PSSC 373 MBU Heterosexism Literature Review

BULLYING

Section Two – Literature Review

The topical area is to examine the effects of bullying and how it impacts students’ self-esteem. Studies have shown, in the past few years there has been an increase of bullying among students or groups of students, especially between the ages 9-12 are the most affected by bullying in school today (Brookes, 2021).

Theory

In 1939, Edwin Sutherland introduced the differential association theory that explains children’s behaviors are learned by interacting with others in a social environment from their families, friends, and peers.  At a very young age, individuals are learning morals, values, and beliefs character traits along with attitudes, methods, and motives through the process of communication.  This theory helps understand how and why most bullies have violent tendencies replicating behaviors from families, friends, and peers pursuing acceptance or a higher social position (Public safety, 2011).

Bullying

The process of bullying involves negative actions against other individuals either by a group or an individual.  This behavior is considered bullying in cases that it’s intentional, are repetitive, or aim to shift the balance of power.  Bullying targets a specific person with the intent to diminish their wealth, undermine their social standing and hurt or destroy them (Wolke & Lereya, 2015).  Data from the United States Department OfHealth and Human Services have reported more than 160,000 student have been bullied in their school life, which leads them to missing classes (Menesini et al., 2017)

A child can be bullied by their peers, or by adults, and in some cases parents have bullied their own children. Group and peer pressure can influence students to behave negatively or violent.  Students with higher social resources are more likely to bully children who have lower social resources. Students will bully others to gain power, social status, resources and popularity in society.  Students who are bullied can suffer physically, emotionally, and psychologically that can lead into adulthood (Public safety, 2011).    There are three types of bullying:

Verbal bullying: This involves teasing, name calling, making inappropriate remarks, writing insults, inappropriate pictures, and cyberbullying is included in this type.  This is the most common and direct  type of bullying.

Social bullying: This type of bullying is to seek to damage the victim’s reputation by blacklisting, shunning, or intentional exclusion.  Rumors are spread about the individual to influence others to think negative or unpleasant thoughts about the victim.

Physical bullying: This type of bullying is using physical actions to overpower, humiliate, or hurt the victim.  This involves, but not limited to: hitting, kicking, slapping, pinching, punching, breaking, and other physical assaults (Rosen et al., 2017).

Studies showing that in older students reported rates of bullying are higher, and bullying behaviors are related with an increase in social status (Van der Ploeg et al., 2020). In turn, younger students report higher rates of victimization (Scheithaueet  al., 2006) and tend to sanction bullying behaviors with a decrease in peer status.  Research has shown that, starting from middle childhood, bullying and victimization start to be group processes (Monks et  al., 2021) and are driven by status goals (Salmivalli, 2010). Older students might turn to bullying more than younger students because this could lead to an improvement in their social status.  Students with regular development showed higher values regarding social preference than students who have disabilities.  Overall, students with disabilities score lower in terms of levels of popularity and are at risk of social exclusion (Rose et al., 2011).  These students have more problems in peer relationships, score lower in terms of peer acceptance, have fewer reciprocated friendships, and experience less integration into peer groups (Pinto et al., 2019)

Older students show a higher level of social preference in this group of students. There seems to be an association between bullying and social status among groups of students. The results indicate that higher levels of violence in students, both in victimization and perpetration, are associated with lower levels of social preference among peers. The evidence that students who suffer from or act out bullying are less preferred by their peers.  Only verbal and physical violence perpetration showed a positive association with social impact and the student’s age. That is, older students who exhibit higher levels of verbal and physical violence perpetration might have a higher social status among peers. The student’s age had a positive direct effect on bullying perpetration. This finding seems to indicate that older students may exhibit higher levels of bullying behaviors (Berchiatti et al., 2021).

Studies show that a portrait of a typical bully has dominant behaviors, high levels of aggression, average or above popularity and lack of achievement, who has high opinions of themselves, and may be a danger to others around them (Graham, 2016).  Later in life, they tend to develop substance addictions and hazard behavior habits with their relationships and/or children.  The experiences of bullying and being bullied may cause chronic pains, digestion issues, sleep disruption and sexual disfunction as they get older (Zych et al., 2017).

Self-Esteem

Victims of Bullying are affected in many ways, beyond the harassment, embarrassment and social isolation, which can take a toll on their mental and physical health, such as, insomnia, nightmares, headaches, digestive issues, and nausea.  Students may experience serious and permanent distress, and suffer from mental disorders, most common ones being depression and social anxiety, which can alter their self-esteem (Datchev et al., 2019).  This can alter the students’ personal development on their mental and physical levels, which they may carry into adulthood (Cicchetti & Cohen, 2016).  Unfortunately, victims of bullying often are perceived as an easy target and often get trapped in abusive relationships, preventing them from changing their situation (Elliott et al., 2020).

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of bullying on students’ self-esteem.  The fact that bullying affects the psychology of children, especially those who are SEN and LD (Boyes, et al., 2020; Dasioti & Kolaitis, 2018).  Some victims experience serious and permanent distress, preventing them from effectively concentrating on schoolwork. Research generally indicates that the key trait of bullying consequences for the victims is its prolonged effect, with bullying altering a victim’s self-esteem in a formative age (Datchev et al., 2019).  Students who are bullied will experience low self-esteem; they may become physically weak and may have poor social skills. The victims find it hard to relate with other children since they may have difficulties to stand for themselves. This is a problem that is likely to cause students to drop out of school, and the loss of self-esteem may persist into adulthood (Boyes et al., 2020; Pinto et al., 2019), and are more likely to suffer from substance abuse and antisocial personality disorders (Walton, A., 2016).  Students who come from poverty or low-income families with problematic home life tend to be more likely to have undesirable and aggressive behaviors, who can either be the victim or the perpetrator of bullying (Blake et al., 2016).

Bullying’s Influence on Self-Esteem

The effects of bullying can be very traumatizing for some students, which can lead to poor communication skills, stress, unexplained worries, bed-wetting, and digestive problems.  Some students with the intent to vindicate may develop destructive behaviors and some leads them to suicide to escape the painful experiences and memories (McGrath, 2007).

Bullying has an assortment of effects on the victimized individuals and parents.  Student’s grades may fall because of lacking the ability to concentrate or pay attention.  Students who are in higher grades may drop out of school.  Bullying may cause physical  and health issues in some individuals  (Public Safely, 2011).

Bullying affects the learning process of students by undermining the balance of power, causing physiological and physical problems in the students lives.  Some individuals may recover from the effects after a short time, where others may endure negative repercussions that affect them throughout adulthood (Gordon, 2018).

Individuals who were bullied in their childhood have a hard time focusing in adulthood.  These individuals are more likely not only to fight depression but many are impaired by mental conditions.  Apparently, being victimized at a young age showed significant social maladjustment in adulthood and prevented them from internalizing social norms, which creates problems with social functions later in life (Aundhim et al., 2015).

Conclusion

Bullying is one of the most concerning problems in society today.  Statistics report that 40% of individuals have experienced bullying during their school years, workplace or in their social lives.  There have been multiple attempts to improve or correct this behavior among our society, but there are no signs of revising this situation (Boyes et al., 2020).  According to Wolke & Lereya (2015), one in three children has been abused once in their lives, and 10-14% have been subject to chronic bullying lasting over six months.

Long-term consequences, depending on the specifics, might result in chronic pains, substance addictions, mental health disorders and patterns of abusive behavior. It is, therefore, crucial that the problem of bullying is addressed not only educationally and socially, but medically.  It is important that school psychologists, counselors and behavioral healthcare service providers should teach victims of bullying, especially bystanders, how to recognise, challenge and reappraise negative and unhelpful thoughts and feelings related to their experiences (Nabuzoka et al., 2009).  Individual experiences with being bullied can affect their behavior by pursuing forms of victimization against others.  These behaviors may include psychopathic tendencies, antisocial feeling, masculine trends, and peer pressure (Swearer & Hymel, 2015).