Bullying Essay

Bullying has been in the forefront of many discussions and has been the topic in child settings recently. When children enter school, they need to build healthy peer relationships. However, school is usually the main setting where bullying takes place (Nelson, Kendall & Shields, 2013). Bullying affects a large number of children and can have long-term affects on psychosocial, physical and social-emotional aspects of the child (Vanderbilt, & Augustyn, 2010). Bullying can be cause by a group or by one individual who is stronger in power than their victim (Smith, 2013). Bullies have difficulties in their social and emotional skills. Young children who are bullies have even bigger difficulties since they are just beginning to develop their ability to regulate their feelings and behaviors (Gunter, Caldarella, Korth & Young, 2012). Besides the initial experience of bullying, the victims of bullying are at risk for social and emotional scaring (Vanderbilt & Augustyn, 2010). The cultural context and understanding of what bullying is may differ throughout the world. It is commonly known as the force of power through aggression that a bully inflicts on a victim that is perceived to be weaker. The bully purposely hurts the victim over and over through different means. There are different roles in which a child can be a participant. These roles include being a bully, victim, bully-victim (both a bully and a victim), or a bystander. Bystander meaning that the child stands there and watches without putting an end to the bullying that they are witnessing. Bullying can be direct or indirect. Direct bullying involves physical or verbal aggression. Indirect bullying involves relational aggression such as social rejection (Vanderbilt & Augustyn, 20...

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...ctim. These characteristics include having few friends, low self-confidence, low self-esteem and blaming themselves for being bullied (Vlachou et al., 2011). Such predictors as psychological symptoms, behavioural changes, and school problems can be used by educators to indicate if bullying is occurring, and whether or not the predictors indicate the bully or the victim. Once teachers can predict who the bully is and who the victim is, they can help promote the appropriate skills to help children regulate their feelings to avoid the act of bullying and aggression (Vanderbilt & Augustyn, 2010). It is important to note the different aspects of bullying on young children and how bullying affects them during the period when the bullying is occurring as well as later in life. These different aspects impact the social-emotional development in both the bully and the victim.