Paragraph 1:Talks about self-image.Differences between positive/negative self-image.
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201911242211151122331.docxRunning head: BULLYING 1
BULLYING 12
Bullying Victims and Perpetrators Are Psychologically Predisposed to Suffer Low Self-Esteem
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Bullying Victims and Perpetrators Are Psychologically Predisposed to Suffer Low Self-Esteem
Positive self-concept and high self-esteem are essential characteristics of a person's wellbeing. Individuals with very high self-esteem normally have a clear direction and a sense of personal qualities. They view themselves positively, use others feedback to self-enhance, set appropriate life goals, savor positive experiences as well as cope effectively with life hardships. These people also remember most of their daily encounters and experiences favorably—a recollection bias that strengthens their self-esteem further. Conversely, individuals with low levels of self-esteem, have blurred self-concepts, view themselves negatively, often choose unrealistic life goals or sometimes make no goals at all, are usually pessimistic, recall their life encounters and experiences more negatively as well as wallow in negative moods. In addition, they have adverse behavioral and emotional responses to criticism and other types of negative feedback from others. These people tend to generate their own positive feedback, are overly concerned about the impact they make on others and are generally more susceptible to mental health diseases such as depression. People usually negotiate as well as re-negotiate their self-image, independence, and relationships in all their social endeavors. People's sense of self-worth is closely linked to the relationship they have with others and, therefore, a sign of rejection, which can manifest in many ways such as being bullied or even make someone bully others can threaten self-esteem. It is, therefore, important to channel community resources towards eradicating these problems, as it adversely affects the health of a community.
Bullying Behavior
According to the Pacer's National Bullying Prevention Center, one in every five students were bullied in 2017. The federal government started collecting school bullying data in 2005 when its prevalence was about twenty-eight percent. Indeed, bullying rates vary across different research studies. One meta-analysis of eight studies examining involvement in bullying behavior for victims and perpetrators for twelve to eight-year-olds portrayed a thirty-five percent rate of mean prevalence for tradition involvement in bullying and about fifteen percent for cyberbullying. The reasons for bullying reported by students are physical appearance, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and gender (PNBPC, 2017).
The definition of bullying can sometimes be challenging as researchers and authors' perspectives on the issue appear to vary greatly. Unjustified and intentional violence appears to the universally accepted definition of the term "bullying" (Mitsopoulou & Giovazolias, 2015). Nonetheless, other cover behaviors that are generally spiteful and insidious, such as mockery, isolation, rejection by friends, name-calling, while considered unpleasant, cannot be viewed as bullying. Bullying is described as a group issue within which young people, particularly children, play different roles, such as that of the perpetrator, defender, bully-victim, or observer. To fully grasp the bullying concept, it is important to clearly and concisely describe what constitutes bullying behavior and what does not. Rivara et al. (2016), defines bullying as a willful and conscious aggression act as well as manipulation by an individual against another or a group. Bullying can take different forms. It can be relational, verbal, or even physical. Moreover, an action must be repetitive rather than occurring only once, in order to be considered bullying. Bullying manifests when a person being bullied is unable to defend themselves.
Therefore, bullying is characterized by more than one conflicting party or groups that are not balanced regarding physical and mental power. It can be short term or long term and constitutes abuse of authority or power by the perpetrators or aggressors. In addition, it can be opportunistic or pre-meditated and sometimes focused on one person or happen randomly and serially. Bullying victims experience distress or injury due to repetitive attacks which they cannot defend themselves from. Ultimately, bullying is gratification and empowerment for the aggressor and distress or suffering for the victims
As mentioned earlier, bullying can take many forms. It can include verbal attacks, physical attacks as well as severe, but indirect, psychological bullying. Bullying victims experience behaviors like kicking, name-calling, spreading rumors, pushing, hitting, abusive language, friendships manipulation, exclusion, or rejection as well as being harassed or threated by people stronger, older, or more powerful than them. When it occurs between young people of a similar age, it is termed horizontal bullying. However, when older people bully young people, it is termed vertical bullying. Different forms of bullying are generally defined in regard to their directness. Direct types of bullying are described as open attacks carried out physically or face to face. Indirect types of bullying, on the other hand, are defined as less direct and subtler. In most cases, indirect types of bullying involve third parties. They often include but are not limited to social exclusion or isolation from friends or groups. Some behaviors of bullying fall only under one of these two forms of bullying, while others can be considered indirect and direct.
A research conducted on workplace bullying in 2015, demonstrated that bullied adults in the workplace are more likely to be anxious, under stress or depressed (Loerbroks et al., 2015). These issues tend to persist, and over time, workplace bullying translates into mental health complaints. Additionally, adults who had mental issues were likely to be bullied at their workplaces. Although workplace bullying appears uncommon, it is hard to quantify or even address it because of the fear of employees to lose their jobs if they report such cases. Moreover, since bullying in the workplace is not usually paid attention too, many employees who are bullied do not conceptualize their status quo. They would rather complain about workmates who are unhelpful, rude, impossible to understand or please, denigrating or demoralizing, and not bullying. In most cases, sexual harassment is a type of bullying behavior, but in most workplaces, it is not seen as so. Fortunately, successful litigations against huge companies in the United States have attracted more attention to workers, therefore offering encouragement or incentive for leaders in the business to address this workplace problem appropriately. People who were bullied at a young age tend to become bullies when they grow up. This means that most people who bully in different workplaces, do so as a form of revenge for their difficult childhood.
During adolescence, children undergo dramatic changes in their bodies, which also alters their individual perception of the universe. Research shows that there are multiple ups as well as downs during adolescence (Rivara et al., 2016). Self-esteem is an important concept during adolescence. Interaction with friends and school mates is crucial for a child during adolescence and plays an important role in self-esteem development. Self-esteem can be defined as a developed attitude or perception of one's personality. It refers to an individual's evaluation of his or her self-worth or how they view themselves (either decent, competent, and good). In this regard, social support plays a fundamental role in the developed of a child or adolescent's self-esteem. Researchers have also documented that the relationship of peers and parents with a child or an adolescent supports his or her self-esteem development (Fanti & Henrich, 2015). The attention an adolescent gets from others, as well as the extent to which they are respected and accepted, plays a crucial role in their self-esteem development. Theorists assume that a person views himself or herself from other's perspectives and integrates these perceptions into his or her existing self-concept. This is essential because the perceived acceptance or respected received from others is incorporated into a person's feelings of self-esteem and self-worth.
Bullying incidents involve several learners' groups: bullies (perpetrators of the bullying behaviors), victims (targets of the behaviors of bullying), bystanders (people who are neither victims nor perpetrators but are present during the bullying behaviors). There are different categories of bullying parties (Fanti & Henrich, 2015). That is, there are pure bullies (individuals who bully but have never been bullied), pure victims (individuals who have been bullied but have never bullied), and bully-victims (individuals who bully and are also bullied). When it comes to pure victims, research shows that often, people who are bullied have low self-esteem. Some children who bully others, yet not all, have low self-esteem. Most of the children who bully others have high self-esteem and are usually popular in their schools — however, those who become bullied, usually, if not always, have low self-esteem.
The most damaging and common impact of bullying on the victims is the belief that they were responsible for what happened to them. This leads to low self-esteem and self-blame. The statement holds true for adults and children who are physically or sexually abused. Studies also show that bullies also bear behavioral and emotional consequences (Mitsopoulou & Giovazolias, 2015). Although the impact of bullies has barely been researching by scholars, an examination of existing studies published in reputable journals found that young people who were victims or perpetrators of bullying are more likely to have low self-esteem and are prone to suicidal tendencies. In other words, they are suicidal and usually isolate themselves from society. Suicidal thoughts and rates of suicides are also high in bully-victims.
For bullies, long term consequences resulting from low self-esteem are likely to:
2. Become promiscuous or engage in sexual activity at an early age
3. Abuse drugs or alcohol later in adulthood or even adolescence
4. Have traffic citations or criminal convictions as adults
5. Be violent towards spouses, children, or their romantic partners as adults.
People who bully others and are also sometimes bullied experience a certain combination of implications that both adolescents or children who are pure perpetrators and those who are pure victims experience that stem from low self-esteem. These include comorbidities of both internalizing and externalizing challenges, underdevelop social skills, negative self-perception, and perception of others, rejection by friends and peer groups, which also reduces their sense of self-worth. Similarly, however, roles combination in bullying is adversely influenced by peers or friend with whom a bully-victim interacts with. A cohort study conducted by Arseneault et al. (2006) found that children who have been both targets and perpetrators of bullying developed severe and more pervasive self-esteem issues, behavioral and physiological outcomes than others who were victims only, after controlling and modifying for adjustment issues prevailing before the bullying incident.
Adolescents involved in cyberbullying behaviors as both targets and perpetrators were found by a Kowalski and Limber (2013) study to be at high risks of physical and mental health, as opposed to others who only perpetrated bullying actions, the targets, and bystanders. Often, these negative implications were found in individuals with low self-esteem. This implies that low esteem may have contributed in a large way to the adverse effects.
For adults, bullying programs are almost nonexistent, and researchers have not concentrated on the effectiveness of the existing ones. Different articles express authors' opinions for such programs, by there is no data to support these opinions. Most articles, however, focus on what researchers know about programs for bullying prevention among children and adolescents.
Unfortunately, programs developed for school bullying prevention demonstrate modest results. Studies indicate that when bullying occurs when other students are watching, the bystanders often have the ability to stop it when they expressly show that the behavior is intolerable. For the targets, having friends, even one, can make a big difference. In addition, when teachers or other adults at school consistently and swiftly intervene, the bully will usually be discouraged from engaging in such actions. However, programs developed by schools to stop bullying aim at convincing learners to intervene or discourage a bully from bullying others. Their effectiveness has been modest at best.
The Olweus Prevention Program was developed by professor Dan Olweus and is currently used in many American and European schools to deter school bullying. Professor Olweus is currently recognized for his studies and expertise in bullying conduct. A research study of about 56, 000 students in schools that had implemented the Olweau Program was found to have significantly reduced the number of bullying cases reported (Olweus, Solberg & Breivik, 2018). It also reduced complaints by students that teachers did nothing to stop the bullying from happening. However, the program did not increase the likelihood of bullied students to report their bullies.
In order to address the issue of bullying, more schools need to implement the Olweus program. It is normally implemented on three levels. Namely, the first level (school-wide), the second level (classroom) and third level (individual) (Olweus, Solberg & Breivik, 2018). The school-wide approach means students, staff, and teachers are taught various strategies of spotting bullying as well as stopping it when it's about to occur. Although there are mixed results of this program, it does help in reducing the number of bullying cases in a school.
The other approach to preventing bullying is community buy-in. For prevention programs to work, they need to involve more than teachers, students, and school staff—community members and parents should also be part of the programs. Children always influenced by adults, and if they come together to end the problem of bullying, success chances will be significantly higher. Ensuring that all parents agree with the implemented programs of bullying prevention and involving other community members such as firemen, police officers, celebrities, and others will make a big difference (Bradshaw, 2015). Having people working together in the community will promote activities aimed at building positive connections between students as well as eradicate bullying behaviors.
In addition, prevention programs should also educate everyone about bullying and its effects on the self-esteem of both targets and bullies. The more the community, including students, teachers, and parents know about bullying and its adverse effects on all parties involved, the better the chances of effectively eradicating it (Bradshaw, 2015). The program should also use community feedback regarding the issue to improve the content offered.
Indeed, individuals with very high self-esteem normally have a clear direction and a sense of personal qualities. They view themselves positively, use others feedback to self-enhance, set appropriate life goals, savor positive experiences as well as cope effectively with life hardships. These people also remember most of their daily encounters and experiences favorably—a recollection bias that strengthens their self-esteem further. To eradicate the problem of bullying in the community, all members of the community must be involved. Effective programs such as the Olweus program must also be developed to tackle the problem
References
Arseneault, L., Walsh, E., Trzesniewski, K., Newcombe, R., Caspi, A., & Moffitt, T. E. (2006). Bullying victimization uniquely contributes to adjustment problems in young children: A nationally representative cohort study. Pediatrics, 118(1), 130-138.
Bradshaw, C. P. (2015). Translating research to practice in bullying prevention. American Psychologist, 70(4), 322.
Fanti, K. A., & Henrich, C. C. (2015). Effects of self-esteem and narcissism on bullying and victimization during early adolescence. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 35(1), 5-29.
Kowalski, R. M., & Limber, S. P. (2013). Psychological, physical, and academic correlates of cyberbullying and traditional bullying. Journal of Adolescent Health, 53(1), S13-S20.
Loerbroks, A., Weigl, M., Li, J., Glaser, J., Degen, C., & Angerer, P. (2015). Workplace bullying and depressive symptoms: A prospective study among junior physicians in Germany. Journal of psychosomatic research, 78(2), 168-172.
Mitsopoulou, E., & Giovazolias, T. (2015). Personality traits, empathy, and bullying behavior: A meta-analytic approach. Aggression and violent behavior, 21, 61-72.
Olweus, D., Solberg, M. E., & Breivik, K. (2018). Long‐term school‐level effects of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP). Scandinavian journal of psychology.
Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center. (2017). Bullying Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.pacer.org/bullying/resources/stats.asp
Rivara, F., Le Menestrel, S., on the Biological, C., on Law, C., of Behavioral, D., Sciences, S., & National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2016). Consequences of Bullying Behavior. In Preventing Bullying Through Science, Policy, and Practice. National Academies Press (US).
