Bullying

Question 1: What are Bullying and CyberBullying?

Bullying is an act of hurting a person by words or actions on purpose, usually done more than once to intimidate, harm, or coerce them. To break it down, there are two forms of bullying- physical and emotional. Physical bullying means that a person committed some actions on purpose to seek harm in a vulnerable person-- several actions that are included: hitting, pushing, tripping, shoving, and yelling at someone (“What is Bullying?”). Emotional bullying is when the bully is using their words to bring down your self-confidence or self-esteem such as making rumors, name-calling, telling lies about someone, and mocking a person(“What is Bullying?”). Cyberbullying uses the internet, cell phones, and pictures to indirectly damage a person’s mental well-being, sending mean text messages, making negative comments online about someone, and posting statements publicly that are not true or unkind (“What is Bullying?”).

Question 2: Common statistics about bullying

1. According to a 2007 Survey, 13-15 year olds have reported that 70% of them get bullied online and 33% in person.

2. Over half of the bullied children do not report it to teachers

3. Fighting behaviour especially increased since 2002. 18 percent of the boys and 8 percent of the girls have stated that they’ve been in four or more fights

4. Approximately 89% of Canadian teachers believe that bullying and violence are a serious issue in public schools

Question 3: What are the psychological effects of bullying?

Teenagers or kids that are bullied can have a disastrous impact on mental health, physical, social, and emotional (“Effects of Bullying”). A plethora of symptoms that will most likely occur is “depression, anxiety, …. Increased feeling of loneliness, [ironic] change in sleep and eating pattern, [isolating yourself], [and complaining about your health], [dramatic decrease] in academic achievement,” (“Effects of Bullying”). A government website by the name of “Stop Bullying” explains: “Children [or teenagers] that make someone feel intimidated or being bullied[have a] promising likelihood that they would ponder about suicide or attempt it,” (“Consequences of Bullying”). This problem is exceptionally significant because suicide is not a topic to joke about, especially how many people lost their loved ones due to committ suicide. In 2016, youth between the age of 15-19 accounted for 29% of teenagers that took their own life away

Works Cited:

What is Bullying?, “Pacer Kids Against Bullying,” “Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center,” Minneapolis, Minnesota

Effects of Bullying, “Stop Bullying,” US Department of Health and Human Services, 21st May 2021, Washington, DC

Consequences of Bullying, “Stop Bullying,” US Department of Health and Human Services, 30th July 2018, Washington, DC

Facts on Bullying and Harassment, “Bullying and Harassment Prevention” Canadian Red Cross,” Ottawa, Canada

Youth Mental Health Reality: The Difference We can Make, “Youth Mental Health Canada,”

Hamilton, Ontario

Photo by Dee @ Copper and Wild on Unsplash