What Is Bullying?
From time to time, all kids joke around, call each other names, or engage in
horse play with their friends and school mates. The difference in a bullying
situation is that the person who is the bully is actually seeking power over
the person being bullied.
Physical Bullies
Physical bullies are action-oriented. This type of bullying includes hitting
or kicking the victim, or taking and/or damaging the victim's property. This is
the most obvious type of bullying because it is so easy to identify. Physical
bullies are usually known to the entire school population. As they get older,
their attacks usually become more aggressive.
Verbal Bullies
Verbal bullies use words to hurt or humiliate another person. Verbal bullying
includes name-calling, insulting, making racist comments and constant teasing.
This type of bullying is the easiest to inflict on other children. It is quick
and to the point and can occur in the least amount of time available. Its
effects can be more devastating in some ways than physical bullying because
there are no visible scars.
Relational Bullies
Relational or relationship bullies try to convince their peers to exclude or
reject a certain person or people and cut the victims off from their social
connections. This type of bullying is linked to verbal bullying and usually
occurs when children (most often girls) spread nasty rumours about others or
exclude an ex-friend from their peer group. The most devastating effect with this
type of bullying is the rejection by the peer group at a time when children
most need their social connections.
Reference: Bully
Beware
Who is Involved?
- Although most bullying behaviour happens in Junior or High School,
it can happen with Elementary and Preschoolers as well.
- Most children learn to control their anger and fighting instincts as they
grow older, however, some continue bullying into adulthood.
- By age 15 to 17, bullying incidents are less of an issue. By this time,
the victims of bullying have learned how to avoid situations and people that are
identified as bullies, and the bullying person has usually connected with
other bullies, possibly forming gangs.
Of children in grades one to eight:
- 6% admitted bullying others "more than once or twice" in the past six weeks
- 15% reported they had been victimized at the same rate
- By age 24, 60% of identified bullies have a criminal conviction
- Most victims are unlikely to report bullying
Reference: Bullying and Victimization: The Problems and Solutions for School-Aged Children
Boys and girls engage in bullying at approximately the same rate. Boys report
more physical forms of bullying, whereas girls bully in socially-oriented ways,
such as by exclusion.
Reference: Voices
for Children
Reality Check
Bullying is a serious problem, for both the victim and the bully. Often bullies
continue with bullying behaviour throughout their lives, with their mates, their
children, or people they work with. The victims of bullying often carry emotional scars for many years, also impacting
their relationships with others.
The impact of bullying extends from bully and victim to those who witness it:
- 90% of students do not like to see someone bullied
- 33% said they would join in
- Peers participated in 85% of the bullying episodes
Children and adolescents are not aware that they may feed the problem by not
intervening.
Bullying is a pervasive problem. A major study in Toronto schools found that
a bullying act took place on school grounds, and in other supervised areas of
the school, every seven minutes and teachers were aware of only 4% of these incidents.
Most bullying incidents are quick, often lasting only 37 seconds.
Reference: Voices
for Children
Staying Safe
If you are being bullied, try to ignore it. The bully wants a reaction and if
you do not react, the bully is more likely to lose interest. Bullying incidents
should be reported in order for it to stop.
Reference: Voices
for Children
Getting Information
|