BULLYING AND CHILD'S WELL-BEING

Bullying and Child's Well-Being : Literature Review



Bullying and Child's Well-Being

Abstract

Bullying may seem an insignificant issue when compared to drug abuse or guns being brought into schools. There are behavior assumptions about children victimized by bullies. Mostly that victims act in a fashion that invites and/or intensifies attacks against them. Many victimized students do show behaviors that might signal that they perhaps might not be able to defend themselves against attacks, for instance, proneness for crying, visibly worried or withdrawn; lack humor, self-confidence, and self-esteem. Victims reward bullies by being compliant and by abandoning resources.

Bullying and Child's Well-Being : Literature Review

It has been thoroughly documented by the literature (Eisenberg, Neumark-Sztainer & Perry, 2003; Yoon & Kerber, 2003; Dake, Price & Telljohann, 2003) that there is definitive correlation between bullying behaviours and serious short and long term outcomes for both victims and perpetrators. This potential future for bullies and their victims is the integral reason that schools are now starting to focus on protecting their students against bullying (Gini, 2004, p.9). However, to effectively implement strategies to combat bullying in the school system, it is imperative that a definition of bullying be known and recognised by all staff. Bullying has been described as a proactive type of aggression, without any provocation, towards a victim (Yoon and Kerber, 2003, p.27; Coie et al. as cited in Gini, 2004, p.1; Olweus, 2003, p.1). Yoon and Kerber (2003) state that this targeted aggression can take on three separate forms- physical, verbal and indirect bullying or social exclusion (p.28). There is also a general consensus in the literature that bullying entails an imbalance in strength, where the powerful and dominant individual deliberately exhibits aggressive behaviour over a less dominant and oppressed victim (Collins, McAleavy and Adamson, 2004, p.1; Olweus, 2003, p.1; Rigby, 1996, p.13; Rigby, 2002, p.50). Bullying can be effectively summarized by Rigby's (2002) definition:         

Bullying involves a desire to hurt + hurtful action + a power imbalance + (typically) repetition + an unjust use of power + evident enjoyment by the aggressor and generally a sense of being oppressed on the part of the victim (p. 51).

Bullying is defined as hitting, name-calling, exclusion, or other behavior that is meant to hurt another person. Like child abuse, rape, sexual harassment, and racism bullying takes place because of an imbalance of power. It is carried out by someone who has more power against someone who has less power. "Being bullied is not just an unpleasant rite of passage through childhood," said Duane Alexander, M.D., director of the NICHD. "It's a public health problem that merits attention." (Yoneyama Naito 2003 315-330). Bullying is not a new phenomenon but what is new is the growing awareness that bullying has serious consequences for both students and schools. Bullying is a unique form of aggression because it causes long-term damage to all involved, source, target and bystander. Students who are the targets of repeated bullying behavior can, and often do, experience extreme fear ...