Bullying Definition

Taking or breaking someones things

Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that

Making mean or rude hand gestures

Back to top

involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has

Where and When Bullying Happens
the potential to be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully
others may have serious, lasting problems.

Bullying can occur during or after school hours. While most reported bullying

In order to be considered bullying, the behavior must be aggressive and include:

happens in the school building, a significant percentage also happens in places

An Imbalance of Power: Kids who bully use their powersuch as

physical strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularityto control
or harm others. Power imbalances can change over time and in different
situations, even if they involve the same people.
Repetition: Bullying behaviors happen more than once or have the
potential to happen more than once.

like on the playground or the bus. It can also happen travelling to or from school,
in the youths neighborhood, or on the Internet.
Back to top

Frequency of Bullying
Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking
There are two sources of federally collected data on youth bullying:

someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on

purpose.

Types of Bullying
Where and When Bullying Happens
Frequency of Bullying

Types of Bullying

The 20102011 School Crime Supplement (National Center for

Education Statistics and Bureau of Justice Statistics) indicates that, nationwide,
28% of students in grades 612 experienced bullying.
The 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention) indicates that, nationwide, 20% of students in
grades 912 experienced bullying.
Research on cyberbullying is growing. However, because kids technology use
changes rapidly, it is difficult to design surveys that accurately capture trends.

There are three types of bullying:

Effects of Bullying

Verbal bullying is saying or writing mean things. Verbal bullying

includes:
o

Teasing

Bullying can affect everyonethose who are bullied, those who bully, and those

Name-calling

who witness bullying. Bullying is linked to many negative outcomes including

Inappropriate sexual comments

impacts on mental health, substance use, and suicide. It is important to talk to

Taunting

kids to determine whether bullyingor something elseis a concern.

Threatening to cause harm

Social bullying, sometimes referred to as relational bullying,
involves hurting someones reputation or relationships. Social bullying includes:

Leaving someone out on purpose

Telling other children not to be friends with someone

Spreading rumors about someone

Kids Who are Bullied

Kids who are bullied can experience negative physical, school, and mental health

Embarrassing someone in public

Physical bullying involves hurting a persons body or possessions.
Physical bullying includes:

Hitting/kicking/pinching

Spitting

Tripping/pushing

Kids Who are Bullied

Kids Who Bully Others
Bystanders
The Relationship between Bullying and Suicide

issues. Kids who are bullied are more likely to experience:

Depression and anxiety, increased feelings of sadness and

loneliness, changes in sleep and eating patterns, and loss of interest in activities
they used to enjoy. These issues may persist into adulthood.
Health complaints

Decreased academic achievementGPA and standardized test

scoresand school participation. They are more likely to miss, skip, or drop out
of school.

How does bullying usually begin?

Many parents of teenage bullies ask themselves how their offspring

A very small number of bullied children might retaliate through extremely violent
measures. In 12 of 15 school shooting cases in the 1990s, the shooters had a
history of being bullied.

could be capable of such abusive behaviors. They always want to know if

the parents, the teenager, society or biology are to blame. There are
various underlying causes to a bullys behavior, often rooted in the
anxiety of being adolescent, but at other times this behavior can spring

Back to top

from a traumatic experience, pressure from friends, faulty parenting

Kids Who Bully Others

styles, or any intricate combination of these dynamics. Bullying is done in

most cases to increase feeling of personal power of the person doing the

Kids who bully others can also engage in violent and other risky behaviors into
adulthood. Kids who bully are more likely to:
Abuse alcohol and other drugs in adolescence and as adults
Get into fights, vandalize property, and drop out of school
Engage in early sexual activity
Have criminal convictions and traffic citations as adults
Be abusive toward their romantic partners, spouses, or children as

adults
Back to top

bullying. The need for the reassurance for personal abilities that makes
degrading someone else such an easy fix.
Why bullying in peer groups?

The moment a child can start feeling like a big shot without having to do
a lot to get there or deal with any negative consequences. Being seen as
the top dog is something that will attract friends to become part of the

Bystanders

bullying group. These peer groups will then also start to do the bullying
Kids who witness bullying are more likely to:
Have increased use of tobacco, alcohol, or other drugs
Have increased mental health problems, including depression and

anxiety

Miss or skip school

Back to top

as a group which ever minority they seems fit. The gain of power is easy
to get used to. This will then become the start of a group dynamic, that
will set one group of children against a other group. This makes it not
always easy to recognize from the outside. Just as it is not easy to bring
up by the child, cause the lose of being part of that peer group is

The Relationship between Bullying and Suicide

something they cant emotionally unbearable.

Hormones

Media reports often link bullying with suicide. However, most youth who are
bullied do not have thoughts of suicide or engage in suicidal behaviors.
Hormones play an integral role in the act of bullying. Chemical changes in
Although kids who are bullied are at risk of suicide, bullying alone is not the
cause. Many issues contribute to suicide risk, including depression, problems at
home, and trauma history. Additionally, specific groups have an increased risk of
suicide, including American Indian and Alaskan Native, Asian American, lesbian,

the youths brain as they continue to grow and develop contribute greatly
to all acting out behaviors. Imbalances in hormone levels during this
time can cause surprisingly erratic and dominating behavior, even from
children who never behaved in this way before. People who experience
hormonal imbalances often describe intense feelings of turmoil and

gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. This risk can be increased further when
these kids are not supported by parents, peers, and schools. Bullying can make
an unsupportive situation worse.

isolation. These imbalances will often eventually pass as the chaos of the
teen years wanes, unless there is an underlying chemical problem.

Emotions
Effects of bullying

Emotions are directly related to hormonal dynamics, though hormones

The effects of bullying can lead to permanent problems in the victims

are not solely responsible for distressed emotions. Many things could

life, such as low self esteem, self hatred, or internalizing and carrying on

cause a teen to experience negative emotions and their hormones often

the dominating behavior on their own. These problems may take years of

serve to amplify them, like adding gasoline to a fire that is already

therapy, costing thousands of dollars, to repair. The victim of bullying can

burning. Romantic problems, feelings of alienation, parental neglect or

feel pressured, worthless, or flawed. They will often blame themselves.

abuse can all lead a teen to feel out of control. This is very confusing

All of these dynamics could lead to a lifestyle of self-harm or other

indeed and many have described feeling as if they were out of control.

destructive behavior.

To baffled and upset teenagers bullying can seem like the only way to
take back control of a chaotic world and master their swirling emotions,
and this method can work for a short time. But the relief that springs
from acting out against another is not sustainable. Eventually the
teenager will have to come to terms with their emotional world, whether
through their own means or through the guidance of their elders, talk

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports on teenage

bullying statistics every year, and they say that bullying of 8 to 15-yearolds is on the rise. One in five children in this age bracket had
participated in cyber-bullying. These statistics show that many young
people are participating in this kind of bullying behavior.

and behavior therapy.

What to do if you suspect bullying:
Self esteem
It is important to act quickly if you know that your teen is bullying or
Self esteem issues can also contribute to bullying dynamics. For
teenagers bullying can seem like an easy solution to low self esteem. This
is not a conscious decision, but an underlying desire to undercut others
to make themselves feel more powerful. For example, a teenager may
feel over weight, alienated, and self conscious. If they target an
overweight or unpopular person to degrade in front of people, in their

being bullied. The reason that time is of the essence is because bullying
can quickly escalate to violence, and the faster these problems are
recognized the sooner they can be reported and resolved. Name calling
and harassment is a slippery slope to abusive actions, and it is the adults
responsibility to watch for these behaviors in teens they are responsible
for, or around often.

minds they are distracting others from their own perceived faults and
shortcomings. For teenagers bullying can make them feel powerful where
they would otherwise feel threatened or weak.

When a parent suspects that these dynamics are at play it is important

for them to contact the parents of the youth being bullied or doing the
bullying as well as any other adults that may be relevant such as

Acting out abuse

teachers, principals or other care givers. It is essential that all adults be

informed of the situation to protect the victim form these circumstances.

Sometimes bullying behavior can be a direct result of abuse the bully is

Depending on the nature of these actions, the caregiver may decide to

sustaining or witnessing at home. If a teenager feels consistently

report the child to the authorities.

dominated by their parents or caregivers, they may attempt to act out

that domination on their peers. This is either because domination was
normalized in their home and they perceive the destructive behavior as
normal, or they are attempting to regain control where their caregiver
has left them powerless. Either way, teachers have a responsibility to

If bullying has crossed the thin line from harassment into abuse, then it
is paramount to act quickly to minimize the damage. Time is of the
essence, and just as with a physical injury, ignoring it will not help it to
heal.

look out for the early warning signs in adolescents.

Preventative measures through education and early intervention

Now that we know how bullying happens, we can take measures to

also be had with the victim of the mean behavior so that they can know

prevent it. Prevention is best had through education and intervention.

how to ask for help if the abuse escalates. Often, bullying scenarios are

Videos can be shown in classrooms on the harmful effects of bullying and

made worse by the victims inability to come forward.

portray the act as a crime rather than a harmless act. Usually when teens
are presented with the severity of the consequences, they will be more

Knowing what to look for in adolescent behavior, proper preventative

likely to act appropriately in situation where bullying may happen.

education, a strong dialog between caregivers and children, and how to

proceed when bullying is expected all needed to minimize the damage of

Intervention is another key solution. If a caregiver or teacher over hears

such behaviors. Bullying may be unavoidable in some cases, but adults

mean talk or behavior they should appropriately punish the offenders

have the power to protect and minimize the damage.

and talk to them about the consequences of their actions. A talk should