Bullying is a big issue when talking about human development. Adolescences are affected by bullying on a day-to-day basis. “Bullying is intentional negative behavior that is repeated and involves an imbalance of social or physical power”(Goldbaum, 2006). Bullying can start at any age and continue if not handled correctly. The three types of bullying behavior are direct, indirect and cyber-bullying. All three differ in approach but all have the same affect on an adolescent that is trying to get through each day.
Adolescences who bully are more likely to get into serious problems.Which could result in alcohol or drug abuse, problems in school and getting into unnecessary fights. These problems could last them into adulthood. Adolescences that get bullied are more likely to have health problems as well as going down the wrong path by starting to smoke and drink. Being bullied could also decrease the willingness to go to class.
As well as having issues later in adulthood that result in depression, anxiety and sadness. Direct bullying is when the bully confronts the victim face to face. Examples of direct bullying would include open attacks on the victim.An adolescent that is punched, kicked, slapped, called nasty names, refused a seat on the bus, or threatened (Beane, 2008). Indirect would be the 2nd type of bullying. Indirect is not face-to-face, and ruins the victim’s reputation by spreading rumors and making sure that the social standing of the victim is questioned.
Girls normally use indirect bullying because it’s not confrontational and most times the culprit of the bullying is never identified. The last type of bullying is cyber bullying. There are many ways to cyber bully; email, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, digital photos, cell phones, and chat rooms.There is little to no supervision in the cyber world. This gives bullies the free rain to attack anyone they choose. Bullies do this by posting insults and rumors on the Internet to bring their victims down.
This is sometimes worse than direct or indirect because you can’t get away from the things that the bully is saying. Gender and sexual orientation influence bullies because the adolescence that refers to themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, can face unrelenting teasing and bullying by their peers.Bullying exists because both the bully and the bullied have low self –esteem. Bullies will choose a target they perceive as being weak in some way. If the victim falls into this victim role, then the cycle begins; taunting, teasing and abuse. Family interactions that could produce a bullying behavior include temperament, intelligence or lack thereof, attention problems, environmental components such as family influences, behaviors that occur between parents and children, and family management skills.
A child’s relationship that means the most in their environment are most likely to affect whether or not he or she will bully others. The behavior of bullying normally comes from family members not treating each other with respect. Therefore, in turn going to school and demanding respect from others. Bullying is a very important issue that is going on currently everywhere. The more adolescence that we inform about bullying and ways of making it stop, the better.
Bullying can start small and get out hand unless there is consistency with what is expected.Everyone should have the same expectations and be on the same page. If someone is being bullied at home, at play and or school, the behavior should be reported to a trusted adult. The information should be facts and if possible logged into a journal. When its written in the journal it needs to have as many details as possible, describe the type of bullying, where and when it is happening, who is involved, and how the victim reacts to the bullying.
This way the act of bullying is recorded and could be showed to a principal or parent if necessary.
