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INTRODUCTION
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School is supposed to be a
place where students feel safe and secure and where
they can count on being treated with respect. The
reality, however, is that a significant number of
students are the target of bullying episodes that
result in serious, long-term academic, physical,
and emotional consequences. Unfortunately, school
personnel often minimize or underestimate the
extent of bullying and the harm it can cause. In
many cases, bullying is tolerated or ignored
(Barone 1997; Colvin and others 1998).
When teachers and
administrators fail to intervene, some victims
ultimately take things into their own hands, often
with grievous results. In its recent analysis of 37
school shooting incidents, the U.S. Secret Service
learned that a majority of the shooters had
suffered "bullying and harassment that was
longstanding and severe" (U.S. Secret Service
National Threat Assessment Center 2000).
This Digest examines the
problem of bullying and some of its effects,
discusses steps schools are taking, looks at ways
peers can discourage bullying, and identifies other
strategies that are being pursued.
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WHAT
IS BULLYING AND HOW PREVALENT IS THE
PROBLEM?
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Bullying occurs when a person
willfully and repeatedly exercises power over
another with hostile or malicious intent. A wide
range of physical or verbal behaviors of an
aggressive or antisocial nature are encompassed by
the term bullying. These include "insulting,
teasing, abusing verbally and physically,
threatening, humiliating, harassing, and mobbing"
(Colvin and others). Bullying may also assume less
direct forms (sometimes referred to as
"psychological bullying") such as gossiping,
spreading rumors, and shunning or exclusion
(O'Connell and others 1999).
In a recent survey of more
than 15,000 sixth- through tenth-graders at public
and private schools in the U.S., "30 percent of the
students reported bullying others, being the target
of bullies, or both" (Bowman 2001). The
information, gathered in 1998 as part of the World
Health Organization's Health Behavior in
School-Aged Children Survey and released in April
2001, is "the first nationally representative
research on the frequency of bullying among
students in the United States" (Bowman).
Although the WHO survey
queried only students in grades 6 through 10,
younger students are also victims of bullying. In a
study of fourth- through eighth-graders, about 15
percent reported being severely distressed by
bullying and 22 percent reported academic
difficulties stemming from mistreatment by peers
(Hoover and Oliver 1996).
According to research done by
Janice Gallagher, one out of four children is
bullied, and one out of five defines themselves as
a bully (Schmitt 1999). Approximately 282,000
students are physically attacked in secondary
schools every month (Schmitt).
Many avoid public areas of
the school such as the cafeteria and restrooms in
an attempt to elude bullies. For some students, the
fear is so great that they avoid school altogether.
Every day approximately 160,000 students stay home
from school because they are afraid of being
bullied (Vail 1999).
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WHAT
IS THE IMPACT OF BULLYING ON TARGETED
STUDENTS?
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Bullying can
have devastating effects on victims. As one
middle-school student expressed it, "There is
another kind of violence, and that is violence by
talking. It can leave you hurting more than a cut
with a knife. It can leave you bruised inside"
(National Association of Attorneys General 2000).
Students who
are targeted by bullies often have difficulty
concentrating on their school work, and their
academic performance tends to be "marginal to poor"
(Ballard and others 1999). Typically, bullied
students feel anxious, and this anxiety may in turn
produce a variety of physical or emotional
ailments.
As noted
above, rates of absenteeism are higher among
victimized students than rates among their
nonbullied peers, as are dropout rates. According
to Nansel and colleagues (2001), "youth who are
bullied generally show higher levels of insecurity,
anxiety, depression, loneliness, unhappiness,
physical and mental symptoms, and low self-esteem."
When students are bullied on a regular basis, they
may become depressed and despondent, even suicidal
or homicidal. As a report by the National
Association of Attorneys General notes, bullying
"is a precursor to physical violence by its
perpetrators and can trigger violence in its
victims."
The
psychological scars left by bullying often endure
for years. Evidence indicates that "the feelings of
isolation and the loss of self-esteem that victims
experience seem to last into adulthood" (Clarke and
Kiselica 1997). Studies have found a higher level
of depression and lower self-esteem among formerly
bullied individuals at age twenty-three, even
though as adults these individuals were no more
harassed or socially isolated than a control group
(Nansel and others).
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Tourette
Syndrome "Plus" © Copyright 1998 - 2005 Leslie
E. Packer, PhD. except as noted.
All rights reserved
This page last updated January 7, 2005.
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