Cause and Effect of Bullying

Bullying is a topic that needs to be discussed in depth because it affects millions of people around the world today. Bullying occurs in nearly every aspect of society, although it is most often seen in schools and workplaces. Bullying occurs when a person or a group of people with more power and strength than others deliberately and persistently injure and bother others to the point of feeling powerless. It should be remembered that different motives are related to the purpose by different people. Bullying has a detrimental impact on victims, causing social, physical, psychological, and health complications. This paper discusses the causes and effects of bullying experienced in the society today.

Types of Bullying

There are four forms of bullying which include the physical, verbal, cyber, and emotional bullying. Physical bullying is whereby the victim is affected physically which in turn causes damage to the property and their bodies. Verbal bullying includes a verbal provocation, use of abusive language, racial or ethnic comments, and insults (Beaty and Erick 1). On the other hand, cyber bullying has grown recently with the development of technology; therefore, children and adults spend a lot of time on the social media. Lastly, taunting and gossip dispersal encompass emotional bullying. Despite the different mechanisms of bullying, all these types are harmful, and none is less severe than the other.

Causes of Bullying

School bullying remains a critical issue despite strict regulations passed across by the authority, in the United States. For instance, one in three students confesses they have been bullied at one point in time. Besides, 7.2% of students claim they missed school for some days due to their safety concerns, and 70.6% of the young people have witnessed bullying in their various institutes. Researchers and scholars agree that bullying is evident in young students (6-18 years) and other institutions of higher learning. A recent research conducted in the US reveals that 160, 000 kids have been reported to fail to attend school daily due to the fear of being bullied (Lessne and Cidade 1).

Dysfunctional Families

Although not all bullies come from dysfunctional families, it contributes significantly to cases of bullying. It is attributed to the fact that the child may have witnessed the aggressive nature of their parents. If a child has grown in a dysfunctional family, where the parents and other members of the family are violent and hostile to one another, or to friends, then there is a high likelihood of the child becoming a bully (Juvonen and Sandra 154). It is essential for families to offer affection to their children and encourage openness.

Need to be in Control and get noticed

Bullies are often people who want to feel in power and control. The feeling of subduing other gives them uncontrollable joy. However, such people are impulsive and hot-headed. They are motivated when their victims fear them and always cower in their presence. The need to get noticed, become popular and receive all the attention may make students bully others.

Aggressive Personality

Some people have aggressive behavior naturally. They cause emotional or physical harm to their colleagues. Their irrational character makes them push, kick, or hit others. Aggressive people are known to demonstrate intense anger and lose their temper too fast. They also become irritated and frustrated easily thereby engaging in conflicts and fights.

Jealousy, Envy, and Revenge

Some people are known to bully out of jealousy and envy. The society today tends to recognize individuals expressing negative behaviors as compared to those showing positive ones. Therefore, some students due to lack of social and personal skills, they fail to control their feelings and emotions thereby turning to bullying. Wanting to revenge on someone who wronged you also makes one become a bully. They keep on disturbing the personal indirectly either by use of spoken words or taunting look. Other causes of bullying include; lack of adult supervision, thinking it’s funny and cool, unintentional rewards, and failure to regulate one’s emotions.

Effects of Bullying

Bullying has an enormous and long-lasting impact on the victims. Victims usually experience emotional and social separation from the rest of the community. Kids and students who have undergone bullying for long, they always feel inferior and unconfident, and this affects the way they intermingle in public.

Bullying and Suicide

In severe cases, bullying causes the victims to commit suicide. The instances of violence are increasing due to revenge missions. Bullying-related suicides are on the rise in the US and also around the globe. Suicides result in about 4,400 deaths annually in the US. Among the young people, suicide is indicated as the third lead cause of deaths. Bully victims have high chances (2-9 times) of committing suicide as compared to the non-victims (Hertz et al. 148). One and half of all suicide cases especially are young people is as a result of being bullied.

Depression

Both the bullies and victims suffer from depression. However, the victims are affected more, and if they lack help, they may end committing suicide. Cyber bullying victims are more at risk of undergoing depression (Juvonen and Sandra 178). Bullying causes continuous sadness to the victims, and they end up withdrawing from others and lose interest in their favorite activities.

Health Issues

Bullying affects the health of the victims. They have trouble sleeping and eating. Some are known to express eating disorders which negatively affect their health. Poor sleeping and eating patterns affect the immune system of the victim leading to various health complaints. Mental health problems also increase.

Substances use

Bullying affects the self-esteem and self-confidence of the victims. Some, therefore, engage in immoral behaviors as a defense mechanism. They abuse alcohol, drugs, engage in fights, early sexual activity, and become abusive. Both the bullies and those bullied can express risky behaviors in the future.

Poor Performance

Bullying affects the student’s performance hugely. It causes depression, and depressed students cannot concentrate in class, and this decreases their academic achievement (Graham 141). Such students miss and skip school and classes due to fear of intimidation, teasing, and all manner of bullying. They are also likely to drop out of school if they do not receive any help.

Conclusion

Bullying goes a long way in affecting people even in their old age. The causes of bullying vary depending on the individual, but the consequences are severe and damaging. It requires, therefore, the input of the parents, teachers, and administrators to fight against bullying to bring it to an end.

Works Cited

Beaty, Lee A., and Erick B. Alexeyev. “The problem of school bullies: What the research tells us.” Adolescence 43.169 (2008): 1.

Graham, Sandra. “Victims of Bullying in Schools.” Theory into Practice 55.2 (2016): 136-144.

Hertz, Marci Feldman, Ingrid Donato, and James Wright. “Bullying and suicide: a public health approach.” The Journal of adolescent health: official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine 53.1 0 (2013): 146-152.

Juvonen, Jaana, and Sandra Graham. “Bullying in schools: The power of bullies and the plight of victims.” Annual review of psychology 65 (2014): 159-185.

Lessne, Deborah, and D. Cidade. “Student reports of bullying and cyber-bullying: Results from the 2013 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey.” National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved from http://nces. ed. gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo. asp (2015): 1