Bullying is a Huge social phenomena that is usually given an inconsiderate attention to this problem. It is found everywhere around us weather at school, university, work, on the internet, or even at home. Little do they know the long term side effects that it has on one's life. Luckily there is a solution to limit this phenomena. We will focus here on how and why bullying affects school performance, how to prevent it at schools, and how to deal with the bullies, In addition I will be sharing with you a study that I have conducted through a Questionnaire for more reliable and proved data.
Bullying comes in different forms; physical, verbal, cyber bullying and sexual harassment. In definition, it is the act of violence, gossiping and making fun of others, and making rumors about others and is a very common yet destructive for students as well as affecting their academic performance at school. Studies have shown that males are tended to be more involved in physical bullying, and females tend to be involved more in verbal bullying. Additionally, keep in mind that since this is the Technology Era, Cyber bullying is on the rise and is becoming more and more common. A study that was conducted in China showed interrelated the fact that bullying acts can occur when the person feels that they are less important than those who perform well in their academic performance to be superior and compensate this missing part to feel accepted. It was also discovered that people who bully other students and people who are being bullied are both subjected to depression and anxiety problems, whereas those who bully others on the internet do not get depressed and does not feel guilty about their actions.
When a student is bullied at school, they lose the safety of them being at school and they tend to avoid coming to school to avoid being bullied by their classmates. The school should be conducted as a safe environment for students to achieve the best learning process. There are different types of personalities that you encounter as a teacher and you should not only be the source of just giving information for students to memorize it, but an educator is a psychologist, a mother, a supporter, and an influencer. Educators can change the lives of their students.
The effects of bullying include:
- Low self esteem: When a student gets bullied at a young age, they tend to develop a low self esteem and this affects their life later on as well. Self esteem is how one looks at themselves and how much they see that they are worth living on earth. Self esteem is tremendously affected by verbal bullying especially at a young age, implanting in one's head that they are a burden or they are unloved or cared for, there is no point that they exist. A child faces a lot of conditions at school from such occasions as well as the fact if there are groups done in class and they do not accept the student into their group, thus making them feel inferior to others and not accepted. Having a low self esteem will lead to all other long term effects.
- Poor academic performance: Due to the lack of self esteem and the self image that they are failures and are not capable of doing something and they are not smart. If a student has this self image towards themselves, they won't even give an effort to try because they believe that they are failures. Another reason towards poor academic performance is the fact that the student feels unsafe to even answer anything in class for example to avoid being made fun of them, or they simply avoid to come to school at all to avoid the bully. Not to mention that depression and anxiety causes lack of attention in class and disinterest; therefore, leading to a poor academic performance.
- Depression: A child tends to become depressed because they suffer from loneliness, lack of friends, feeling unaccepted and unloved, feeling invisible, being made fun off, having trouble sleeping from fear. Depression is characterized by constant sadness and crying over long periods of time and can be either clinical depression due to an imbalance in the hormones and chemicals that are responsible for the mood, as well as resulting from environmental factors and the things that a person has been through and the situations they face in their life.
- Anxiety: From the constant bullying, the student tends to develop anxiety and the fear from people judging them as it is part of their daily lives. This is a long term effect if it is not controlled from a young age and can lead to the leading reason for failure in the future.
- Suicide: With constant pressure at school and at home, the child or the student cannot handle it anymore especially with no support going on at home, no friends, no love, no care !! As a child, no one can handle this extreme loneliness and lack of attention and self worth, not to mention being rejected by those around which will eventually lead to suicide. In order to prevent that, school should raise awareness to teachers that teaches them the signs of a student being bullied or depressed and are transferred for therapy, to set limits to this issue and save the child before it is too late.
A research study was conducted using Google forms , to assess how many people have been bullied, to know how many people know others who have been bullied, their side effects, the most common place they were bullied, and some suggestions of their prevention. A survey was created and shared on social media to get as many responses as possible. The total number of respondents was 82 with a wide range of age. 68.29% of the respondents were in the age group of 21-30 years old, while 18.29% of the respondents were in the age group of 10-20 years old. 91.46% of the respondents who answered were living in Lebanon, while approximately 9% who answered the questionnaire were outside Lebanon.
According to the results seen, there are many people who have been bullied throughout their lives or at least knows someone who has been bullied. The most common effects that were seen in the study were long term effects in which it affected their self esteem, and suffering from depression and loneliness. Few of the respondents also indicated that there are people they know who have killed themselves from bullying. The most common place of the bullying was at school, further results indicated that it affected their school performance, as well as hating school from it, and also show that they were bullied at home as well. The highest percentage of the question “ What do you think is the hardest type of bullying ?”, 47.56% answered bullying at school.
Most students who were bullied reported that it is because they were afraid to defend themselves. Although most participants answered school as the most common place to be bullied in, it is important to keep in mind that cyberbullying is on the rise, such as tiktok for example a social media application in which many of the people post videos of them crying and devastated from the bullying they are encountering, as well as sexual harassments (asking for photos or on video calls … etc.). Lastly, all participants answered yes for having a counselor at school. One of the schools that have a counselor in Lebanon is the Saint Joseph school, and I support every school to adopt such a system. Because what is more important than the safety of our youngsters? Weather emotionally, physically...etc.
Suggestions that were given by the participants regarding how to stop or reduce bullying included: Conducting awareness at school and at home to explain to the children the consequences of bullying on others, moral education at schools and at home, psychological treatment, guidance, and counseling, Support from family and raising children with strong personality, to enhance the self confidence of the child and identifying their strength and weaknesses, that teachers should focus on those with low self confidence more than others, religion and respecting others regardless of their differences, having restrictions and consequences, bullies should understand the power of words and how they can create serious consequences from it, boosting one’s self confidence, ignoring the bully, treating them with kindness, to know one’s worth, developing students and improving their self confidence, punishments, and presence of a psychologist in all possible places of bullying. Defending the person being bullied, bullies should seek a therapist, and the government should make laws that prevent the act of bullying.
In conclusion, the study showed that there are a lot of people who encounter bullying throughout their lives, and those who suffer the most are those who are also bullied at home. In addition, the most common place of bullying happens at school, and can be limited to save students from the serious effects that happen from it. Finally, a school counselor is a must to help students who are bullied, as well as treat the bullies themselves. Moreover, awareness and moral education should be included in the school curriculum
- Dana Molla -
