Introduction
Bullying is aggressive behavior that is seen among school-aged children that involve unwanted physical and non-physical violence that has an impact on the child. This happens due to the imbalance in power among the children, wherein some prove to be too powerful and try to bully the less powerful kids at school (Smith et al, 2019). Bullying can take place in many different ways such as spreading rumors, making threats, attacking or hurting someone physically or verbally. This report will discuss the different types of bullying and the interventions practiced in schools to prevent bullying.
Bullying
Bullying is aggressive behavior in which some person intentionally hurts or harms the other person either physically or verbally which causes discomfort in the victim. This is often a repeated behavior that is practiced by people who bully others often. The impact of bullying is so deep-rooted that the hurt or violence caused during bullying hurts the mental health of the victim for long periods and sometimes may also stay for a lifetime. There are many different types in which bullying takes place that is detailed below.
Verbal bullying: this type of bullying takes place when a person is bullying another child by calling them different names, or bad words, teasing them, commenting on their matters, taunting, inappropriate sexual comments on their body, and threatening them to harm them physically (Silva et al, 2017).
Social bullying: this can also be called relational bullying, in which the person is hurting someone’s reputation or status which has an impact on their relationships. This type of bullying involves leaving someone out on purpose when in the group, telling other kids not to be friends with particular people they are bullying, spreading wrong information about someone, and embarrassing the kid in public.
Physical bullying: this type of bullying is done directly which is affecting one’s body because it happens physically. This type of bullying involves hitting someone, kicking them, spitting, tripping, breaking, or taking away someone’s things, and making mean hand gestures.
Bullying can occur at any time of the day on the school premises or outside the school premises. As seen, most of the bullying happens in school but it also happens in the school van or in the playground where they can pick on victims very easily. Boys tend to engage in bullying more than girls do wherein boys usually get into physical or verbal bullying whereas girls often bully other kids in relational bullying.
Causes of bullying
Bullying mainly arises due to the need of exercising control over someone because bullies usually have a very low tendency to tolerate frustration, stress, and anger hence they tend to take out all of these emotions by bullying others (Salmivalli et al, 2005). Such kids or children usually have mental health issues they might be suffering from and due to this, they do not know how to control their emotions and take out their anger and frustration on others. Bullies sometimes have themselves been victims of bullying and hence want to gain satisfaction by bullying other children. They might have been abused by their siblings or friends, or sometimes even neglected, and to receive the attention they tend to practice bullying behaviors at school. Bullies and victims both tend to experience depression more than their peers who have not been a part of bullying or the victim. A few of the main causes of bullying are detailed below.
Children with low self-esteem: children with low self-esteem use bullying as a way to feel better about themselves. Treating others, and hurting others make these bullies feel very powerful and have control over the other children by imbursing fear in them. Children who bully often are dominant, confident, and have an image attached to their personality which pushes them to bully others (Rigby, 2010).
Children with dominant personalities: students who often bully others have their connections in school, generally the ones who are popular due to the strong positions their parents might hold in the school. This gives them the push to exercise control over others just because they have power and exercise dominance over others by bullying them and they find it to be cool. Even though they have a lot of friends at school and have active social lives they need to dominate the children in school who are less popular than them. To maintain their image, their fear, and their popularity at school they often bully other kids and instill fear in them to listen and do whatever they command.
Peer pressure and the desire to fit in: some children bully others to retain their popular image at school, whereas certain kids indulge in violence and threaten others to fit in along with peers or the groups they belong to. These bullies might not be necessarily aggressive or they have the need to command others but the pressure to fit into the group with their friends makes them do such things that make them feel they are a part of the group by bullying others and practicing the same behavior as their peers.
Students without the support of the teacher and the staff: when the schools don’t take bullying complaints seriously, the act of bullying increases at school, and other kids who are weaker often suffer from such practices (Menesini and Salmivalli, 2017). if a teacher or an administrator ignores the cases of bullying happening inside the school premises, the student tends to start believing their behavior bullying is not wrong and continue bullying others without any remorse. When the teachers and staff members indulge in a negative environment and provide negative feedback, the children also learn and tend to adopt the same type of attitude and this may contribute to bullying practices at school.
Bullying intervention in schools
It is very important to practice effective interventions at school to prevent bullying that happens in school. If this is not prevented or stopped or taken action against it has a lifetime impact on the victim and the consequences of it on the mental health of the victim are too bad. Hence, it is very important to recognize bullying at school and prevent it by putting into action various interventions in school. Some of them are discussed below in detail. It is the responsibility of the parent, the teacher, and the kids themselves to take action against bullying and prevent it from happening at school. Preventing and stopping bullying involves a high commitment to creating a safe and sound environment where the kids can thrive, and learn, academically and socially without any fear or threat.
Be knowledgeable and observant: teachers and the school staff need to be observant and need to be aware of the practices happening at school and if at all any bullying practice is reported in school immediate action should be taken against the bully. Bullying generally happens in the washroom, corridors, school buses, playground, and also via cell phones all of which have to be taken seriously (Merrell et al, 2008). The teachers and staff should educate the students and draw a comparison between the right and wrong behaviors which will help the child distinguish between good and bad behaviors. This will help the child understand if he or she is getting bullied and will immediately report it to the teacher or the committee that is in charge.
Involve both students and parents: when bullying is reported from any of the child’s ends, both the students and their parents need to be a part of the conversation when bullying is reported. This is because the parent also needs to be aware of what is happening to their child so they can care for them and their mental health even at home. Parents and the teacher together can help the victim or the child to engage in positive behaviors and teach them the necessary skills so the child knows how to intervene when bullying happens the next time. Seniors and older students can act as mentors to them and educate younger students about safe practices both at school and on the internet.
Create positive expectations and a positive environment for students and adults: schools and classrooms both have to create a safe learning environment for the child and educate students on the different bullying practices that may take place in school (Hornby, 2016). This will help the students understand and recognize bullying behavior quickly and they can report it to their parents or teachers and take necessary and immediate action. Create an anti-bullying document that has both the students and the parents sign which will help the student realize the seriousness of bullying practices.
Student needs to report bullying: when the students are keenly educated on the bullying behavior and practices, they will report bullying as soon as it occurs. The kids need to report bullying otherwise the bullying practices will go on and can affect the mental health of the child in the long run.
To effectively fulfill the goals of reducing the existing bullying programs and preventing further bullying practices at school a series of tasks may be listed down to make the teachers, students, staff, and parents aware of the extent of bullying issues and help them solve it.
At school level
At the school level some interventions that can be practiced to prevent bullying are;
- A bullying survey should be conducted to determine the depth of the issue.
- A conference and meeting should be held by teachers, administrators, parents, and staff members to educate them on bullying behaviors, the strategies of how to respond to them, and the available sources (Hall, 2017).
- Increased supervision should be done in the areas where bullying often takes place such as cafeteria, bathrooms, school buses, playground, etc.
- A coordinating group comprising of an administrator, a teacher from every grade, a counselor, a psychologist, a school nurse, and parent and student representative to manage the problem and solve it.
- Effective time to time meetings should be held between the parent and the teacher to understand how bullying has taken place and to what level has it impacted the child mentally.
- Regular discussion of bullying in parent-teacher meetings should be done to ensure the child is not bullied and if bullied necessary intervention must be done to prevent it.
At the classroom level
- A curriculum should be provided that fosters kindness, communication, cooperation, and friendship and involves lessons and tasks that stress empathy, anger management issues, and conflict solving skills.
- Effective class rules should be laid down against bullying whereas the rules and regulations set out should be effective and clear.
- Immediate action should be taken whenever bullying behavior is reported at school or in class in the absence or presence of a teacher. The consequences of bullying behavior should be decided at that point which can include apologizing in front of the class, discussing the incident with the teacher or parent and why it happened, pay for the damaged belongings.
- Weekly meetings and conferences should be taken place to communicate and educate students on the effects of bullying and why it should not be practiced.
At an individual level
- Conversations should happen between the bullies and victims and the reason behind why it happened with that person should be understood.
- Talk with the parents of the bullies and the victims should be done
- Roleplaying of non-aggressive behaviors with the bullies
- Roleplaying of assertive and positive behavior with the victims.
Conclusion
Bullying is aggressive behavior that is seen among school-aged children that involve unwanted physical and non-physical violence that has an impact on the child. This happens due to the imbalance in power between the children, wherein some prove to be too powerful and try to bully the less powerful kids at school. This is often a repeated behavior that is practiced by people who bully others often. The impact of bullying is so deep-rooted that the hurt or violence caused during bullying hurts the mental health of the victim for long periods and sometimes may also stay for a lifetime (Gaffney et al, 2019). This report has discussed the different types of bullying and the interventions practiced in schools to prevent bullying.
References
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Hall, W., 2017. The effectiveness of policy interventions for school bullying: A systematic review. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 8(1), pp.45-69.
Hornby, G., 2016. Bullying: An ecological approach to intervention in schools. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 60(3), pp.222-230.
Merrell, K.W., Gueldner, B.A., Ross, S.W. and Isava, D.M., 2008. How effective are school bullying intervention programs? A meta-analysis of intervention research. School psychology quarterly, 23(1), p.26.
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