Understanding Bullying: Types, Definition and Effects

• Bullying has long-term effects on health, resulting in costs for individuals, families, and society.
• In the UK, 16,000 students are absent from school due to bullying, and it is a contributing factor for another 78,000.
• 50% of students do not tell their parents about bullying, and 35%-60% do not tell a teacher.
• Health professionals need to ask patients about bullying experiences.
• Resilience is the ability to function well despite being bullied, and relationships with peers and parents play a role in this.

Definition of Bullying

• Bullying involves aggressive behavior or intentional harm by an individual or group, carried out repeatedly over time, where there is an imbalance of power.

Roles in Bullying

• Pure bullies bully others but are never victimized.
• Pure victims are bullied but never bully others.
• Bully/victims are both victimized and bully others.
• Neutrals are not involved in bullying as bullies or victims.
• Ringleaders initiate and lead the bullying.
• Targets are the individuals whom the bullying is aimed at.
• Defenders stand up for the person being bullied.
• Reinforcers support the bullying by laughing or encouraging it.
• Assistants are actively involved in doing the bullying.
• Outsiders ignore or don’t see the bullying and do not get involved.

Misconceptions about Bullying

• Bullying is often wrongly perceived as not leading to bad consequences, being a part of growing up, consisting of harmless jokes, or that some people deserve it.

Types of Bullying

• Direct bullying includes physical actions like hitting, kicking, and stealing, as well as verbal abuse.
• Indirect bullying includes relational tactics, like spreading rumors or exclusion.
• Cyberbullying occurs via electronic devices.
• Cyberbullying differs because it can occur at any time, reaches a wide audience instantly, and perpetrators can remain anonymous.

Cyberbullying Details

• Cyberbullying involves mobile phones, websites, and chat rooms.
• A bully's identity can be hidden, and the victim’s emotional reactions may not be visible.
• It can occur anywhere at any time, making it harder to escape and targeting a wider audience quickly.
• Cyberbullying has a serious negative impact on victims.

Cyberbullying Study (UK, 2017)

• Traditional bullying is more frequent than cyberbullying.
• Cyberbullying mostly occurs outside of school.
• Phone calls and text messaging are the most prevalent methods.
• Mobile phone/video clips, although rarer, have a more negative impact.
• Most cyberbullying is done by students in the same year group.

Causes or Factors of Bullying

• Socioeconomic inequality: Adolescents in countries with larger economic inequality are at higher risk of victimization.
• Inequality leads to hierarchical organization.
• Acceptance of inequality results in more widespread approval of behaviors that lead to victimization and bullying.
• Bullying can be a way of gaining access to resources.
• Bullies exhibit little anxiety, good self-esteem, little empathy, and are cool manipulators, and have controversial status.
• Victims are withdrawn, anxious, have low self-esteem and poor theory of mind, and are rejected by peers.
• Bully/victims are irritable, hyperactive, have positive attitudes to aggression, interpret ambiguous clues as hostile, are highly rejected, and exposed to violence as children.
• Negative family environments and authoritarian parenting styles can also lead to bullying. Children who are overprotected by parents can become victims.

Risk Factors Summary

• Living in a country or going to a school with large social inequalities increases the risk of bullying.
• Parenting styles affect the different roles in bullying.
• Bullies and victims suffer from internalizing and externalizing problems prior to their involvement in bullying.
• Lonely children are more likely to get victimized and remain victims for longer at school.

Consequences of Bullying

• Victims: Depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, school avoidance, physical health problems, rejection, low number of friends, and suicide.
• Bullies: Truancy, criminal careers, deviant offspring, and unpopularity.

Suicide and Self-Harm

• Suicide ideation involves thoughts about killing oneself.
• Self-injurious behavior includes actually attempting suicide and intentionally hurting oneself.
• Suicide is higher in males.
• Being bullied before age 11 can lead to self-harm at 17.
• Self-harm involves intentionally damaging or injuring one’s body.
• In a sample of 792, 16.5% engaged in self-harm in the previous year; 75% did not have the intention to die, while 27% wanted to die.

Physical Consequences

• Low-grade inflammation can occur, indicated by elevated C-reactive protein levels in the blood in adulthood.

Consequences Summary

• School age: Bullying victimization occurs.
• Teen years: Increased risk for psychotic experiences, anxiety, depression, and self-harm.
• Adulthood: Psychiatric and serious illness, smoking, slow recovery, and elevated CRP levels, poor school performance, less income, job dismissal, poor financial management, poor relationship with parents, and few friends.

Anti-Bullying Interventions

• Whole-school approach, curriculum, peer-led interventions, restorative justice approach, individual-centered (CBT), and virtual learning school scenarios are various anti-bullying interventions.

Case Study Examples

• Educate children about bullying.
• Teachers can talk to the students.
• Peer mentoring can be implemented.
• Home life needs to be investigated.
• Look at the context: bully, henchmen, defenders, victim, supporter, passive supporter, and onlooker.
• Teach children not to judge others.