Anti-Bullying Strategies for Adolescents PDF

# Conclusion With social changes and rapid technological development, adolescents should be vigilant against different kinds of temptations and peer pressure, in order not to develop undesirable behaviours. Overestimating one's self-control and underestimating the negative effects of undesirable be...

# Conclusion With social changes and rapid technological development, adolescents should be vigilant against different kinds of temptations and peer pressure, in order not to develop undesirable behaviours. Overestimating one's self-control and underestimating the negative effects of undesirable behaviours often lead to undesirable behaviours. Adolescents should keep in mind that they should not act at will. Undesirable behaviours will have long-term negative effects on themselves, others and the community. For victims of bullying, their fear and helplessness may last for a lifetime. These emotional traumas often have a profound impact on them. After being offended, the victims lack trust in others and are full of fear of everything. Even if such feelings are not personally experienced, we should understand that the negative effects are particularly far-reaching. Therefore, we should treat others with empathy and put ourselves in their shoes. We should not become harassers or followers. Nor should we be bystanders, pretending to be blind or deaf to the suffering of others. Silence will only encourage unlawful and improper behaviours. To avoid tragedy, we should offer help to the victims and encourage them to seek help from teachers and parents. There are many types and causes of undesirable behaviours. We need to learn and think more. To stay away from undesirable behaviours, we should fully understand their causes, find proper solutions and develop correct attitudes in life as early as possible. ## Negative effects of bullying ### Bullies and followers - **Psychology:** They gradually lose empathy for others. They believe in the law of the jungle and power play. They even have distorted thoughts. Eventually they will form a violent and odd personality. - **Behaviours:** - They tend to express emotions and solve problems through violence. And they can easily have conflict with others. - After growing up, they may continue to bully and oppress others. Their psychological and mental state will be distorted. And they will be more likely to harm others and commit crimes. It will affect not only their victims, but their own future as well if they are convicted due to bullying. ### Victims - **Psychology:** They feel anxious, afraid, and may even develop mood disorders, such as social anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. - **Behaviours:** They may avoid going to school and refuse to develop relationships with others. The suspicion and distrust of people can seriously affect their social life. ### Bystanders - **Psychology:** They feel panic because they often hear and see bullying. They are afraid of becoming the next victim, so they may keep silent and support bullying for self-protection. Over time, they may get used to bullying and becomes indifferent when they see someone being bullied. They may even agree with and indirectly encourage bullying. - **Behaviour:** If they think that bullying others will not have negative results, then they may even participate in bullying in future. **Source:** Excerpted and adapted from Emotional Health & Counselling Centre, United Christian Nethersole Community Health Service (undated), A Psychological Perspective on Campus Bullying. ## Characteristics of bullies and victims ### Characteristics of bullies - Not good at controlling negative emotions, easily impulsive - Lack empathy for others - Compensate for inferiority through power - May have been victims of violence, and hostile towards others ### Characteristics of victims - Tend to be silent, shy and weak - Have an appearance different from that of classmates of the same age, such as being skinny or fat - Not sociable, having few friends - Overprotected or over-controlled by parents ## Reasons for bullying - **Personal factors:** Bullies are often bad-tempered, impulsive and easy to get angry. Victims, on the other hand, are mostly introverted, lack self-confidence, and have low social skills. - **Family background:** There are problems with parenting styles (such as parents who tend to insult and beat their children), or there is a lack of discipline at home. - **Media factors:** Some media advocate violent or heroic bullying, making adolescents mistakenly believe that bullying is acceptable. For example, some films or online games advocate the use of violence to solve problems, or spread inappropriate information such as "the law of the jungle". It would affect adolescents' values and attitudes towards the relationships with others. - **School factor:** If the school does not have an effective policy to prevent and handle bullying, it may be difficult to build a culture of harmony and mutual help in school. Worse still, it may encourage the spread of bullying. **Source:** Excerpted and adapted from Emotional Health & Counselling Centre, United Christian Nethersole Community Health Service (undated), A Psychological Perspective on Campus Bullying. ## Types and forms of bullying Bullying can be broadly classified into four categories as follows: - **Physical bullying with violent behaviour** - Punching, kicking, slapping, hitting, shoving, tripping, pulling hair, extorting money or properties, etc. - **Verbal bullying** - Intimidating, using foul language, cursing, defaming, mockery, name-calling and insulting or making malicious fun of somebody by attacking his/her personal characteristics like appearance, ability, and ethnicity. - **Indirect bullying** - Spreading rumours, being hostile, ignoring, isolating, boycotting or rejecting the victim, etc. - **Cyber-bullying** - With the development of information technology, bullies can spread rumours, post insulting remarks or make other personal attacks via electronic means, such as emails, webpages, chat rooms and text messages of mobile phones, to mock and defame the victims. This gives rise to what we call "cyber-bullying". ## People involved in bullying - **Bully** - Initiates the bullying behaviour and acts as the leader. - **Follower** - Follows the bully and participates directly in bullying, or encourages the bullying behaviour, e.g. by teasing and cheering around. - **Protector** - Offers comfort and support to the victim, tries to stop bullying. - **Bystander** - Observes the bullying but chooses not to speak up or do something about it. ## Worksheet 3: Causes and negative effects of undesirable behaviours among adolescents In Worksheet 2, we have had preliminary discussion on the reasons why adolescents acquire undesirable behaviours. This Worksheet 3 will discuss the undesirable behaviours of bullying to further explore the causes of undesirable behaviours and their negative effects on adolescents. ### Knowledge Content #### Content knowledge 1: Bullying Generally speaking, bullying includes the three elements below: 1. **Repetition:** Bullying repeats over time. It is not a single incident. 2. **Bad intent:** Bullies oppress and hurt others intentionally. 3. **Imbalance of power:** Bullies are apparently more powerful and bullying occurs when the victims are unable to defend themselves. A behaviour is defined as bullying only when it has all these three components. Overall, bullying is a repeated and intended act of harm or oppression by a person or a group of persons who is/are more powerful or in the majority. Common bullying behaviours include physical violence, verbal attacks, boycotting and cyber-bullying. If bullying causes harm to the victim, it may constitute a crime and the bully shall be held liable. **Source:** Education Bureau of the HKSAR (2020a), Understanding Bullying; Emotional Health & Counselling Centre, United Christian Nethersole Community Health Service (undated), A Psychological Perspective on Campus Bullying. ## Worksheet 4: Strategies to prevent undesirable behaviours in adolescents and help them return to the right path ### Strategies to prevent undesirable behaviours To prevent undesirable behaviours, adolescents may start from learning the "NOT" skills, that is, No, Off and Tell. - **No** - When our peers induce us to engage in undesirable behaviours which may even violate the conscience and the law, we must bravely express our position. Say "NO" to undesirable behaviours. Peers may use pressure or false information to influence our judgement. A moment of weakness or trust in bad friends may bring serious consequences. Therefore, we must reject undesirable behaviours with a determined tone and clear words. For example, when some friends ask us to join them to bully another student to exchange for their acceptance to be part of their gang, we should firmly say "no". - **Off** - Faced with different temptations and a wide range of undesirable behaviours, adolescents should not overestimate their self-control and resistance to temptations. On the contrary, withdrawal at the right time is the wise choice. In the face of undesirable behaviours, we should leave the high-risk scene, such as avoiding too much time on social media and contact with bad peers. Instead, we should meet good friends who offer mutual support and have positive peer influence on us. We should face challenges of growth with a positive and healthy attitude. - **Tell** - When faced with challenges and pressure during our growth, we may be susceptible to misleading information from peers and the media and fall into the crisis of engaging in undesirable behaviours. Remember, we do not have to face challenges alone. Instead, we can ask the right people around us, such as parents, teachers, social workers and counsellors, for help and advice. There are always more solutions than difficulties. We can discuss our concerns and problems with someone we can trust to get help and counselling. **Source:** Education Bureau of the HKSAR (2020d), Co-creating a Harmonious School - "Stop Bullying" Resource Package.