Sarah is a 12-year-old developmentally delayed student at a Catholic elementary school in the greater Toronto area. She loves to sing and was happy to participate in the school choir. But as the only seventh grader in the choir, she became the target of mockery from her classmates. Discouraged by the insults, she wanted to quit and only sang after much convincing from her teachers-most likely fearing further taunting and humiliation. Stories of kids getting picked on due to their race, gender, social status or other differences are observed with alarming frequency by school teachers.
It isn’t difficult to come up with examples of bullying, as overbearing bosses, violent schoolchildren and manipulative colleagues can all fall under this category. But it is challenging to come up with a solid definition of what exactly bullying is, to the point where there is no legal definition for it.
Norwegian researcher Dan Owelus has authored many studies on the effects of bullying. His definition of it reflects the ambiguous nature of the problem:
He writes, “A person is being bullied when he/she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons.”
According to Faye Mishna, an associate professor at U of T’s faculty of social work, “It’s not one of those things that has a quick fix.”
Physical violence and verbal abuse aren’t the only types of bullying that occur. Merely excluding a student from a group, gossiping, and name calling can be just as damaging, but more difficult to identify and define. Adding further complications are differences between boys and girls with regards to how they typically bully.
“Boys tend to bully directly, through physical fighting and name calling, where girls tend to bully more indirectly-gossip or excluding people.” Mishna said.
The effects of bullying are painfully evident. Students who reported being victimized were more likely to skip school and showed reduced academic achievement compared to their non-bullied peers in many studies. Verbal and physical abuse has been observed to seriously damage victim’s self-esteem and can have a long-lasting effect. Repeated bullying has even led to suicide in some cases, as the victims felt there was no way out of their current situation.
“Researchers say that the long term effects can be pretty negative. It can make someone depressed, anxious, [making it] hard to go to school.”
Sadly, bullying is not isolated to schoolyard incidents during recess. It is estimated that one in six workers experience workplace bullying in some form over their lifetimes. A boss who repeatedly criticizes one of his or her employees or unfairly assigns work to a certain individual could qualify as a workplace bully.
Bullying has been linked to stress-related diseases such as heart disease and depression and poses a serious threat to the health of those being victimized. For this reason, research on successful ways of dealing with bullies has gathered greater attention in recent years.
The reasons why some people bully and others don’t are less clear. A desire for power, lack of social skills and distrust of peers are some reasons cited in numerous surveys and studies of bullying. Family history and certain psychological disorders can also contribute in large or small part, as well.
“It’s important to provide an atmosphere in the school where kids learn how to tolerate differences and learn how to deal with conflicts in a constructive way,” said Mishna. “If there’s problems, you deal with it on the whole school level and also among the peers.”
Developing strategies to deal with bullies in schools is important to ensure that students are able to learn successfully. Helping the children who are victimized stand up for themselves and assert themselves can help reduce the negative effect that bullies have on them. Making students understand that reporting bullying is helpful to their fellow students is crucial, as many are afraid of being ostracized if they are perceived as a “rat”. Suspending bullies from school for their behaviour seems like an appropriate option. However, this approach can reinforce negative feelings and lead to further bullying.
Mishna explained, “Rather than suspending them or just being punitive – you don’t want to shame them and humiliate them – [we need to] help them find a positive way of dealing with their power.”
Bullying has negative effects on those who are victimizing others also: “Kids who bully are more likely to get into other kinds of problematic behaviour with the law…It’s a way of dealing with aggression.”
