Causes and Effects of Bullying

Have you ever been bullied? Have you ever cry yourself to sleep every night just
because you do not want to go to school the next day? Have you almost risk your own life just
because you do not want to live anymore? Bullying happens when one person or a group of
people tries to upset another person by saying nasty or hurtful things to him or her again and
again. In the other words, bullying is aggressive behavior, which can be either physical or
psychological, performed repeatedly with a victim and aims to make them feel uncomfortable
insecure, and isolated from those around them. Overall, bullying is a negative attitude: it makes
other people into victims and may cause illness and discomfort to others. (Khalim & Norshidah,
2007). Noran Fauziah (2004) has demonstrated that 95.8% of middle school students and
82.7% primary school students were psychologically bullied while 65.3% of middle school
students and 56% of elementary school students were physically bullied.

First of all, the main cause of bullying is the desire to make money. The money was
used to purchase cigarettes outside schools or eat at the canteen during lunch hour in school.
The amount of money collected did not exceed RM10.00. A study found that these bullies were
not from low income families. They are able to purchase cigarettes or foods in the canteen on
their own but they were more satisfied earning money from other people. Most of the students
come from middle or upper class families, in other words, families without financial problem.
They felt satisfied earning money by bullying. “There is no associations between bullying and
low social economic status.” (Wan Salwina et al, 2014). Other students said they bullied
because they were unhappy seeing the success of other students. Jealousy caused bullies to
use harsh language against the victims. This has to do with the student’s sense of inferiority to
others who are more intelligent. They may assume that successful students are arrogant and
egoistic or “trying to show off”. Finally, some students said they bullied because they had been
hired to do so by friend. They were hired to threaten and beat up other students. They did these
usually from wages ranging from RM5.00 to RM20.00. Those who earn money in this way are
also from a well-being families. People who paid them usually hired a bully because of trouble
over girlfriend among the students, or if a boyfriend seduced by other girl students in the school.

Meanwhile, most of the people often to overlook this cause of bullying which is the
bullies’ inability to regulate their feelings. The feelings that are mainly pointed here are frustrated
and angry. Naturally, people will face difficulties to control their actions when they are angry that
will consequent into hurting other people. For an example, a child may be innocently walking
down the hall and accidently bump into a bully. Even though the child apologizes, the bully may
lose his temper and slam the victim into the wall. This situation gets worse when the bullies
seek for help from the adults, some adults make quick negative assumptions that the bullies are
only a group of bad kids that will continue their life forever in the same way. They actually did
not realize that their reluctant opinions actually kill the bullies’ bright side and willingly let them
continue the negativity chain. Ted Desai mentioned in his report to The Sealy News, he
mentioned that the bully was actually not born to be one, but was made to be a bully. Their
environment of growing and learning actually contribute the most in this bullying chain.
According to Dannefer ( 2018 ), “Strained parental relationships on children at a young age can
have enduring negative effects. Even if the parent treats the child well, they can still
inadvertently raise a bully due to poor disciplinary behavior.” This shows that a good
environment of living and growing should be a necessary to reduce the rate of bully.

On the other hand, other reason for bullying is racism. Of the 15 students that consist of
9 Malays, 4 Indians and 2 Chinese stated that they would act at any time to defend students of
their ethnic when bullied by other ethnic. Sometimes, bullying between ethnic groups occurred
because of actions as trivial as eye contact. These incidents led to verbal insult, which in turn
led into fight between students of different ethnic groups. This led to a more serious incident,
which involve fights between ethnic groups outside the school compound. For an example,
canteen is the place where the ethnic difference is seen most clearly, when students involved
with the fights or able to encourage other students from the same ethnic group to help them.
The fights also occurred because the students from different ethnic groups humiliate the other
students from other ethnic groups by saying their ethnic is stupid and lazy. Sometimes, the
teacher will protect pupils of their own race and blame the other races. This kind of actions
cause dissatisfaction among the students and they started to bully each other.

A variety of issues may result when an individual experienced bullying. They might suffer
mental impacts and surely the physical effects. Mental issues impacting bullied kids includes
depression, anxiety and sadness. If the students went through this kind of effect, they might
stop involved in activities and programs they like in school. Not to deny loss of appetite may
follow. They are also likely to drop out of school and they even start to play truants like miss a
few classes even if the students once enjoyed going to school. They decided to take this
simplest maneuver simply just because they do not want to meet and faced the people that are
hell-bent on making their lives miserable. Eventually, they also will have low academic
performances since they are being left behind in every subjects. The impacts of bullying are not
only occurring during their childhood and is forgotten after they reached adulthood. According to
the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress (AAETS), some of the long-terms and life
changing effects of bullying include some difficulties in occupational aspect. This effect is being
emphasized because the victim is lack to trust others and the thoughts of revenge always
lingering in their mind. Therefore, the victim will grow up to become loners or adults who refused
to socialize with others. Their introvert behavior will surely make them stutter and have low self-
esteem when it comes to work interview. However, bullying is not a one sided-event because
even the kids who bullies other will experience changes and went through changes in their lives.
There is a high possibility that these bullies will start using drugs, drinking alcohol out of guilt
and their tendency and addiction to bullying others becomes deteriorated. Based on these
impulsive behaviors, they often carry their misconduct behavior into adulthood and lead a
violent lifestyle that will draw attentions and engaging with the laws. They will also end up to rot
in jail.

To sum up everything, bullying is an abuse to human rights. This issues impacts both
the victims and the bullies from mental and physical aspects. Everyone in the society should
play important roles to curb bullying. Stand up to bullies does not mean we have to have a
physical fight with them since there will be more effective ways to deal with bullies. Let us fight
bullies together and hold tight onto the words” bullying is not an answer for showing strength
against the weak.”
References

Salleh, N.M., & Zainal, K. (2014). Bullying among secondary school students in Malaysia: A
case Study. International Education Studies, 7(13), 184.

Mellor, Andrew & Scottish Council for Research in Education. (1993). Finding out about
Bullying. SCRE Spotlights 43. [Washington, D.C.]: Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse

Ted, D. (2018, February 6). Made not born. The Sealy News. Retrieved March 3, 2018, from

http://www.sealynews.com/stories/made-not-born,77957