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Jenae Casalnuovo
Professor Nicole Bartolini
PSY 3122
17 March 2017

Self-Esteem, Self-Concept, and Bullying

As children enter middle to late childhood, their self-understanding becomes more

complex. They begin to describe themselves using psychological characteristics and social

comparison. This means that they are likely to focus on what they are capable of in relationship

to others. During these years, self-esteem and self-concept become integral pieces of an

individuals identity. They differ in the sense that self-esteem refers to global evaluations of the

self, whereas self-concept refers to domain-specific evaluations of the self (Santrock, 2017, p.

311). These two concepts are based upon the quality of the interactions between a child and his

or her parent(s). This suggests that if a middle school-aged child has low self-esteem, it could be

a product of neglect or abuse, rather than sensitive caregiving.

The consequences of low self-esteem include obesity, anxiety, depression, suicide, and

delinquency (Santrock, 2017, p. 311). Low self-concept can have a similar effect. For this

reason, there is a correlation between self-esteem, self-concept, and bullying. In the United

States in the 1980s, it was believed that bullies suffer from either poor self-esteem, poor self-

concept, or both. In present years, however, it has been determined that in actuality, bullies often

display inflated self-views, and their high self-esteem can sometimes encourage [them] to

rationalize their antisocial actions (Graham, 2009, para. 2). This is supported by the fact that

children with high self-esteem are prone to both social and antisocial actions (Santrock, 2017,
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p. 312). Conversely, children who are victims of bullying are more likely to suffer from low self-

esteem. Individuals in middle to late childhood use social comparison as a key contributor to

their self-understanding, so when they feel as though they are perceived negatively by their

peers, they consequently evaluate their worth or abilities in a negative light.

The interaction between a childs self-esteem, self-concept, and bullying in the case of

both bullies and victims is brought to light in The Bully Project, directed by Lee Hirsch. This

film chronicles the lives of students over the 2009-2010 school year who are victims of bullying.

Its main focus is on Tyler Long, a 17-year-old boy who hung himself as a result of incessant

bullying. It also follows Alex, a 14-year-old who is bullied at school and on the bus; Kelby, a

young lesbian living in a homophobic Oklahoma town; Jameya, a 14-year-old who brought a

gun on her bus to fight back against her bullies; and the family of Ty, who took his own life at

11-years-old after being a victim of bullying.

In the cases of Tyler and Ty, both of whom died by suicide, it is possible that they could

have suffered from depression that was a result of their low self-esteem. Beings victims of

bullying, their self-esteem may have been a distorted, even pathological insecurity and

inferiority (Santrock, 2017, p. 311). After being verbally and physically put down by their peers

for an extended period of time, it would have been difficult for them to see values in themselves.

This was exacerbated by the fact that they experienced this torment during their early to middle

childhood years, when social comparison becomes particularly relevant. It has been found that

children who were the victims of peer bullying from four to ten years of age were more likely to

engage in suicidal ideation at eleven and a half years of age (Santrock, 2017, p. 329).
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Suicide itself is also an implication of low self-esteem. I have personally experienced

losing a friend in this manner as a result of bullying. When I was 14, I was close with a boy who

suffered from low self-esteem and self-concept. Being born with only one testicle and a hearing

impairment that required he wear a hearing aid, he was the punchline of many jokes growing up

in San Francisco. His peers ridiculed him for his differences, and though he tried to be open and

lighthearted about his situation, the constant teasing wore down the way he viewed himself. He

often spoke in self-deprecating terms, noting how he must not be a good person if everyone

around him saw him as being so laughable. Furthermore, he was embarrassed about his

appearance, how his physiological abnormalities affected him socially and sexually, and his

performance on the school basketball team.

One night, after a particularly intense fight with his girlfriend in which personal insults

were unleashed, he recorded a goodbye video detailing his reasons for suicide (most of which

were tied to his victimhood as a bullied individual). He sent this video to his girlfriend, and by

the time she saw it and called an ambulance, he was found dead in his closet, hanging from a

noose. Before his death, this boy was a well-rounded and successful human being he was

unusually intelligent, athletic, empathetic, driven, and compassionate. Years of bullying,

however, distorted his self-understanding so irreparably that he viewed himself as someone

whose life was not even worth living. The damage done to his self-esteem led him to believe that

he had no value, thus making suicide sound like a reasonable and desirable escape. This is proof

that a sense of hopelessness, low self-esteem, and high self-blame areassociated with

adolescent suicide (Santrock, 2017, p. 397).

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Jameyas story in The Bully Project represents a different outcome from the link between

ones self-understanding and bullying. She reached a breaking point as a victim of bullying, then

decided to steal her mothers gun and carry it on the school bus. No one got hurt, and she

claimed that she only wanted to bring it to scare her bullies not actually shoot them.

Regardless, her actions landed her in juvenile hall with multiple felony charges. Her experience

is an example of how ones low self-esteem, caused by bullying can lead them toward

delinquency.

In addition to self-esteem and self-concept, adolescent egocentrism also plays a big role

in bullying. It is defined as heightened self-consciousness and has two key components the

imaginary audience and personal fable (Santrock, 2017, p. 363). The imaginary audience refers

to adolescents believing that others are as interested in them as they are in themselves, and the

personal fable refers to an adolescents sense of individuality and invincibility. Adolescents

believe that no one can understand how they really feel (Santrock, 2017, p. 363). I remember

this vividly from my own experience of adolescence. It was the first time in my life that I can

recall being conscious of the fact that my thought processes only existed within my own mind,

and I genuinely wondered if I was the only one capable of realizing this, thus making everyone

else a pawn in my own personal story.

Egocentrism can be seen in The Bully Project through the experiences of Alex. While it is

apparent that his school administrators did not do enough to help when he reached out for

assistance, his own most frequent action was also inaction. After being shoved around or choked

by his peers or older high school students, he stayed silent instead of telling his parents or

another trusted adult. When confronted by his parents about this, he claimed that those guys must
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have been joking around, and that he didnt think his parents would understand. His mother later

divulged to his father that because Alex never saw his father break down and cry or need external

help, Alex felt like his father would not be able to relate to him. Alexs egocentrism prevented

him from realizing that his family actually was capable of understanding him, and that his

struggles were not unique to only his life.

It is also possible that egocentrism is what drove some of the bullies in this film to

perpetuate their harmful behavior. By acting out in way that either got them negative attention

from authority figures or positive attention from peers, they were appealing to their desire to be

noticed, visible and on stage (Santrock, 2017, p. 363). Oftentimes, individuals become bullies

in order to gain higher status in the peer group and need others to witness their power

displays (Santrock, 2017, p. 329). Additionally, because of their egocentrism, adolescents are

susceptible to acting in ways that focus solely on themselves with everyone else acting as their

audience, therefore ignoring how their audience may be implicated by their actions.

It has been hypothesized that social media [might] be an amplification tool for

adolescent egocentrism (Santrock, 2017, p. 364). This consideration relates to whether bullying

has worsened in recent years, given that social media use has undeniably increased. Social media

now acts as another channel through which individuals can be bullied. A study in 2015 showed

that peer victimization was correlated to suicide ideation and attempts, and that cyberbullying

[is] more strongly associated with suicidal ideation than traditional bullying (Santrock, 2017, p.

397). Bullying in the present-day can look very different from it ever has in the past, and not all

policies and intervention programs have been updated to fit this new reality. In light of this, I feel

that the amount of bullying has indeed increased. Not only has the number of ways in which a
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child can be bullied risen, but so has the intensity of the bullying now that bullies have the option

of remaining anonymous online, thus rarely receiving any personal repercussions.

Before this technology era, most victims of bullying were tormented on their way to and

from school and at school itself. Presently, victims of bullying struggle much more to escape this

torment, because it can follow them home in the form of cyberbullying. I still recall, in detail,

comments that were made to me on the Ask.fm account I had in high school, and ruthless threads

that were made about me on the Facebook Bathroom Wall application in middle school (which

has now been shut down). I never experienced bullying in person, but was a victim of

cyberbullying more times than I could count.

The question remains if there is a solution to bullying in its many forms. I doubt that

there is any way to eradicate the issue altogether, given its complexity and many contributive

aspects. With that being said, however, there are ways to lessen its negative effects. Schools

options vary from running an anti-bullying campaign to providing individualized social skills

training (Santrock, 2017, p. 330). One anti-bullying program in Colorado, created by Dan

Olweus, reduces bullying by 30 to 70 percent. Essentially, it decreases [the] opportunities and

rewards for bullying (Santrock, 2017, p. 330). This is achieved by instructing staff members

how to improve relations between peers and make the school a safer environment.

I feel that the most effective way to decrease bullying is by combining an empowering

community-wide stance with individualized support, as Olweus did. If a community does not

take action against bullying, the culture becomes normalized, therefore silently promoting the

behavior of bullies and delegitimizing the experiences of victims. This means that community (or

school) leaders must take reported accounts of bullying seriously and act accordingly. Adults
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must monitor, to some extent, childrens and adolescents online behavior to ensure it is

appropriate and harmless. If individual victims are not supported, they will likely feel isolated

and hopeless. Authority figures must never belittle victims emotional responses and provide

them with professional support to meet their needs. Such figures should also be trained in crisis

intervention, as well as be aware of how self-esteem, self-concept, and egocentrism play a role in

bullying.
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References

Graham, S. (2009, February 11). Some myths and facts about bullies and victims. Retrieved

March 17, 2017, from https://www.education.com/reference/article/bullying-myths-facts/.

Santrock, J. W. (2017). Life-span development (16th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.