From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullying
Share of children who report being bullied (2015)
Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate.
The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite
is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an imbalance of
physical or social power. This imbalance distinguishes bullying from conflict.
Bullying is a subcategory of aggressive behavior characterized by
hostile intent, imbalance of power and repetition over a period of time.
Bullying is the activity of repeated, aggressive behavior intended to
hurt another individual, physically, mentally or emotionally.
Bullying can be done individually or by a group, called mobbing,
in which the bully may have one or more "lieutenants" who are willing
to assist the primary bully. Bullying in school and the workplace is
also referred to as "peer abuse". Robert W. Fuller has analyzed bullying in the context of rankism. The Swedish-Norwegian researcher Dan Olweus
says bullying occurs when a person is "exposed, repeatedly and over
time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons",
and that negative actions occur "when a person intentionally inflicts
injury or discomfort upon another person, through physical contact,
through words or in other ways". Individual bullying is usually characterized by a person behaving in a certain way to gain power over another person.
A bullying culture can develop in any context in which humans interact with each other. This may include school, family, the workplace, the home, and neighborhoods. The main platform for bullying in contemporary culture is on social media websites.
In a 2012 study of male adolescent American football players, "the
strongest predictor [of bullying] was the perception of whether the most
influential male in a player's life would approve of the bullying
behavior." A study by The Lancet
Child & Adolescent Health in 2019 showed a relationship between
social media use by girls and an increase in their exposure to bullying.
Bullying may be defined in many different ways. In the United Kingdom, there is no legal definition of bullying, while some states in the United States have laws against it. Bullying is divided into four basic types of abuse – psychological (sometimes called emotional or relational), verbal, physical, and cyber.
Behaviors used to assert such domination may include physical assault or coercion, verbal harassment, or threat, and such acts may be directed repeatedly toward particular targets. Rationalizations
of such behavior sometimes include differences of social class, race,
religion, gender, sexual orientation, appearance, behavior, body
language, personality, reputation, lineage, strength, size, or ability. If bullying is done by a group, it is called mobbing.
Etymology
The word "bully" was first used in the 1530s meaning "sweetheart", applied to either sex, from the Dutch boel "lover, brother", probably diminutive of Middle High German buole "brother", of uncertain origin (compare with the German buhle
"lover"). The meaning deteriorated through the 17th century through
"fine fellow", "blusterer", to "harasser of the weak". This may have
been as a connecting sense between "lover" and "ruffian" as in
"protector of a prostitute", which was one sense of "bully" (though not specifically attested until 1706). The verb "to bully" is first attested in 1710.
In the past, in American culture, the term has been used
differently, as an exclamation/exhortation, in particular famously
associated with Theodore Roosevelt and continuing to the present in the bully pulpit, Roosevelt's coining and also as faint/deprecating praise ("bully for him").
Types
Bullying has been classified by the body of literature into different
types. These can be in the form of nonverbal, verbal, or physical
behavior. Another classification is based on perpetrators or the
participants involved, so that the types include individual and
collective bullying. Other interpretation also cite emotional and
relational bullying in addition to physical harm inflicted towards
another person or even property. There is also the case of the more recent phenomenon called cyberbullying.
Physical, verbal, and relational bullying are most prevalent in
primary school and could also begin much earlier while continuing into
later stages in individuals lives.
Individual
Individual bullying tactics are perpetrated by a single person against a victim or victims. Individual bullying can be classified into four types outlined below:
Physical
Physical bullying is any bullying that hurts someone's body or
damages their possessions. Stealing, shoving, hitting, fighting, and
intentionally destroying someone's property are types of physical
bullying. Physical bullying is rarely the first form of bullying that a
victim will experience. Often bullying will begin in a different form
and later progress to physical violence. In physical bullying the main
weapon the bully uses is his/her body, or some part thereof; or an
object as a weapon when attacking his/her victim. Sometimes groups of
young adults will target and alienate a peer because of some adolescent
prejudice. This can quickly lead to a situation where they are being
taunted, tortured, and "beaten up" by their classmates. Physical
bullying will often escalate over time, and can lead to a detrimental or
fatal ending, and therefore many try to stop it quickly to prevent any
further escalation.
Verbal
Verbal bullying is one of the most common types of bullying. This is
any bullying that is conducted by speaking, other use of the voice, or
some form of body language and does not involve any physical contact.
Bullying usually begins at this stage and includes any of the following:
- Derogatory name-calling and nicknaming
- Spreading rumors or lying about someone
- Threatening someone
- Yelling at or talking to someone in a rude or unkind tone of voice, especially without justifiable cause
- Mocking someone's voice or style of speaking
- Laughing at someone
- Use of body language (i.e., the middle finger) to torture someone
- Making insults or otherwise making fun of someone
In verbal bullying, the main weapon the bully uses is voice. In many
cases, verbal bullying is common in both genders, but girls are more
likely to perform it. Girls, in general, are more subtle with insults
than boys. Girls use verbal bullying, as well as social exclusion
techniques, to dominate and control other individuals and show their
superiority and power, often to try to impress someone they idolize.
Many boys are subtle enough to use verbal techniques for domination when
they want to avoid the trouble that can come with physically bullying
someone else.
Relational
Relational bullying (sometimes referred to as social aggression) is the type of bullying that uses relationships to hurt others.
The term also denotes any bullying that is done with the intent to hurt
somebody's reputation or social standing which can also link in with
the techniques included in physical and verbal bullying. Relational
bullying is a form of bullying common among youth, but particularly upon
girls. Social exclusion (slighting or making someone feel "left out")
is one of the most common types of relational bullying. Relational
bullying can be used as a tool by bullies to both improve their social
standing and control others. Unlike physical bullying which is obvious,
relational bullying is not overt and can continue for a long time
without being noticed.
Cyber
Cyberbullying
is the use of technology to harass, threaten, embarrass, or target
another person. When an adult is involved, it may meet the definition of
cyber-harassment or cyberstalking, a crime that can have legal consequences and involve jail time. This includes bullying by use of email, instant messaging, social media websites (such as Facebook), text messages, and cell phones. It is stated that Cyberbullying is more common in secondary school than in primary school.
Collective
Collective bullying tactics are employed by more than one individual
against a victim or victims. Collective bullying is known as mobbing,
and can include any of the individual types of bullying. Trolling behavior
on social media, although generally assumed to be individual in nature
by the casual reader, is sometime organized efforts by sponsored astroturfers.
Mobbing
Mobbing refers to the bullying of an individual by a group, in any context, such as a family, peer group, school, workplace, neighborhood, community, or online. When it occurs as emotional abuse in the workplace, such as "ganging up" by co-workers, subordinates or superiors, to force someone out of the workplace through rumor, innuendo, intimidation, humiliation, discrediting, and isolation, it is also referred to as malicious, nonsexual, nonracial/racial, general harassment.
Characteristics
Bullies and accomplices
Studies have shown that envy and resentment may be motives for bullying. Research on the self-esteem of bullies has produced equivocal results. While some bullies are arrogant and narcissistic,
they can also use bullying as a tool to conceal shame or anxiety or to
boost self-esteem: by demeaning others, the abuser feels empowered. Bullies may bully out of jealousy or because they themselves are bullied. Psychologist Roy Baumeister
asserts that people who are prone to abusive behavior tend to have
inflated but fragile egos. Because they think too highly of themselves,
they are frequently offended by the criticisms and lack of deference of
other people, and react to this disrespect with violence and insults.
Researchers have identified other risk factors such as depression and personality disorders,
as well as quickness to anger and use of force, addiction to aggressive
behaviors, mistaking others' actions as hostile, concern with
preserving self-image, and engaging in obsessive or rigid actions. A combination of these factors may also be causes of this behavior.
In one study of youth, a combination of antisocial traits and
depression was found to be the best predictor of youth violence, whereas
video game violence and television violence exposure were not predictive of these behaviors.
Bullying may also result from a genetic predisposition or a brain abnormality in the bully.
While parents can help a toddler develop emotional regulation and
control to restrict aggressive behavior, some children fail to develop
these skills due to insecure attachment with their families, ineffective
discipline, and environmental factors such as a stressful home life and
hostile siblings.
Moreover, according to some researchers, bullies may be inclined toward
negativity and perform poorly academically. Dr. Cook says, "A typical
bully has trouble resolving problems with others and also has trouble
academically. He or she usually has negative attitudes and beliefs about
others, feels negatively toward himself/herself, comes from a family
environment characterized by conflict and poor parenting, perceives
school as negative and is negatively influenced by peers."
Contrarily, some researchers have suggested that some bullies are
psychologically strongest and have high social standing among their
peers, while their targets are emotionally distressed and socially
marginalized.
Peer groups often promote the bully's actions, and members of these
peer groups also engage in behaviors, such as mocking, excluding,
punching, and insulting one another as a source of entertainment.
Other researchers also argued that a minority of the bullies, those who
are not in-turn bullied, enjoy going to school, and are least likely to
take days off sick.
Research indicates that adults who bully have authoritarian personalities, combined with a strong need to control or dominate. It has also been suggested that a prejudicial view of subordinates can be a particularly strong risk factor.
In a recent study, bullies showed lower school
performance-related self-esteem than non-involved students. They also
showed higher social self-esteem than victims of traditional bullying.
Brain studies have shown that the section of the brain associated
with reward becomes active when bullies are shown a video of someone
inflicting pain on another.
Bystanders
Often, bullying takes place in the presence of a large group of
relatively uninvolved bystanders. In many cases, it is the bully's
ability to create the illusion they have the support of the majority
present that instills the fear of "speaking out" in protestation of the
bullying activities being observed by the group. Unless the "bully
mentality" is effectively challenged in any given group in its early
stages, it often becomes an accepted, or supported, norm within the group.
Unless action is taken, a "culture of bullying" is often perpetuated within a group for months, years, or longer.
Bystanders who have been able to establish their own "friendship
group" or "support group" have been found to be far more likely to opt
to speak out against bullying behavior than those who have not.
In addition to communication of clear expectations that bystanders should intervene and increasing individual self-efficacy, there is growing research to suggest interventions should build on the foundation that bullying is morally wrong.
Among adults, being a bystander to workplace bullying was linked to depression.
Victims
Dr. Cook says, "A typical victim is likely to be aggressive, lack
social skills, think negative thoughts, experience difficulties in
solving social problems, come from a negative family, school and
community environments and be noticeably rejected and isolated by
peers."
Victims often have characteristics such as being physically and
mentally weak, as well as being easily distraught emotionally. They may
also have physical characteristics that make them easier targets for
bullies such as being overweight or having some type of physical
deformity. Boys are more likely to be victims of physical bullying while
girls are more likely to be bullied indirectly.
Low levels of self-esteem has been identified as a frequent
antecedent of bullying victimization. Victims of traditional bullying
tend to have lower global, social, body-related, and emotional
self-esteem compared to uninvolved students.
Victims of cyberbullying, on the other hand, may not have lower
self-esteem scores than uninvolved students but might have higher
body-related self-esteem than both victims of traditional bullying and
bullies.
The results of a meta-analysis conducted by Cook and published by the American Psychological Association
in 2010 concluded the main risk factors for children and adolescents
being bullied, and also for becoming bullies, are the lack of social problem-solving skills.
Children who are bullied often show physical or emotional signs,
such as: being afraid to attend school, complaining of headaches or a
loss of appetite, a lack of interest in school activities, spending time
with friends or family, reluctance to go out in public for fear they
may encounter their bullies in public places other than school, and
having an overall sense of sadness.
Effects
Mona O'Moore of the Anti-Bullying Centre at Trinity College in
Dublin, has written, "There is a growing body of research which
indicates that individuals, whether child or adult, who are persistently
subjected to abusive behavior are at risk of stress related illness
which can sometimes lead to suicide"
Those who have been the targets of bullying can develop long-term emotional and behavioral problems. Bullying can cause loneliness, depression, anxiety, lead to low self-esteem and increased susceptibility to illness.
Bullying has also been shown to cause maladjustment in young children,
and targets of bullying who were also bullies themselves exhibit even
greater social difficulties.
A mental health report also found that bullying was linked to eating
disorders, anxiety, body dysmorphia and other negative psychological
effects. Both victims and perpetrators have been shown to exhibit higher levels of loneliness.
Suicide
Even though there is evidence that bullying increases the risk of suicide, bullying alone does not cause suicide. Depression is one of the main reasons why kids who are bullied die by suicide. It is estimated that between 15 and 25 children die by suicide every year in the UK alone because they are being bullied. Certain groups seem to incur a higher risk for suicide, such as Native Americans, Alaskan Natives, Asian Americans, and LGBT people. When someone feels unsupported by family or friends, it can make the situation much worse for the victim.
In a self-report study completed in New York by 9th through 12th
graders, victims of bullying reported more depressive symptoms and
psychological distress than those who did not experience bullying. All types of involvement in bullying among both boys and girls is associated with depression even a couple years later.
Another study that followed up with Finnish teens two years after the
initial survey showed that depression and suicidal ideation is higher
with teens who are bullied than those who did not report experiencing
bullying.
A Dutch longitudinal study on elementary students reported that boys
who are bully-victims, who play both roles of a victim and a bully, were
more likely to experience depression or serious suicidal ideation than
the other roles, victims or bullies only, while girls who have any
involvement in bullying have a higher level of risk for depression.
In a study of high school students completed in Boston, students who
self reported being victims of bullying were more likely to consider
suicide when compared to youth who did not report being bullied.
The same study also showed a higher risk of suicidal consideration in
youth who report being a perpetrator, victim, or victim-perpetrator.
Victims and victim-bullies are associated with a higher risk of suicide
attempts. The place where youth live also appears to differentiate their
bullying experiences such that those living in more urban areas who
reported both being bullied and bullying others appear to show higher
risk of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts.
A national survey given to American 6th through 10th grade students
found that cyberbullying victims experience a higher level of depression
than victims experiencing other forms of bullying. This can be related
to the anonymity behind social media.
If a teen is being bullied and is displaying symptoms of depression it
should be questioned and interventions should be implemented.
The Danish study showed that kids who are bullied talked to their
parents and teachers about it and some reported a decrease in bullying
or a stop in the bullying after a teacher or parent intervened. The
study emphasizes the importance of implementing program-collaborations
in schools to have programs and anti-bullying interventions in place to
prevent and properly intervene when it occurs.
The study also shows the importance of having parents and teachers talk
to the bullies about their bullying behavior in order to provide the
necessary support for those experiencing bullying.
While some people find it very easy to ignore a bully, others may
find it very difficult and reach a breaking point. There have been
cases of apparent bullying suicides that have been reported closely by
the media. These include the deaths of Ryan Halligan, Phoebe Prince, Dawn-Marie Wesley, Nicola Ann Raphael, Megan Meier, Audrie Pott, Tyler Clementi, Jamey Rodemeyer, Kenneth Weishuhn, Jadin Bell, Kelly Yeomans, Rehtaeh Parsons, Amanda Todd, Brodie Panlock, Jessica Haffer, Hamed Nastoh, Sladjana Vidovic, April Himes, Cherice Moralez and Rebecca Ann Sedwick.
According to the suicide awareness voices for education, suicide is one
of the leading causes of death for youth from 15 to 24 years old. Over
16 percent of students seriously consider suicide, 13 percent create a
plan, and 8 percent have made a serious attempt.
Strength and wisdom
Some have argued that bullying can teach life lessons and instill
strength. Helene Guldberg, a child development academic, sparked
controversy when she argued that being a target of bullying can teach a
child "how to manage disputes and boost their ability to interact with
others", and that teachers should not intervene but leave children to
respond to the bullying themselves.
The teaching of anti-bullying coping skills to children, carers
and teachers has been found to be an effective long-term means of
reducing bullying incidence rates and a valuable skill-set for
individuals.
Testosterone production
Statistically controlling for age and pubertal status, results
indicated that on average verbally bullied girls produced less
testosterone, and verbally bullied boys produced more testosterone than
their nonbullied counterparts.
Dark triad
Research on the dark triad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) indicate a correlation with bullying as part of evidence of the aversive nature of those traits.
Projection
A bully may project his/her own feelings of vulnerability onto the
target(s) of the bullying activity. Despite the fact that a bully's
typically denigrating activities are aimed at the bully's targets, the
true source of such negativity is ultimately almost always found in the
bully's own sense of personal insecurity and/or vulnerability.
Such aggressive projections of displaced negative emotions can occur
anywhere from the micro-level of interpersonal relationships, all the
way up through to the macro-level of international politics, or even
international armed conflict.
Emotional intelligence
Bullying is abusive social interaction between peers which can
include aggression, harassment, and violence. Bullying is typically
repetitive and enacted by those who are in a position of power over the victim. A growing body of research illustrates a significant relationship between bullying and emotional intelligence (EI). Mayer
et al., (2008) defines the dimensions of overall EI as "accurately
perceiving emotion, using emotions to facilitate thought, understanding
emotion, and managing emotion". The concept combines emotional and intellectual processes.
Lower emotional intelligence appears to be related to involvement in
bullying, as the bully and/or the victim of bullying. EI seems to play
an important role in both bullying behavior and victimization
in bullying; given that EI is illustrated to be malleable, EI education
could greatly improve bullying prevention and intervention initiatives.
Context
Internet
Cyberbullying is any bullying done through the use of technology.
This form of bullying can easily go undetected because of lack of
parental/authoritative supervision. Because bullies can pose as someone
else, it is the most anonymous form of bullying. Cyberbullying includes,
but is not limited to, abuse using email, instant messaging, text
messaging, websites, social networking sites, etc. With the creation of social networks like Facebook, Myspace, Instagram, and Twitter, cyberbullying has increased. Particular watchdog organizations have been designed to contain the spread of cyberbullying.
Disability
It has been noted that disabled people are disproportionately
affected by bullying and abuse, and such activity has been cited as a
hate crime.
The bullying is not limited to those who are visibly disabled, such as
wheelchair-users or physically deformed such as those with a cleft lip,
but also those with developmental disabilities such as autism and developmental coordination disorder.
There is an additional problem that those with learning
disabilities are often not as able to explain things to other people, so
are more likely to be disbelieved or ignored if they do complain.
Homosexuality
Gay bullying and gay bashing designate direct or indirect verbal or physical
actions by a person or group against someone who is gay or lesbian, or
perceived to be so due to rumors or because they are considered to fit
gay stereotypes. Gay and lesbian youth are more likely than straight
youth to report bullying, as well as be bullied.
Law
Legal bullying is the bringing of a vexatious legal action
to control and punish a person. Legal bullying can often take the form
of frivolous, repetitive, or burdensome lawsuits brought to intimidate
the defendant into submitting to the litigant's request, not because of
the legal merit of the litigant's position, but principally due to the
defendant's inability to maintain the legal battle. This can also take
the form of Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP). It was partially concern about the potential for this kind of abuse that helped to fuel the protests against SOPA and PIPA in the United States in 2011 and 2012.
Military
In 2000, the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) defined bullying as "the use of physical strength or the abuse of authority to intimidate or victimize others, or to give unlawful punishments".
Some argue that this behaviour should be allowed, due to ways in
which "soldiering" is different from other occupations. Soldiers
expected to risk their lives should, according to them, develop strength
of body and spirit to accept bullying.
Parenting
Parents who may displace their anger, insecurity, or a persistent need to dominate and control
upon their children in excessive ways have been proven to increase the
likelihood that their own children will in turn become overly aggressive
or controlling towards their peers.
The American Psychological Association
advises on its website that parents who may suspect their own children
may be engaging in bullying activities among their peers should
carefully consider the examples which they themselves may be setting for
their own children regarding how they typically interact with their own
peers, colleagues, and children.
Prison
The prison environment is known for bullying. An additional
complication is the staff and their relationships with the inmates.
Thus, the following possible bullying scenarios are possible:
- Inmate bullies inmate (echoing school bullying)
- Staff bullies inmate
- Staff bullies staff (a manifestation of workplace bullying)
- Inmate bullies staff
School
Bullying can occur in nearly any part in or around the school
building, although it may occur more frequently during physical
education classes and activities such as recess. Bullying also takes
place in school hallways, bathrooms, on school buses and while waiting
for buses, and in classes that require group work and/or after school
activities. Bullying in school sometimes consists of a group of students
taking advantage of or isolating one student in particular and gaining
the loyalty of bystanders who want to avoid becoming the next target. In
the 2011 documentary Bully,
we see first hand the torture that kids go through both in school and
while on the school bus. As the movie follows around a few kids we see
how bullying affects them both at school as well as in their homes.
While bullying has no age limit, these bullies may taunt and tease their
target before finally physically bullying them. Bystanders typically
choose to either participate or watch, sometimes out of fear of becoming
the next target.
Bullying can also be perpetrated by teachers and the school
system itself; there is an inherent power differential in the system
that can easily predispose to subtle or covert abuse (relational aggression or passive aggression), humiliation, or exclusion—even while maintaining overt commitments to anti-bullying policies.
In 2016, in Canada, a North American legal precedent was set by a
mother and her son, after the son was bullied in his public school. The
mother and son won a court case against the Ottawa-Carleton District
School Board, making this the first case in North America where a school
board has been found negligent in a bullying case for failing to meet
the standard of care (the "duty of care" that the school board owes to
its students). Thus, it sets a precedent of a school board being found
liable in negligence for harm caused to a child, because they failed to
protect a child from the bullying actions of other students. There has
been only one other similar bullying case and it was won in Australia in
2013 (Oyston v. St. Patricks College, 2013).
Heterosexuality
Sexual bullying is "any bullying behaviour, whether physical or
non-physical, that is based on a person's sexuality or gender. It is
when sexuality or gender is used as a weapon by boys or girls towards
other boys or girls – although it is more commonly directed at girls. It
can be carried out to a person's face, behind their back or through the
use of technology."
Transsexuality
Trans bashing is the act of victimizing a person physically, sexually, or verbally because they are transgender or transsexual. Unlike gay bashing, it is committed because of the target's actual or perceived gender identity, not sexual orientation.
Work
Workplace bullying occurs when an employee experiences a persistent
pattern of mistreatment from others in the workplace that causes harm. Workplace bullying can include such tactics as verbal, nonverbal, psychological, physical abuse and humiliation. This type of workplace aggression is particularly difficult because, unlike the typical forms of school bullying,
workplace bullies often operate within the established rules and
policies of their organization and their society. Bullying in the
workplace is in the majority of cases reported as having been
perpetrated by someone in authority over the target. Bullies can also be
peers, and occasionally can be subordinates.
The first known documented use of "workplace bullying" is in 1992 in a book by Andrea Adams called Bullying at Work: How to Confront and Overcome It.
Research has also investigated the impact of the larger
organizational context on bullying as well as the group-level processes
that impact on the incidence, and maintenance of bullying behavior.
Bullying can be covert or overt. It may be missed by superiors or known
by many throughout the organization. Negative effects are not limited
to the targeted individuals, and may lead to a decline in employee morale and a change in organizational culture. A Cochrane Collaboration systematic review has found very low quality evidence to suggest that organizational and individual interventions may prevent bullying behaviors in the workplace.
Academia
Bullying in academia is workplace bullying of scholars and staff in
academia, especially places of higher education such as colleges and
universities. It is believed to be common, although has not received as
much attention from researchers as bullying in some other contexts.
Blue collar jobs
Bullying has been identified as prominent in blue collar jobs,
including on oil rigs and in mechanic shops and machine shops. It is
thought that intimidation and fear of retribution cause decreased
incident reports. In industry sectors dominated by males, typically of
little education, where disclosure of incidents are seen as effeminate,
reporting in the socioeconomic and cultural milieu of such industries
would likely lead to a vicious circle. This is often used in combination with manipulation and coercion of facts to gain favour among higher-ranking administrators.
Information technology
A culture of bullying is common in information technology (IT),
leading to high sickness rates, low morale, poor productivity, and high
staff-turnover. Deadline-driven project work and stressed-out managers take their toll on IT workers.
Courts
Bullying in the legal profession
is believed to be more common than in some other professions. It is
believed that its adversarial, hierarchical tradition contributes
towards this.
Women, trainees and solicitors who have been qualified for five years
or less are more impacted, as are ethnic minority lawyers and lesbian,
gay and bisexual lawyers.
Medicine
Bullying in the medical profession
is common, particularly of student or trainee doctors and of nurses. It
is thought that this is at least in part an outcome of conservative
traditional hierarchical structures and teaching methods in the medical
profession, which may result in a bullying cycle.
Even though The American Nurses Association
believes that all nursing personnel have the right to work in safe,
non-abusive environments, bullying has been identified as being
particularly prevalent in the nursing profession although the reasons
are not clear. It is thought that relational aggression (psychological
aspects of bullying such as gossiping and intimidation) are relevant.
Relational aggression has been studied among girls but not so much among
adult women.
Teaching
School teachers are commonly the subject of bullying but they are also sometimes the originators of bullying within a school environment.
Machines
Children have been observed bullying anthropomorphic robots designed
to assist the elderly. Their attacks start with blocking the robots'
paths of movement and then escalate to verbal abuse, hitting and
destroying the object. Seventy-five percent of the kids interviewed
perceived the robot as "human-like" yet decided to abuse it anyway,
while 35% of the kids who beat up the robot did so "for enjoyment".
Prevention
Bullying prevention is the collective effort to prevent, reduce and stop bullying.
Many campaigns and events are designated to bullying prevention
throughout the world. Bullying prevention campaigns and events include: Anti-Bullying Day, Anti-Bullying Week, International Day of Pink, International STAND UP to Bullying Day and National Bullying Prevention Month. Anti-Bullying laws in the U.S. have also been enacted in 23 of its 50 states, making bullying in schools illegal.
Responses
Bullying is typically ongoing and not isolated behaviour. Common ways
that people try to respond, are to try to ignore it, to confront the
bullies or to turn to an authority figure to try to address it.
Ignoring it often does nothing to stop the bullying continuing, and it can become worse over time.
It can be important to address bullying behaviour early on, as it can be easier to control the earlier it is detected.
Bystanders play an important role in responding to bullying, as doing
nothing can encourage it to continue, while small steps that oppose the
behaviour can reduce it.
Authority figures can play an important role, such as parents in
child or adolescent situations, or supervisors, human-resources staff or
parent-bodies in workplace and volunteer settings. Authority figures
can be influential in recognising and stopping bullying behaviour, and
creating an environment where it doesn't continue.
In many situations, authority figures are untrained and unqualified, do
not know how to respond, and can make the situation worse.
In some cases the authority figures even support the people doing the
bullying, facilitating it continuing and increasing the isolation and
marginalising of the target.
Some of the most effective ways to respond, are to recognise that
harmful behaviour is taking place, and creating an environment where it
won't continue.
