Bullying has severe long-term effects on both the bullied child and the bully, with less obvious bullying behaviors often going unnoticed. Studies estimate that a quarter to a third of children will experience bullying, with gender, ethnicity, and sexual preferences becoming more common in older children. Bullying can lead to increased absenteeism, depression, anxiety, and changes in the bullied child’s behavior. Allowing children to bully puts them at high risk for poor social adjustment later in life, and the behavior suggests poor parenting. Schools often don’t notice the less obvious forms of bullying, which can be just as harmful as more recognizable forms.
The effects of bullying can be severe and both the bullied child and the victim are at long-term risk for a variety of negative consequences. This problem is now being treated with such seriousness, that in the early part of the 2000s, the American Medical Association issued strict guidelines for doctors to look for symptoms in bullied children in order to intervene early. Yet one thing has become particularly clear, and that is that less obvious bullying behaviors are not always recognized. Psychological and even online bullying that involves simple things like name calling can be just as harmful as bullying that threatens violence or demands obedience.
Studies estimate that about a quarter to a third of children will experience bullying on a regular basis. In the early school years, children may not be particularly singled out for differences, but bullying related to gender, ethnicity, and sexual preferences becomes more common in older children. The figure of those affected is relatively rigid; 25% or more of children will experience feeling bad, unwanted, abnormal, physically frightened or threatened, and possibly hurt.
Unsurprisingly, children begin to experience the effects of bullying in a variety of symptoms. These include increased absenteeism, which makes logical sense for children trying to avoid a negative environment. Younger and older children, and even those outside of school, can start to have significant problems with depression and/or anxiety. In fact, the risk of developing long-term mental health problems increases dramatically as self-esteem is regularly attacked.
The very nature of the bullied child may change as part of the effects of the bullying. He or she may harden, which often means being less sensitive to others. Some bullied children even become bullies. Other children become less aggressive and withdraw from their peers or family.
The effects of bullying aren’t limited to the children who do it. Allowing children to bully puts them at high risk for poor social adjustment later in life. While statistics disagree on this matter, there is little or great potential for children who act this way to act criminally at a later date.
The bullying behavior also suggests poor parenting with less attention than is developmentally beneficial. Correcting that behavior and the situations from which it arises early can be a saving grace for all involved. It has also been hypothesized that the bully model may not be accurate and that children in well-adjusted families may become bullies and are less often suspected of this behavior.
The problem with the effects of bullying is that even schools don’t always notice it. Certain things that seem blatant are banned, but there are many insidious ways a child or group can bully another child. Cyberbullying has been shown to be one such area, and simply throwing constant insults, but not swear words, at someone else is another method of bullying. These “softer” forms of bullying prove to be no less harmful than more recognizable forms of bullying; however many schools draw a line in prohibiting overt bullying behavior and don’t always catch more underhanded actions.
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