What is bullying?

Bullying has multiple aspects, but its basically a form of mistreatment and abuse of one person that is usually present in schools or workplaces. The abuse usually involves physical and emotional violence. Some of the different aspects in which bullying is implemented are through actual physical violence, taunting, shaming, mocking, spreading rumors, shunning, and threats. Bullying is also now being implemented through electronic media and social networks (Srabstein & Leventhal , 2010). The subject of school violence has been a recurrent topic of attention due to the multiple events of suicide caused by depression that were linked to bullying and also the multiple school shootings that have taken place over the years in which some of the perpetrators reported it was revenge for bullying. Government agencies, local communities, the media, teachers, parents and students have all become concerned with the perceived increase in violence in schools and have taken steps to reduce the occurrence. Most children spent a significant amount of their time in school, and in activities related to school which means that a safe environment free of physical and emotional abuse is necessary. Bullying is a public health concern and there is documented evidence of a wide variance of bullying present worlwide. (Srabstein & Leventhal , 2010) Some people argue that bullying is part of human nature and something that is present in every culture and any social group which they say helps some people adapt and become more resilient. Though bullying is present in many cultures, it needs to be limited and the occurrences of suicides and homicides connected to bullying need to be reduced. The psychological and physical effects that occur and that could have lifelong implications needs to be addressed and prevented.

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Bullies are often children who has an invasive personality, a large amount of children who use aggression and power in daily life. Bullies can be defined by many chracteristics. Rigby (Rigby, K 133) characterizes a bully, as a person who has an aggressive nature, with the high propensity to respond in an aggressive way in many cases. Bullies tend to have an incapability to control their self-conciousness against corrosive inclinations and usually have assertive position with respect to violence. Power, Dyson and Wozniak (Power, K.G., Dyson, G.P., and Wozniak, E. 7) state that, the aggressor has a tendency to be older physically than their fellow classmates. Given this fact, they assert themselves against weaker peers through physical pain and emotional pressure. While personality and situations in the family have an important role, as it influences the behavior of the child and might make the child believe that the use of violence in a norm. Perren (Perren, S. 64) states that a family of bully is often not close to each other or they have a lack of unity. Bullying is used by many adolescents in as a form of control and domination and to draw attention to themselves. One of the main reasons for bullying is lack of attention and support from parents from invovlved parents. School is a place where bullies dominate weaker peers, for bullies it might be a fun but for victims it is exorbitant burden. Pellegrini (Pellegrini, A.D 92) states that teenagers who use bullying in daily life have a high chances of having problems in school that can be harmful, both physically and emotionally. As you might guess, adolescents face pressure from their peers day to day, and rises exponentially when it is placed in the school environment. There is a same analogy concerned with bullying, in order to deserve respect in their complicated school environment many adolescents betake to violence. Victim Characteristics

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A victim is often a person who comes to harm from bullies physically and emotinally. Many belive that victims for bullying are chosen in a random way, but simply it is a person who was in a wrong place and time. There is a lot of possible explanations why victims have a propensity to be victimzed by bulies and the prime reason is victims are younger and weaker physically. Victims also tend to be perceived as different from their peers. Finally, parental support takes an important place in a victims behavior. Lack of parental support and advice may leave an adolescent with not enough information of proper relationships between people. Male victims families are inclined to be overprotective and close to each other while female victims family tend to have unhealthy emotional abuse. From the point of view of their peers, Perren believes that the limited popularity and social networks can be a precursor to victimization in the social environment of adolescents. Limited support from peers and adults can show your child that bullying is supported or condone. People who are bullied, often feel as if the whole world is against thm similar to . Effects of Bullying A person who is bullied might feel depressed, anxious, lonely or insecure and feel like crying a lot. He might be unable to concentrate in class because of fear that other student`s will again scoff on him. Students who are bullied may feel anger and wonder why it is happening to them, regularly they end up in physical fights or arguments trying to defend themselves. Victims usually are afraid to go to school and feel nervous on their own. They might become truant from school in order to avoid a conflict, which leads to administrative and academic problems. They might think that the problem is relentless and wonder if it will ever cease. Students who are bullied might feel lonely and isolated and try to avoid group situations. Another aspect is trying to figure out what to do and where to go in order to avoid

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being harassed. He might think that he will upset parents if he tells them what is happening to him and how he socializes with his peers. With cyber bullying a victim might be afraid to check text message or e-mail, avoid using social network such as Facebook in case if there is another unpleasant message about him. In some cases the victim may start to think that all insults and taunts are true and wonder if it is his fault, he could feel trapped, helpless, withdrawn and that no one understands them. Victims of bullying need multiple resources to report bullying and resource with help of the effects of bullying . Schools and parents have since the increasing trend of school violences have been working in many different communities to create a culture where bullying is unnaceptable. Who bullies? When we hear of recent events of teenagers committing suicide, we will notice that the most common reasons for these suicides are them being bullied at school or outside it. Parents are now, more than ever, concerned not only about their childs social life, but also their academic life. When you say high school, a cold shiver runs down the spines of teens and you will find that most are mentally stressed even before school begins because they are afraid of being bullied at school. Teenagers today have a desperate need to fit in with others. You have started noticing strange changes in your little girl or boys behavior? He or she seems like a whole different person to you? That is probably because he or she does not want to be a victim of bullying at school. Or else, has your child suddenly become withdrawn and socially inactive? He or she is probably already being bullied at school. When we start to notice these changes in behavior of children, the question that comes to mind is, why do bullies bully?

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TechMediaNetwork is a publisher of high-quality original content with owned and operated brands and an advertising partner network that combined reach 98 million unique readers monthly, plus millions more through syndication to major media partners. One of their well-renowned brands is Live Science. An article published on this website by Rachel Rettner focuses on the above stated question. The following study was presented at the 118 th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association: The study composed of 666 students from 14 schools between the ages 12 to 16 years, who had reported being bullies recently. The researchers compared these bullies with a group of 478 students that had not recently engaged in bullying. The study found that most bullies came from broken homes i.e. they lived in homes with a single parent. Hence, we can conclude that they were deprived of love and attention by either one or both of their parents which led them to feel lowly of themselves. Children from broken homes tend to be emotionally hurt and grow up with low self-esteem. Subsequently, these children that bully, find a sense of power in doing so. They begin to find that their schoolmates are scared of being around them and the loyal friends that help them bully others, encourage their behavior. Bullying increases their status at school and they find a higher reputation at school than they had before. The study also found that bullies were at high risk of alcohol and substance abuse. 59% of bullies were offered a drink or some drug in the past week as compared to 28.5% of non-bullies. Moreover, bullies were at higher risk of mental problems such as depression, anxiety and hostility. However, social norms and perceptions also played a major role in deciding who their victims might be. For instance, they picked on children that were thought to be gay or lesbian, or those that were not academically in good standing or bad at sports. Bullies often hold a very negative view of themselves, which is why they pick on others to feel good about themselves. (Rettner)

What psychologists have noticed is that the reason why bullying does not seem to end is because the victims never usually raise their voice against those who bully them. This leads them to think that what they are doing is not wrong and it is okay to act the way they do. Aggression modeled by parents at home is imitated by children in their behavior. Studies showed that bullies score low on tests of empathic reactivity, and have also found that bullies can be more likely to develop anti-social personality disorder. This is a condition that causes people to ignore the rights and feelings of those around them. One study scanned the brains of young people who had exhibited bullying behaviors in the past, while they were watching videos that showed people experiencing pain. The researchers noticed a great deal of activity in the areas of the brain devoted to reward and pleasure. The same researchers who conducted the brain scan study made another surprising discovery: the parts of the bullies brains that allows them to self-regulate their emotions were inactive. This suggests that bullies simply dont have a way to control their anger and frustration, which may result in severe overreactions to small provocations. (Sognonvi and Sognonvi) Children need to be taught to handle their emotions well. The consequences of being bullied are dire and every parents worst nightmare. Suicides, school shootings have all been associated with bullying as a form of victims taking revenge on their bullies.

Cyber Bullying Cyber Bullying is basiclaly bullying but throught the use of electronic means.Cyber bullying entails spreading of rumors, angry and hateful messages, and pictures/ videos that invade the victims privacy and are used to shame them socially.

With the increased use of information technology by children and teenagers, and the increased trend for socializing and communicating through the use of social media. Bullying has crossed from face to face physical and verbal abuse to more electronic means. Additionally people who are usually bullied face to face are also bullied electronically. Even if a victim is only being cyber bullied you will find similar negative emotional and social reactions as those being bullied face to face. There has been many occasions where cyber bullying has led victims to commit or attempt suicide and homicide in order to escape its psychological and social effects. Cyber bullying since its done through the use of information technology has the same ease as with other technological information media that it can be access at 24/7, it can be shared with a large mass of people, it is difficult to find its initial source and when shared with others it is difficult to delete. Cyber bullying entails spreading of rumors, angry and hateful messages, and pictures/ videos that invade the victims privacy and are used to shame them socially. There have been many cases in the news of children and teenagers committing suicide after continuous cyber bullying. Children and teenagers due to undeveloped emotional characteristics and physical and mental changes are more prone to be affected by stress. One case is the story of Kenneth Weishuhn Jr. who began to be cyber bullied after coming out about his sexual orientation, students at his school started an antigay Facebook group against him and would frequently txt message, call him with death threats all about his sexual orientation. Peers reported that once he began to be bullied, he lost most of his friends or his friends joined in ("Kenneth weishuhn, gay," 2012). Another case is the story of 15 year old Irish immigrant who committed suicide months of bullying and cyber bullying. She came home after school and commited suicide after a dramtic scene where she wa called an Irish whore and was thrown a coke can at. She was being bullied by her classmates which was spearheaded by a girl who use to date, the guy that the girl was currently dating (Gibbs,

2010). One last case event of Cyber bullying gone wrong is the story of Tyler Clementi a college freshman whose sexual encounters with another male were secretly streamed by his room mate who shared it with his classmates on twitter. His room mate invaded his privacy and was trying to socially shame him and his orientation (Zernike, 2012).

Srabstein , J. C., & Leventhal , B. L. World Health Organization, (2010). Prevention of bullying-related morbidity and mortality: a call for public health policies (88:403-403.). Retrieved from World Health Organization website: http://www.who.int/bulletin/order/en/

Rettner, Rachael. Live Science. 28 August 2010. 10 January 2013. <http://www.livescience.com/11163-bullies-bullying.html>. Sognonvi, Sensei Serge and Carmen Sognonvi. Urban Martial Arts. 16 June 2010. 10 January 2013. <http://urbandojo.com/2010/06/16/bullying-reasons-why-do-people-bullyothers-why-do-bullies-bully/>.

Rigby, K. (1993). Dimensions of interpersonal relation among Australian children and implications for psychological well-being. Journal of Social Psychology 133 (1), Retrieved October 2006. Power, K.G., Dyson, G.P., & Wozniak, E. (1997). Bullying among Scottish young offenders: Inmates self-reported attitudes and behaviour. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology 7, Retrieved November 2006.

Pellegrini, A.D. (2000). An empirical comparison of methods of sampling aggression and victimization in school settings. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92 (2), Retrieved September, 2006. Perren, S. (2005). Bullying and delinquency in adolescence: victims and perpetrators family and peer relations. Swiss Journal of Psychology, 64 (1), Retrieved September, 2006.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Stopbullying.gov. (n.d.). What is cyber bullying. Retrieved from U.S. Department of Health & Human Services website: http://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-is-it/index.html Kenneth weishuhn, gay iowa teen, commits suicide after allegedly receiving death threats. (2012, April 17).Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/17/kenneth-weishuhn-gay-iowa-teensuicide_n_1431442.html Zernike, K. (2012, August 24). After gay sons suicide, mother finds blame in herself and in her church. New York Times, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/25/nyregion/after-tyler-clementis-suicide-his-parents-makepainful-changes-in-the-search-for-why.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0