event that can have long term lasting effects on the victims’ mental and physical health. One study found that victims of bully had higher levels of depression and sleeplessness than children who had not been bullied. Bullied students often report having headaches, body aches, and other physical ailments. (Spence, S. H., Sheffield, J., & Donovan, C. 2002)   ) In the most severe cases, victims of bullies reported having suicidal thoughts. There is a strong correlation between bullying and suicide. Also, female victims of bullying are more likely to attempt suicide than male victims. Surprisingly, a child who has been either the victim or the bully is twelve percent more likely to have suicidal thoughts than a child who has been neither. (Spence, S. H., Sheffield, J., & Donovan, C. (2002). Childhood bullying is so traumatic that individuals that suffered from it can often have persistent issues into adulthood. Many adults who were bullied as children tend to avoid relational and social interactions with peers. (Spence, S. H., Sheffield, J., & Donovan, C. (2002). “Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year. For every suicide among young people, there are at least 100 suicide attempts. Over 14 percent of high school students have considered suicide, and almost 7 percent have attempted it.” (Spence, S. H., Sheffield, J., & Donovan, C. (2002).

Peer Bullying

Bullying often occurs in the presence of the victims’ peers. Some peers are friends with the bully, but often they are not. The lack of involvement of peers is directly linked to the prevalence of bullying in school systems world wide. Accordingly, “The presence of peers is positively related to the persistence of bullying, and peers are most likely to behave in ways that reinforce this behavior”. (Juvonen, J. & Graham, S. (2004). One study even concluded that elementary school peers spent more than a fifth of their play time actively engaging in the abuse of a victim in conjunction with the bully. (Olweus, D. (1993). Consequently, the behavior of peers has a direct affect on bullying behavior. It has been speculated that play time is when modeling takes place. Often during this time, there is little or no intervention from teachers. Consequently, bullies are given more power and peers share this power rather than chancing becoming a victim. Yet, there are those peers who passively watch bullying taking place. According to researchers, these peers are positively reinforcing the behavior by not reporting or intervening.  Another study actually found that almost thirty percent of victims were bullied by someone they perceived as a friend. This proved that having friends is not a protective measure against bullying. In some cases friends aggressively abuse their friends. This relationship can be compared to domestic abuse cases. Along with violence often comes an attachment and co-dependent role. Victims often fail to report bullying out of fear of loosing a friend. (Schwartz, D. Gorman, A. H., Nakamoto, J. & Toblin, R. L. 2005).

Risk Factors

Researchers have been trying to determine if school climate, peers, teachers, or family involvement plays a dominant role in bullying. Many have concluded that family relationships are the major risk factor for bullying behavior. The relationship one has with his family is an important factor in developing one’s personality. For example, “Parental involvement with teachers, peers, school board members, and neighbors has a positive influence on academic environment”. (Schwartz, D. Gorman, A. H., Nakamoto, J. & Toblin, R. L. (2005) Schools that have ample parental involvement has less bullying. Spending time with parents produces positive relationships for school-aged children. One study concluded that children who felt they did not spend enough time with parents, especially their fathers, were more likely to become bullies than students who spend adequate time with their fathers.(Morrison, G. M., & Skiba, R. (2001). Other factors like- support and physical safety had a great impact on decreasing student’s negative behavior. Children are likely to display the same type of behaviors they receive in their home environments. Children who have loving, kind, and compassionate homes are most likely to display that same behavior at school.  Likewise, children who do not feel loved or lack consistent discipline are likely to display aggressive behaviors. “Poor parenting skills, coercive parenting, authoritarian parenting, and poor parental monitoring contribute greatly to bullying behavior in children”. (Morrison, G. M., & Skiba, R. 2001).  . Poor parenting makes children feel neglected, unloved, and unable to voice their opinions. (Morrison, G. M., & Skiba, R. 2001).

Age

There is no specific age frame for bullies or their victims. Bullying occurs throughout all grade levels in school. However, studies do indicate that bullying cases are more prevalent in adolescent years while in middle school. Likewise, bullying tends to decrease during high school years.  For example, “Victimization increases from 4^th to 8^th grade and then decreases after eight grades for girls and after 9^th grade for boys”. (Juvonen, J., Wang, Y., & Espinoza, G. 2009). The common misconception about bullying is that it will decrease as children get older, but often bullying continues even into high school grades. However, it is very unlikely that a student will become bullied for the very first time in high school. A study conducted conveyed that nearly half of all kindergarten students had experienced some form of bullying in school settings. Typically, this age group experiences name calling and teasing from bullies.

Gender

There are specific differences in bullying when it comes to males and females. Males are typically more involved in physical bullying, while females tend to be more involved in covert forms of bullying. Boys are also more likely to be bullies than girls are. However, girls are more likely to bully other females victims; whereas, boys tend to bully both male and female victims. When females are bullies they are usually secretive and try to avoid detection from authority figures. Boys, on the other hand, are usually very aggressive and will bully their victims openly.  Girls use more psychological means of bullying. They may gossip, pass notes, and make gestures and facial expressions to intimidate their victims. All of these methods may go unnoticed by teachers and administrators. (Juvonen, J., Wang, Y., & Espinoza, G. 2009).

Who Becomes a Victim

Individual characteristics can place some groups of students at a greater risk of being bullied than others.  Students who are deemed different are often the target. For this reason, students who are learning and physically disabled are often targeted for bullying.  Students who have no friends may be targeted. These types of students are deemed loners. Research proves that students who have at least one friend lower their chances of being bullied. (Nezu, A.M. (2004). Students who have gender identities problems or those that may be gay or bi-sexual may be targeted by bullies. For example, “Almost 10 percent of the shootings related to gay-bashing. Heterosexually identified boys said that they were enraged when called names associated with homosexuality.” (Nezu, A.M. 2004). Finally, minority ethnic group members are often the target of bullies. Smaller schools tend to have fewer problems with bullying; however, bullying does exist in even the smallest schools. Consequently, schools with greater ethnic diversity have less incidences of bullying. Students at larger schools with students from various ethnic groups tend to be more tolerant of differences. Ironically, smaller schools have the greatest incidence of ethnic bullying.

Academic Performance and Bullying

The most dramatic negative affect of bullying is academic performance. School can be a miserable place for a child being bullied. Students who are being bullied tend to miss a tremendous amount days from school. They will often pretend to be ill or just skip school altogether to avoid the bully. Children who are being bullied are seventy-two percent more likely to have poor or failing grades in school. Also, children who are being bullied develop what is called an avoidance behavior. They will stay away from areas that are the least supervised like cafeterias, bathrooms, and stairs. A recent study conducted in thirty-three different states concluded that students who are bullied are three times as likely to earn lower grades on both standardized testing and school work. (Juvonen, J., Wang, Y., & Espinoza, G. 2009).   They further concluded that bullying can account for at least a 1.5 letter grade decrease in each academic subject. (Juvonen, J., Wang, Y., & Espinoza, G. (2009).

Teachers Can

The most important way to stop bullying is to be proactive. Teachers can help students accept differences in other students by using activities that promote accepting differences. These activities can be short bell ringers or group activities that are designed to demonstrate compassion, care, and friendship for one another. Teachers can have students pair up with students they wouldn’t generally work with. This helps students learn and grow when it comes to accepting differences.  These activities can be taught at any grade level.  Teachers can help to boost self-esteem in their students. Students with high self-esteem are less likely to be bullied or be bullies. (Olweus, D. 1993).  ).  For example, “Bullies typically bully children that they are jealous of or not strong enough to fight back. Teachers should take a common sense approach to this by also teaching each child to stand strong in the face of adversity.” (Olweus, D. 1993).). In the middle school setting, children are often bullied or ostracized by member of another class. This generally takes place during P.E. because it is the only time that self-contained classes interact with students outside their class. Juvonen, J. & Graham suggest,

“Another way to prevent bullying is by having children interact with other children that are not in the same classroom. Teachers should try to find times when larger groups of children can interact with each other, rather than at recess. It is not wasted time because this time together can build social and emotional strength and understanding in all of the students.” (Juvonen, J. & Graham, S. 2004)

The best way to eradicate bullying is to teach students at a very early age to be tolerable of others’ differences.

Conclusions

On average, about 37 percent of students in secondary schools report they have experienced some form of harassment at school. This percentile was the same fourteen years ago, which indicates that little progress has been mad in the fight against school bullying. These numbers are alarming to parents and educators around the world. Children must be taught at an early age to have tolerance for persons who are different from themselves. To eradicate bullying all stakeholders must be on one accord. Parents, teachers, and administrators must work together. Policies must be in place to and enforce a zero tolerance for violence in schools.

References

Holt, M. K., & Espelage, D. L. (2007). Perceived social support among bullies, victims, and bully-victims. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 36, 984-994.

Jonsberg, S. D. (2000). A place for every student. English Journal, 89(5), 27-31.

Juvonen, J. & Graham, S. (2004). Research based interven­tions on bullying. In S. E. Sanders & G. D. Phye (Eds.), Bul­lying, implications for the classroom: What does the research say? (pp.229-255) Academic Press.

Juvonen, J., Wang, Y., & Espinoza, G. (2009). Do peer victim­ization experiences compromise academic performance across middle school grades? Paper under review.

Morrison, G. M., & Skiba, R. (2001). Predicting violence from school misbehavior: Promises and perils. Psychology in the Schools, 38(2), 173-184.

Naylor, P., Cowie, H., Cossin, F., de Bettencourt, R., & Lemme, F. (2006). Teachers’ and pupils’ definitions of bullying. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 76 (3), 553-576.

Nezu, A.M. (2004). Problem solving and behavior therapy revisited. Behavior Therapy, 35, 1-33.

Olweus, D. (1993). Bullying at School: What We Know and What Can We Do. Oxford, Enland: Blackwell.

Spence, S. H., Sheffield, J., & Donovan, C. (2002). Problem-solving orientation and Attributional Style: Moderators of the impact of negative life events on the development of depressive symptoms in adolescence? Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 31, 219-229.

Schwartz, D. Gorman, A. H., Nakamoto, J. & Toblin, R. L. (2005). Victimization in the peer group and children’s academic functioning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97, 425-435.