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Cause And Effect Of Bullying Essay | What is Bullying? Causes, Effects and Types of Bullying

August 28, 2021 by Prasanna

Cause And Effect Of Bullying Essay: What is Bullying? Every day, people are bullied into doing things they don’t want to do. Bullying is when someone is mistreated in some way and is hurt by it. Bullying can be physical, verbal or emotional. The person being bullied feels threatened and unsafe. It’s always a bad idea to bully someone else, and it’s not just because you’ll get in trouble for it – you will also feel terrible about yourself afterward.

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The Effect of Bullying in Children

Bullying is a serious form of violence against children. It not only affects the children who are being bullied, but also those who bully as well as bystanders. Bullying can be physical, psychological, social, or cyber-based. The effect of bullying on children can be very dire. It can lead to academic underachievement and suspension from school among other consequences.Children who are bullied often feel unsafe in their schools and fear getting to school or go there for fear of being victimized by bullies again and again. This phenomenon is called “school phobia” or “school refusal.” Many children with this condition give up on attending school altogether which negatively impacts them academically and socially. We know that bullying can lead to various problems such as: anxiety, depression, stress, anger and low self-esteem. It can also have a negative effect on school performance. Bullying behaviors are associated with violence and criminal behavior later in life.

The Causes of Bullying in Children

Bullying is a behavior that is not only negative but can be destructive for the victim. It is an issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible. Bullying is a serious issue in the lives of many people, and it has been proven to have adverse effects on the individual. It can cause feelings of isolation, fear, anxiety, and depression. Victims often feel alone and they do not know where to turn for help. The sooner bullying can be stopped the better for everyone involved. Bullying can also be caused by other factors such as:

• A need for power and control: Some individuals become addicted to the feeling of power and control of people, hence, they actively try to achieve this by any means necessary. As an analogy, people often turn to drugs as a means of escape from pain, anxiety, or boredom. Similarly, bullies try to seek power and control because they themselves might have felt helpless or powerless at some point in their lives.
• Fear of vulnerability and exposure: Fear of vulnerability and exposure is a common human feeling. It’s the fear of being seen as imperfect, having your flaws out on display, or being vulnerable in any way. It can be a huge psychological block for people in their personal lives, careers, and relationships
• To dominate and gain superiority in social status: Most individuals, especially teenagers and young adults, would tell you that social status is important. The desire to be accepted and have an elevated place in society has been around since the beginning of time. Everybody wants to feel like they belong somewhere, and social approval is a surefire way to feel that sense of belongingness.

What Type of Child is More Likely to Bully?

The type of child who is more likely to bully is the child who has been bullied. Moreover, studies show that children who are more aggressive, less empathic, and less likely to have a strong moral compass are more likely to be bullies in a school environment.

Preventing Bullying: A parent or teacher can effectively prevent bullying or at least minimize such behaviour in the following ways:

• Validate the child’s feelings, but don’t give in to them. Children, especially young ones, can be pretty convincing. After all, to them, their requests should always be met.
• Teach them to understand their own emotions. Learning to understand their emotions is a vital part of emotional intelligence.
• Teach them empathy and coping skills. In a world where people are increasingly polarized and separated by their ideas, beliefs and interests, empathy is more important than ever. Humans are hardwired to be empathic beings. When we empathize with one another, it not only benefits the other person but also ourselves.
• Protect and enforce the consequences of bullying. The problem of bullying is not new. This issue has been around for years and has continued to grow in spite of the many efforts to combat it. Hence, enforce necessary actions against individuals who continue to practice bullying even after repeated verbal warnings and counselling.

The Wonderful Effects of Kindness and Compassion

There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that being kind and compassionate can have a profound impact on our emotional well-being. It’s always been said that people need certain traits in order to be happy, and it turns out, kindness may be one of those traits. The more we do for others, the happier we become. Interestingly, this makes kindness sound a lot like happiness, doesn’t it? Compassion is not just an emotion; it’s also an attitude. It starts with us focusing on the needs of others, rather than what they can do for us. Compassion is understanding the difficulties that people face and trying to help them overcome the same. Moreover, compassionate people are generally well-liked by others because they are supportive and make everyone feel good about themselves.

In Conclusion , bullying is a serious problem for many children as well as young adults. It can take many forms, but the most common forms of bullying are verbal teasing, name-calling, social exclusion or physical attack. Most bullying usually happens at school or university, but it can also happen online and among peers at home or elsewhere outside the school environment. Even with anti-bullying campaigns and specific laws in place, instances of bullying are supposed to be lower. However, this is not the case because people are not aware of the effects of bullying or the consequences for their actions. Hence, awareness must be created about bullying and its consequences among the general public, especially students and young adults.

FAQ’s on Cause And Effect Of Bullying

Question 1. What is bullying?

Answer: Bullying is a form of abuse that involves unwanted aggressive behavior. It can happen in person or online and to people of any age group. However, students and young adults are more likely to be exposed to bullying.

Question 2. What are the effects of bullying?

Answer: Bullying can have long-term impacts on your health and well-being, including feelings of sadness and anger, loss of interest in activities you used to enjoy, social withdrawal and changes in sleep patterns.

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Effects and Aspects of Children Bullying Essay

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Introduction

The World Health Organization lists childhood bullying as a primary source of physical, emotional, social, and intellectual impairment to children. Bullying, defined as repeated victimization in a power imbalance, can range from simple teasing and name calling to serious physical, verbal, and social attack. Bullying alters relationships, the victim loses power and becomes more vulnerable to psychological agony as the bully acquires more. Childhood bullying has been linked to depression, anxiety, and suicidal behavior in adulthood.

Educational consequences during childhood and adolescence are the first category of consequences of childhood bullying.

• Frequent victims of bullying are more likely to feel like outsiders at school, and research has linked indirect bullying in particular to diminished peer acceptance and social development in school (Armitage, 2021). Consequently, when bullying is reduced, a child’s feelings of acceptance and safety in the school environment improve.
• Another consequence of bullying is a decrease in motivation to attend class and as a result this lead to low test scores (Idsoe et al., 2021). Children who are bullied on a regular basis are nearly twice as likely to skip school and are more likely to want to drop out of school altogether after completing secondary school as their non-bullied peers.

Another category of consequences of childhood bullying is health consequences during childhood and adolescence.

• The physical, mental, and social health consequences of bullies, victims, and bully-victims have all been shown to be negatively impacted by bullying in several meta-analyses, longitudinal studies, and cross-sectional research.
• Most physical health effects reported by patients are thought to be purely psychological (Armitage, 2021). Although negative consequences on bullies and bully-victims are acknowledged, most research has focused on victims’ experiences.
• Despite wide variations in prevalence from one place to another, the link between bullying in childhood and suicide thinking and behavior is universally acknowledged (deLara, 2019). Unfortunately, being bullied as a youngster increases the chance of developing mental health issues that are comparable to those faced by kids in institutional or foster care.

Effects during adulthood is the last category of the consequences of childhood bullying.

• Bullying in childhood has been linked to psychopathology, suicidality, and crime in adulthood, according to a recent meta-analysis and several additional prospective longitudinal studies analyzing large, population-based, community samples using quantitative methodologies.
• In children and teenagers, peer victimization is strongly associated with later difficulties. Teens who are bullied on a regular basis, for instance, are at twice the risk of developing depression as their non-victimized counterparts in their early adult years (Beduna, & Perrone-McGovern, 2019). Interestingly, this dose-response connection appears to have lasting effects until at least the age of 50.
• Victimization by bullies in childhood has devastating effects on psychological well-being in maturity (Gattario, Lindwall, & Frisén, 2020). Peer victimization is regarded to have a bigger influence on adult mental health than maltreatment by adults, such as sexual and physical abuse, and may account for a sizable portion of the depression load in later life.
• Finally, these effects extend beyond the sphere of health, since bullying in infancy is linked to isolation, financial difficulties, and a worse quality of life in midlife.

In summary childhood bullying raises the probability of poor physical, social, and educational outcomes. Bullies suffer these effects, which now extend into adulthood. Cyberbullying, along with direct physical, verbal, and indirect bullying, is relatively new. Physical appearance is the most common cause of childhood bullying. Childhood bullying has three main effects: educational, health, and all-encompassing adulthood. Bullying frequency and intensity have several dose–response associations with health consequences. Cyberbullying produces few new victims since most sufferers are also victims of conventional bullying. Bully–victims suffer the most from childhood bullying-related mental health issues. Whole-school cooperative learning interventions are the most effective in preventing bullying, which is crucial to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Despite local and online expert resources, primary and secondary care lacks clear management and referral mechanisms for health professionals dealing with children bullying.

Armitage, R. (2021). Bullying in children: impact on child health . BMJ paediatrics open , 5 (1), 1-104. Web.

Beduna, K. N., & Perrone-McGovern, K. M. (2019). Recalled childhood bullying victimization and shame in adulthood: The influence of attachment security, self-compassion, and emotion regulation . Traumatology , 25 (1), 21. Web.

deLara, E. W. (2019). Consequences of childhood bullying on mental health and relationships for young adults . Journal of Child and Family Studies , 28 (9), 2379-2389. Web.

Gattario, K. H., Lindwall, M., & Frisén, A. (2020). Life after childhood bullying: Body image development and disordered eating in adulthood . International Journal of Behavioral Development , 44 (3), 246-255. Web.

Idsoe, T., Vaillancourt, T., Dyregrov, A., Hagen, K. A., Ogden, T., & Nærde, A. (2021). Bullying victimization and trauma . Frontiers in psychiatry , 11 (5), 480353. Web.

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School Bullying: Causes and Effects

Bullying has become one of the most urgent problems in modern society. It comes from different sources and affects victims’ psychological state and quality of life. In this essay, we analyze the causes of bullying in school, its effects on victims, and mitigation measures that should be taken.

Cause and Effect of Bullying: Essay Introduction

Cause of bullying in school, bullying causes and effects: mitigation measures, works cited.

Bullying is one of the main challenges children face at school. It is a global problem that is currently affecting many youth. The rate at which bullying cases are reported causes many worries to parents. The issue is severe to the extent that many children have learned to live with it, and some have created the notion that bullying is part of their life in the early years of their development. Several cases, especially in the United States and Japan, have been reported about children’s humiliation, mistreatment, physical attacks, and even rape cases of young female learners.

The effects of bullying on a child can be very traumatizing if not carefully addressed. These effects sometimes are long-lasting and can provoke the victim to take dangerous measures to forget the incidents. According to Rigby (64), bullying experiences can cost the lives of the victims if not prevented in time. In New York, it is reported that a young immigrant killed herself due to excessive bullying. This researcher argues that it is high time for the issue of bullying in schools to be addressed. The notion that bullying is a rite of passage should be eliminated. This research paper aims to explore the causes, effects, and possible solutions to bullying in schools.

According to Olweus (34), many reasons lead to bullying in schools. One of the main causes is the cultural factor. This includes race and ethnicity. A child may be a bully or a victim if he or she comes from a majority or minority race, respectively. Another cause of bullying in schools is the nature of life a child is exposed to. In many families in developed countries, children can comfortably watch TV even in their bedrooms. Instead of studying, such children spend their time playing computer games. Their games make them bullies because they see others practice the same.

According to Tattumand Lane (27), high expectations of parents of their children contribute to bullying. The reason is that a child will spend much time studying to perform well and meet the parents’ expectations. Failure to achieve the target may develop stress in a child, and they will express anger through shouting or bullying fellow learners. Another cause of bullying in schools emanates from the family’s social status. A child from a humble background will always have some pressurizing needs that are not met. This child will always want to express this frustration to fellow learners, especially those from stable families, by bullying them.

The effects of bullying, as mentioned above, can be very traumatizing. Victims of bullying may opt to drop out of school because of the trauma they experience. Others may develop irresponsible behavior that involves missing classes on most occasions. School irregularities among the learners result in poor performance. Bullying leads to stress among the victims. This, in turn, results in poor communication with these children. McGrath (44) argues that, in some cases, excessive bullying can lead to victims committing suicide to escape from painful experiences and memories.

Some of the effects are short-term, but if not well addressed, they can result in serious complications. The victims may have bed-wetting problems, unexplained worries, and digestive problems because of the fear instilled in them. Some victims with the intention of hitting back may develop very destructive behavior. Other victims may end up engaging in drug abuse to make them forget their painful experiences. Bullying affects the normal development of victims and makes them have low self-esteem (Dupper 62). 

Mitigating bullying in schools is not a one-person battle. Since it is a global issue, it calls for a collaborative and participatory approach to addressing the problem. Teachers, parents, and policymakers have a significant role in curbing this bad behavior in schools. Teachers spend much of their time with the learners and, therefore, can easily control their behavior while in school. They should be tough and keen to identify the bullies and expel or suspend them from school to avoid spreading such behaviors among other learners. School administrators should seriously punish the physically strong learners who take advantage of the weak ones by mistreating them. The administration should not tolerate any sign of bullying within the school (Tattum&Lane 53). 

Parents should also be strict with their children and avoid anything that may turn them into bullies. Watching TV and playing computer games must be regulated at home. The child should be seriously punished if he or she shows some bullying behavior while at home. The government also has an essential role in curbing this vice. Policymakers must enact policies that address bullying in schools. These policies should be implemented and strictly adhered to, and whoever violates them should face the law irrespective of age. All the stakeholders, including the humanitarian non-governmental organizations, must join hands to curb this vice in society. Through this collaborative approach, success will be achieved.

Dupper, David. School Bullying: New Perspectives on a Growing Problem . New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print.

McGrath, Mary. School Bullying: Tools for Avoiding Harm and Liability . Thousand Oaks, Calif: Corwin Press, 2007. Print.

Olweus, Dan. Bullying at School: What We Know and What We Can Do . Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1993. Print.

Rigby, Ken. Bullying in Schools and What to Do About It . Melbourne, Vic: ACER, 2007. Print.

Tattum, Delwyn, and David Lane. Bullying in Schools . Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham, 1988. Print.

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Home ➔ Free Essay Examples ➔ Bullying Essay

Bullying Essay – Writing Guide

A bullying essay is a piece of writing that explores the issue of bullying, its causes, effects, and possible solutions. Bullying is a widespread problem that affects people of all ages, genders, and backgrounds. It is a form of aggressive behavior that can be physical, verbal, or psychological, and is often repeated over time. Bullying can significantly impact the mental and emotional well-being of those affected, leading to anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and even suicide.

A bullying essay is an assignment that students can be required to write at all education levels. The problem of bullying is pervasive in schools and has many facets that must be addressed with equal consideration. That’s why there are many things you can write about in your essay on bullying. Read on to see a short essay example on this topic with a few comments and some topics you can use as examples for this assignment.

The bullying paper example below is divided into three core elements: introduction, body, and conclusion. Each part is followed by a short analysis of that part.

Bullying Essay Example (with commentaries)

Topic: The Three Major Effects of Bullying in Schools

Type: Informative Essay

Introduction

Bullying in schools has remained constant from decade to decade. Bullying is terrible for children in schools and can have various detrimental effects. According to the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Education, bullying comprises three core elements: unwanted aggressive behavior, observed or perceived power imbalance, and repetition or high likelihood of repetition. It is alarming that almost 20% of students aged 12 to 18 experience bullying nationwide. School bullying can adversely affect kids, including health conditions, learning problems, low self-esteem, and mental health issues.

Introduction analysis:

The introduction oof this essay provides background information on bullying. Then, the writer uses statistics from credible sources as an attention hook, which is one of the good ways to start an essay. And it ends with a thesis statement that states the three main aspects that will be discussed in the essay. However, it lacks a proper transition between the hook and the thesis statement.

Body paragraphs

The first and one of the major negative effects of bullying in school is its ability to wreak havoc on a child’s health and well-being. Aside from physical injuries which may result from physical shoving or pushing, bullying can cause headaches, trouble sleeping, and stomach aches. The mind and body are connected; hence, any stressor to a child’s well-being can manifest as physical symptoms. Bullying may also aggravate pre-existing health conditions like skin, heart, and gastrointestinal diseases. The negative impact on a child’s health is one of the more obvious adverse effects of school bullying.

In addition to affecting the child’s physical health, bullying can cause learning struggles and delays in development. The academic impact on the child experiencing bullying can be overwhelming. Often, one of the first indicators that a child may be experiencing bullying is a sudden decline in grades or poor academic performance. Sometimes, kids are so caught up with how bullying makes them feel that they forget to study, don’t do their homework, or have difficulty paying attention in class and digesting the study material. Bullied children often make excuses to skip school, pretend to be sick, or lie to their parents about attending classes. Overall, the academic impact of bullying is one of the worst ones that must be considered when tackling the problem.

To make matters worse, besides negative physical health outcomes and unsatisfactory grades or a decline in academic achievement, kids who experience bullying in schools also suffer from poor self-esteem and mental health effects. For example, bullied kids tend to experience negative emotions such as social isolation, anger, loneliness, and more. In some cases with high school students, these negative emotions can lead to the misuse of drugs or alcohol. Bullying causes kids to feel poorly about themselves, increasing their risk for depression, anxiety, self-harm, or suicide. These effects can be short-term or long-lasting, even when bullying has ended.

Body analysis:

The body of the essay discusses the three main negative consequences of bullying mentioned in the thesis statement of this bullying essay. Each of these points is elaborated on with specific examples. The language used is clear and easy to understand. However, the essay does not flow smoothly from one point to the next and feels somewhat choppy as a result.

School bullying can have significant and detrimental negative effects on kids, including adverse health outcomes, inadequate academic performance, and mental struggles. Kids who are bullied are more likely to experience a manifestation of health conditions, which may become chronic. Bullying causes kids to be less likely to perform well academically and may cause them to skip class, thereby impacting their learning. Lastly, bullying causes kids to experience unhealthy emotions and poor self-esteem. Bullying is a chronic problem that we must continue to address in schools everywhere.

Conclusion analysis:

The essay’s conclusion restates the three main points of the body and reaffirms that bullying is a serious problem with far-reaching consequences. But, it feels somewhat abrupt and could be further developed at the very end, even though it is an informative piece.

97 Bullying Essay Examples – Here’s a PDF file with more examples of papers about bullying (by various authors). They vary in size and quality, so make sure to analyze them thoroughly.

What to Write About (Topics)

Below, you will find various ideas you can use to write an essay on bullying. The topics are divided by essay type as it will affect how you write and what you write about.

Expository essay : You can educate or inform your audience about bullying or define bullying from your unique perspective. Here are a few topic examples:

• Bullying in Primary and Secondary Schools
• How to Stand up to a Bully Effectively
• What Role Bystanders Play in Bullying Situations
• How to Support Someone Who is Being Bullied
• The Legal Repercussions of Bullying
• Existing Policies and Laws That Fight Bullying
• Best Ways to Handle Bullying for Educators
• How to Overcome the Consequences of Bullying
• Examples of Effective and Ineffective Anti-bullying Programs in Educational Institutions

Classification essay : You can explore and describe the types and subtypes of bullying. For example:

• Bullying in schools
• Workplace bullying
• Cyberbullying
• Bullying of children
• Bullying of teenagers
• Bullying of adults
• Verbal bullying
• Physical bullying
• Emotional bullying
• Racial bullying
• Religious bullying
• Cultural bullying
• Fat shaming

Problem-solution essay : You can explore and describe the possible solutions to bullying. Here are some topic examples for this bullying essay type:

• How schools can effectively address bullying
• The role of parents in preventing bullying
• How we can change the culture of bullying
• How we can support a bullying victim
• How to create a more positive school climate to prevent bullying

Cause and effect essay : You can explore and describe the effects of bullying or the causes that lead to bullying. Below are several topic samples:

• How bullying leads to school violence
• How bullying can lead students to suicidal thoughts
• The long-term effects of being bullied
• How bullying affects the academic performance of students
• The psychological consequences of bullying

Persuasive essay : You can try to take a stance on bullying and persuade the readers to take action. Such a bullying essay could be written on the following topics:

• School shootings: why do school shootings happen, and how can we prevent them?
• Repeated verbal abuse: how does repeated verbal abuse affect bullying victims, and what can be done to stop it?
• Family members: should family members be held responsible for bullying?
• Bystanders: what role do bystanders play in bullying, and how can we encourage them to take action?
• Social media: how does social media contribute to bullying, and what can be done to stop it?

Argumentative essay : You can argue your point of view on bullying or any of its aspects in an argumentative paper. Topic examples:

• What causes people to bully others?
• Can we end school bullying for sure?
• Should people who bully others be punished?
• Is there a difference between boys and girls who bully?
• Is there a link between bullying and poor mental health?

Narrative essay : You can tell your personal story related to bullying (if you have one) or a story of someone you know. Topic examples might include the following:

• How I studied bullying behavior for my project
• How spreading rumors ruined my middle-school life
• How other countries I have been to deal with school bullying
• Why I changed schools five times and don’t have many friends
• How it can get to you even through text messages

Bullying is a serious and growing problem affecting individuals, their families, and communities. It is a complex subject to broach and talk about because it provides little comfort to parents, but it should be discussed to implement strategies to mitigate bullying and its effects. And while it is true that some young people will likely “grow out of” being bullied, it’s also true that some never stop being bullied.

In conclusion, this essay guide on bullying has provided a comprehensive overview of the issue and its impact on individuals. It is a problem that affects individuals of all ages, backgrounds, and walks of life. By working together and taking action, we can help create a world where everyone feels safe, valued, and respected, and where bullying has no place. If you are writing an essay on this topic, this guide can serve as a valuable resource to help you better understand the issue and develop practical solutions to address it. Remember, if you or someone you know is being bullied, speaking out and seeking help is important.

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The Broad Impact of School Bullying, and What Must Be Done

Major interventions are required to make schools safe learning environments..

Posted May 2, 2021 | Reviewed by Hara Estroff Marano

• How to Handle Bullying
• Take our Anger Management Test
• Find a therapist to support kids or teens
• At least one in five kids is bullied, and a significant percentage are bullies. Both are negatively affected, as are bystanders.
• Bullying is an epidemic that is not showing signs of improvement.
• Evidence-based bullying prevention programs can be effective, but school adoption is inconsistent.

According to the U.S. federal government website StopBullying.gov :

There is no federal law that specifically applies to bullying . In some cases, when bullying is based on race or ethnicity , color, national origin, sex, disability, or religion, bullying overlaps with harassment and schools are legally obligated to address it.

The National Bullying Prevention Center reports data suggesting that one in five children have been bullied. There are many risk factors for being targeted, including being seen as weak, being different from peers including being LGBT or having learning differences or visible disabilities, being depressed or anxious, and having few friends. It's hard to measure how many engage in bullying, but estimates range from one in twenty, to much higher .

The American Association of University Women reports that in grades 7-12, 48 percent of students (56 percent of girls and 40 percent of boys) are sexually harassed. In college, rates of sexual harassment rise to 66 percent. Eleven percent are raped or sexually assaulted.

Silence facilitates traumatization

Only 20 percent of attacked young women report sexual assault . And 89 percent of undergraduate schools report zero sexual harassment. This means that children, adolescents, young adults and their friends are at high risk for being victimized. It means that many kids know what is happening, and don't do anything.

This may be from fear of retaliation and socialization into a trauma-permissive culture, and it may be from lack of proper education and training. Institutional betrayal , when organizations fail to uphold their promises and responsibilities, adds to the problem.

In some states such as New York, laws like “ the Dignity for All Students Act ” (DASA) apply only to public schools. Private, religious, and denominational schools are not included, leaving 20 percent of students in NYC and 10 percent throughout the state unprotected. Research shows that over the last decade, bullying in U.S. high schools has held steady around 20 percent, and 15 percent for cyberbullying.

The impact of bullying

While there is much research on how bullying affects mental health, social function, and academics, the results are scattered across dozens of papers. A recent paper in the Journal of School Violence (Halliday et al., 2021) presents a needed systematic literature review on bullying’s impact in children aged 10-18.

1. Psychological: Being a victim of bullying was associated with increased depression , anxiety , and psychosis . Victims of bullying reported more suicidal thinking and engaged in greater self-harming behaviors. They were more likely to experience social anxiety , body-image issues, and negative conduct. Simultaneous cyberbullying and conventional bullying were associated with more severe depression.

2. Social: Bullying victims reported greater problems in relationships with family, friends and in day-to-day social interactions. They reported they enjoyed time with family and friends less, felt they were being treated unfairly more easily, and liked less where they lived. Victimized children were less popular and likeable, and experienced more social rejection. They tended to be friends with other victims, potentially heightening problems while also providing social support.

3. Academic achievement: Victimized kids on average had lower grades. Over time, they did worse especially in math. They tended to be more proficient readers, perhaps as a result of turning to books for comfort in isolation (something people with a history of being bullied commonly report in therapy ).

4. School attitudes: Bullied children and adolescents were less engaged in education, had poorer attendance, felt less belonging, and felt more negatively about school.

5. What happens with age? Researchers studied adult psychiatric outcomes of bullying, looking at both victims and bullies, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Psychiatry (Copeland et al., 2013). After controlling for other childhood hardships, researchers found that young adults experience increased rates of agoraphobia (fear of leaving the house), generalized anxiety, panic disorder, and increased depression risk. Men had higher suicide risk.

The impact of bullying does not stop in early adulthood. Research in the Journals of Gerontology (Hu, 2021) found that people over the age of 60 who were bullied as children had more severe depression and had lower life satisfaction.

6. Bullying and the brain: Work reported in Frontiers in Psychiatry (Muetzel et al., 2019) found that victims of bullying had thickening of the fusiform gyrus, an area of the cerebral cortex involved with facial recognition, and sensing emotions from facial expressions. 1 For those with posttraumatic stress disorder, brain changes may be extensive.

7. Bystanders are affected: Research also shows that bystanders have higher rates of anxiety and depression (Midgett et al., 2019). The problem is magnified for bystanders who are also victims. It is likely that taking appropriate action is protective.

Given that victims of bullying are at risk for posttraumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ; Idsoe et al., 2012), it’s important to understand that many of the reported psychiatric findings may be better explained by PTSD than as a handful of overlapping but separate diagnoses. Trauma often goes unrecognized.

What can be done?

The psychosocial and academic costs of unmitigated bullying are astronomical, to say nothing of the considerable economic cost. Change is needed, but resistance to change, as with racism, gender bias, and other forms of discrimination , is built into how we see things.

Legislation: There is no federal antibullying legislation, and state laws may be weak and inconsistently applied. Given that bullying rates are no longer falling, it’s important for lawmakers and advocates to seek immediate changes.

Bullying prevention: Schools can adopt antibullying programs, though they are not universally effective and sometimes may backfire. Overall, however, research in JAMA Pediatrics (Fraguas et al., 2021) shows that antibullying programs reduce bullying, improve mental health outcomes, and stay effective over time. 2

Trauma-informed education creates an environment in which all participants are aware of the impact of childhood trauma and the need for specific modifications given how trauma is common among children and how it affects development.

According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN):

"The primary mission of schools is to support students in educational achievement. To reach this goal, children must feel safe, supported, and ready to learn. Children exposed to violence and trauma may not feel safe or ready to learn. Not only are individual children affected by traumatic experiences, but other students, the adults on campus, and the school community can be impacted by interacting or working with a child who has experienced trauma. Thus, as schools maintain their critical focus on education and achievement, they must also acknowledge that mental health and wellness are innately connected to students’ success in the classroom and to a thriving school environment."

Parenting makes a difference. Certain parenting styles may set kids up for emotional abuse in relationships , while others may be protective. A 2019 study reported in Frontiers in Public Health (Plexousakis et al.) found that children with anxious, overprotective mothers were more likely to be victims.

Those with cold or detached mothers were more likely to become bullies. Overprotective fathering was associated with worse PTSD symptoms, likely by getting in the way of socialization. The children of overprotective fathers were also more likely to be aggressive.

Quality parental bonding, however, appeared to help protect children from PTSD symptoms. A healthy home environment is essential both for helping victims of bullying and preventing bullying in at-risk children.

Parents who recognize the need to learn more positive approaches can help buffer again the all-too-common cycle of passing trauma from generation to generation, building resilience and nurturing secure attachment to enjoy better family experiences and equip children to thrive.

State-by-state legislation

Bullying prevention programs (the KiVA program is also notable)

Measuring Bullying Victimization, Perpetration and Bystander Experiences , Centers for Disease Control

Trauma-informed teaching

US Government Stop Bullying

1. Such differences could both result from being bullied (e.g. needing to scan faces for threat) and could also make being bullied more likely (e.g. misreading social cues leading to increased risk of being targeted).

2. Such programs focus on reducing negative messaging in order to keep stakeholders engaged, monitor and respond quickly to bullying, involve students in bullying prevention and detection in positive ways (e.g. being an “upstander” instead of a bystander), monitor more closely for bullying when the risk is higher (e.g. after anti-bullying trainings), respond fairly with the understanding that bullies often have problems of their own and need help, involved parents and teachers in anti-bullying education, and devote specific resources for anti-bullying.

Sarah Halliday, Tess Gregory, Amanda Taylor, Christianna Digenis & Deborah Turnbull (2021): The Impact of Bullying Victimization in Early Adolescence on Subsequent Psychosocial and Academic Outcomes across the Adolescent Period: A Systematic Review, Journal of School Violence, DOI: 10.1080/15388220.2021.1913598

Copeland WE, Wolke D, Angold A, Costello EJ. Adult Psychiatric Outcomes of Bullying and Being Bullied by Peers in Childhood and Adolescence. JAMA Psychiatry. 2013;70(4):419–426. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2013.504

Bo Hu, PhD, Is Bullying Victimization in Childhood Associated With Mental Health in Old Age, The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Volume 76, Issue 1, January 2021, Pages 161–172, https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbz115

Muetzel RL, Mulder RH, Lamballais S, Cortes Hidalgo AP, Jansen P, Güroğlu B, Vernooiji MW, Hillegers M, White T, El Marroun H and Tiemeier H (2019) Frequent Bullying Involvement and Brain Morphology in Children. Front. Psychiatry 10:696. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00696

Midgett, A., Doumas, D.M. Witnessing Bullying at School: The Association Between Being a Bystander and Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms. School Mental Health 11, 454–463 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-019-09312-6

Idsoe, T., Dyregrov, A. & Idsoe, E.C. Bullying and PTSD Symptoms. J Abnorm Child Psychol 40, 901–911 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-012-9620-0

Fraguas D, Díaz-Caneja CM, Ayora M, Durán-Cutilla M, Abregú-Crespo R, Ezquiaga-Bravo I, Martín-Babarro J, Arango C. Assessment of School Anti-Bullying Interventions: A Meta-analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials. JAMA Pediatr. 2021 Jan 1;175(1):44-55. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.3541. PMID: 33136156; PMCID: PMC7607493.

Plexousakis SS, Kourkoutas E, Giovazolias T, Chatira K and Nikolopoulos D (2019) School Bullying and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms: The Role of Parental Bonding. Front. Public Health 7:75. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2019.00075

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Cause & Effect Essay: Bullying

Most people know that bullying is wrong. Calling someone names has absolutely no beneficial purpose. Moreover, hitting someone makes a bully feel good in the moment while doing permanent damage to the person being victimized. With the Internet, people now have even more opportunities to bully through cyberbullying. This includes sending crude pictures, posting fake web pages, or tweeting slanderous messages. Cyberbullying has subsequently led to a rise in a completely new kind of bullying.

One of the effects of bullying is that it can change the victim’s personality. It can cause people who are normally confident and happy to become self-conscious, shy, and unsure. Additionally, victims of bullying may also become sad or depressed. Their confidence might completely disappear, keeping them from trying new things or trusting people. Once a person has been bullied, they may hesitate to participate in situations where he or she might be ridiculed, such as in public speaking or in sports. A bullying victim might even begin to possess previously absent anxious behavior.

Despite all the negative effects of bullying, there are even far more serious consequences. People who have been bullied sometimes become so upset, scared, or depressed that they see no worth in themselves and no way out of their torment. There have been countless reports over the past few years of students committing suicide because they were bullied. Meanwhile, there are times when victims see no recourse but to seek revenge by serious acts of violence against the bully and instigators. As a result of bullying, people can lose their ability to love and trust, denying them the chance to experience a quality relationship later in their life. They might find themselves as a submissive partner or they may want to be completely alone. Compounding all of these problems, victims often develop eating disorders, begin to self-injure, or require extensive counseling. Social bullying can also leave people without a supportive group of friends that they can lean on and spend time with.

Another unfortunate consequence of this is that bullying is often cyclical. People who have been bullied can, in an attempt to gain their power and self-esteem back, become bullies themselves. In relation to this, bullies who are not confronted or stopped may find themselves in future positions where they can bully as adults. This is where manipulative bosses and child abusers come from.

Aside from its long-term effects, some consequences of bullying can be seen and felt immediately. When one child calls another child names, the victim might cry and a bruise might appear after a punch to the arm. However, some effects of bullying are not always obvious to the naked eye. The results of bullying might grow and appear over time, damaging a person in profound ways for the long term. There are so many effects of bullying that they are impossible to count or predict. This is why it is so important to stop bullying.

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Cause and Effect of Bullying Essay Sample

If you’re about to check out our bullying essay, you must be into teenage psychology. We bet you’d find it incredibly useful to take a good look at this ‘Cause and Effect of Bullying’ essay and gain deep insight into this social vice.

Bullying is now recognized as a widespread and usually neglected problem in school around the globe because it implicates severe consequences for children who initiate the bullying and for those who are victimized by bullies. This is an important issue that will not become solved until parents and teachers address the reasons why children humiliate and intimidate others in the first place. With the right guidance and training, children can acquire skills to work through their problems instead of managing them by bullying others. In order to provide them with such education and successfully eliminate bullying from schools, we need to determine its causes and effects that school bullying poses on children.

Bullying is usually defined as an aggressive behavioral pattern among school-aged children and teenagers that implicates apparent power imbalance. School bullying also has a potential to be repeated, over time. Children use their physical strength, access to private information, or popularity to intimidate, control or harm others. Usually, bullying comprises of actions such as taunting, teasing, threatening to cause harm, name-calling, spreading rumors about someone, and embarrassing in public (Common Causes of Bullying).

Children who bully usually come from dysfunctional families. Of course, growing in such a family is not an assurance that a child will become a bully. However, a significant number of children prone to bullying come from families where there are little affection and devotion. In such families, parents may often be an example of inappropriate behavior, such as aggressive acts towards friends, siblings or other members of the family. Therefore, children adopt such behavioral patterns and simulate it with their peers. Although bullies may appear to be confident in themselves, they usually feel insecure and inferior to others. They treat their peers with contempt to make themselves feel better. Most children do not do this intentionally; they merely take an example from their parents’ behavior. However, when the bully does not feel a resistance, he becomes overwhelmed with power and continues the action. The offender is unintentionally rewarded whenever victims surrender. He also gets paid by gaining attention and popularity, as well as the ability to have others afraid of them. These inadvertent amends strengthen bullying behavior pattern and encourage the offender to keep bullying others. Children who bully cannot regulate their emotions. Whenever people become angry and irritated, they can efficiently manage their emotions to prevent themselves from harming others. However, children cannot control their feelings. In fact, anything can provoke and cause them to overreact severely. For instance, a child may accidentally wimble into a bully, while walking down the hall. Even though the child will beg for an apology, the bully may lose his temper and hit or shout at him (Common Causes Of Bullying).

The effects of school bullying are ubiquitous and extensive. From a mental point of view, bullying has a potential to severely impact a child’s self-esteem even years after bullying has stopped. The victims of threatening and intimidating are inclined to suffer from anxiety and depression, mainly if the harassment has occurred over the prolonged duration of action (Kelleher). Bullying can lead to such psychological effects as low self-esteem, loneliness, and increased potential to lapse into illness. These issues may persist into adulthood. It should be recognized that these mental impacts do not stop at the bullied, they also extended to the bullies. Those involved in prolonged and severe bullying of others experience a wide range of mental health, academic and social problems (Kelleher).

Another effect of school bullying is on academic performance. After repeatedly facing a bully, a child may begin to refuse to go to school. His grades may also suffer, both because of absence in a school and his inability to concentrate. According to the National Education Association, “bullying impacts approximately 13 million students every year, and some 160,000 students stay home from school each day because of bullying” (“Nation’s Educators Continue Push For Safe, Bully Free Environments”). Some of these students eventually drop out of a school. Some schools don’t even help the children that have been bullied. Also, school bullying has effects on relationships between victims and their parents and friends. These effects may force children into isolation or a general distrust of people. They may also feel themselves justified in attacking other children or seeking revenge on his insulter to blow off stress or anxiety. School bullying also has some physical effects. Apart from the usual bumps and scrapes that young children get while playing, there can be excessive marks, such as scratches, bruises, and scars that can mean a child is being bullied. Also, appetite and sleep loss are common consequences, as a result of the prolonged fear and anxiety that bullying cause.

Effects of bullying regard every person that is somehow involved in the act — either by participating or witnessing it. To the bully, the fact of humiliating somebody and the feel of power, all give pleasure and occupy most of his time, that should be used in studies. Instead, these resources are now directed towards poor academic performance. Furthermore, for bullies, aggression has a potential to persist into adulthood showing itself through criminality, marital violence, child abuse, and sexual harassment. For victims, repeated bullying can cause psychological distress or even lead to suicide. There have been dozens of incidents when school bullying has resulted in suicide. One of the high-profile suicide cases was the death of Amanda Todd. A few years ago, when Amanda was in 7th grade, she often used video chat to meet new people over the internet. People she met would always give her compliments about how she is looking. Once, Amanda was talking with a stranger who convinced her to lay her chest bare and took a picture of her breasts. With this picture, he blackmailed Amanda for years threatening to publish it unless she gives him a show, but she refused. So, this stranger had found her classmates and friends on Facebook and sent them the picture. They ostracised her driving her into anxiety, drugs, alcohol, and underage sex. Amanda attempted suicide a few times before finally succeeding. On October 10, 2012, at about 6:00 PM, she was found hanged at her home (Dean).

Bullying is prohibitive and aggressive behavioral pattern among school-aged children that involves threatening, humiliation, teasing, and embarrassing in public and that has the potential to be repeated, over time. Usually, bullying comes from dysfunctional families that lack affection and openness. Both children, insulter and its victim may have a broad range of severe physical and mental health, social and academic problems that may persist into adulthood.

This insightful bullying essay was composed by one of our writers specializing in both psychological and sociological studies. This informative piece of academic writing was created based on in-depth research conducted by the writer and aimed at contributing to the worldwide awareness of this widely spread social phenomenon. Our ‘Cause and Effect of Bullying’ essay has been acclaimed by many students who gained considerable benefits from it and used this paper as a starting point of their own investigation of the problem.

This bullying in schools essay serves as a great example of the brilliance and exceptional competence of EssayShark’s writing team. Our experienced writers can handle any writing challenge, turning it into a comprehensible and fascinating piece of academic writing, just like they did with this bullying essay. If you want to receive qualified and unparalleled academic assistance, be certain to contact our writing virtuosos!

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• Healthline - Types of Bullying Your Child May Be Facing in School
• Verywell Family - Bullying
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• Australian Human Rights Commission - What is bullying?: Violence, Harassment and Bullying Fact sheet
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bullying , intentional harm-doing or harassment that is directed toward vulnerable targets and typically repeated. Bullying encompasses a wide range of malicious aggressive behaviours, including physical violence , verbal mockery, threats, ostracism , and rumours spread either orally or by other means of communication, such as the Internet . One influential definition proposed by Norwegian researcher and psychologist Dan Olweus says:

A person is bullied when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons, and he or she has difficulty defending himself or herself.

Given the damage a single incident can cause, however, some scholars question whether the behaviour must be repeated in order to qualify as bullying. Additionally, not all people engaged in this interaction can be categorized as pure bullies or pure victims; research has distinguished a third category of “bully-victims,” youth who are both bullies and victims.

School bullying

Bullying in educational settings remains a commonplace everyday experience. In Europe significant attention to school bullying began in the early 1970s, in part because of the efforts of Olweus, as well as a widely publicized trio of victim suicides in Norway in 1983. A spate of school shootings in the late 1990s brought further media attention to the subject of school bullying, and concern was renewed during a later series of bullying-related suicides in Canada and the United States . A U.S. national study published at the turn of the 21st century documented that bullying and other forms of aggression affected approximately 30 percent, or 5.7 million, middle- to high-school students in the then-current school term.

Early research showed that the prevalence of bullying increases quickly as children age, peaking during early adolescence, and declines in later adolescence. Distinct gender patterns also were identified, most studies finding that boys bully their classmates more frequently than do girls and that boys tend to target other boys. However, both of these findings may be in part artifacts of a narrow conception of bullying as overt harassment, as opposed to covert rumour mongering and ostracism. Children’s definitions of bullying centre on physical aggression and verbal abuse, which are more common among boys and younger adolescents. When studies adopt a broader measure that includes more subtle forms of aggression, such as spreading rumours, ostracism, manipulation, and “ cyberbullying ” (the anonymous electronic posting of mean-spirited messages about a person), the gender and age differences become less dramatic. Indeed, some research has found equivalent levels of aggression, broadly defined, among girls and boys. At the same time, girls tend to be disproportionately victimized, both by boys and by other girls.

Other demographic patterns are harder to discern. With respect to race and ethnicity , several studies from Europe and Australia found no racial differences in bullying, while others showed that students who were members of a country’s racial or ethnic minorities were more likely to be victimized. Contradictory results also surface in the United States, where one national study found that Latinos were more likely to bully and that African American students were more likely to be victimized, yet another identified African Americans as those less apt to become victims. These mixed results suggest that there may not be any general patterns with respect to race and that racial and ethnic differences in bullying may instead depend on the ethnic composition of individual schools.

The results of studies of the structure and socioeconomic status of families are likewise mixed regarding the likelihood of children becoming bullies. However, exposure to aggression and conflict in the home consistently relates to aggressive behaviour . Parents who are aggressive or neglectful, use corporal punishment , or engage in serious conflicts with each other are more prone to have children who bully.

Over the course of adolescence, peer groups become increasingly important and in some cases eclipse parental influences. As within the family, exposure to aggression in the peer group is associated with bullying behaviour. There is a strong tendency for bullies to be friends with other bullies in their class or school. It is not clear to what extent this is because bullies choose other bullies as friends or because they influence their friends to engage in aggression, but research typically finds that both selection and influence processes are at work.

Research often has found that—perhaps as a result of exposure to conflict and aggression in the home and at school—bullies suffer from mental health problems. Bullying may arise as a response to low levels of self-esteem and empathy or to elevated levels of anxiety , depression , or anger. Additional research has documented that bullies have difficulty adjusting to school and that academic failures may contribute to their aggressive behaviour. These research findings together suggest that bullying is caused by psychological deficiencies, which in turn are triggered by exposure to aggression and conflict.

However, other research finds evidence of a quite different pattern, where bullies have either equivalent or higher levels of self-esteem than bystanders. Some bullies have high levels of social skills, empathy , and self-regard. They may occupy central positions in the social life of their schools and can be seen as quite popular among their peers, although they are not necessarily well-liked. Indeed, the high social status of these aggressors likely empowers them to torment their more vulnerable peers. In this view, rather than resulting from psychological troubles, bullying behaviour stems from a desire for greater social status among peers. As with gender, this novel, seemingly discrepant image of the popular bully may result from the expansion in the definition of harmful actions—or changes in bullying behaviour itself—to include cyberbullying and other forms of covert harassment.

These two general patterns—the bully as socially marginal and psychologically troubled versus the bully as socially successful and charismatic—have parallels in research on victims. The bulk of research on victims suggests that they are vulnerable or otherwise different in some dimension that is of importance to most adolescents. They are more likely to be physically underdeveloped and socially isolated and to have difficulty making friends. Victimization rates are also substantially higher among gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth and among youth who are overweight or disabled. Additional research, using a wide notion of aggression, documents that a good deal of harmful behaviour—if not the bulk—targets popular adolescents in addition to isolated adolescents.

Bullying emerges out of fundamental social processes, and it is not always accurately identified as a negative personality trait by peers and onlookers. The terms bully and victim themselves can be misleading, because they suggest a permanence to these characteristics that is not always reflected in actual social interaction. As mentioned earlier, people can be both perpetrators and targets, which calls into question the stability of the bully and victim identities. Furthermore, bullying behaviour often appears to develop in reaction to struggles over status and power within group contexts . Depending on the situation, individuals may engage in short-term deleterious bullying behaviour in order to gain a social advantage over others. Once an advantageous position has been reached, however, they may no longer employ bullying tactics. Some research documents that harmful aggressive behaviour toward classmates increases as peer status increases until the pinnacle of the hierarchy is reached, at which point such actions decrease in frequency. A substantial amount of school bullying thus appears to result not simply from individual proclivities but also from social jockeying among adolescents.

Although the root causes of bullying remain unclear, its consequences for victims are abundantly apparent. The U.S. Secret Service in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Education found that bullying was a factor in the majority of “incidents of targeted school violence” in the last two and a half decades of the 20th century. Victimization is also significantly related to suicidal ideation, social isolation, anxiety and depression, low self-esteem, physical health problems, and diminished academic performance and school attachment. Many of these effects can last well into adulthood.

However, victims are not the only ones who suffer from bullying. For many outcomes, bully-victims often fare the worst on a variety of measures, but pure bullies also experience difficulties. They are at increased risk of subsequent mental health problems and are likely to encounter difficulty maintaining positive relationships as adults. More significantly, bullies are considerably more likely to be convicted of crimes and incarcerated as young adults.

Some youth nevertheless use bullying as a way to gain social status among peers. These adolescents may be more strategic in how they choose their targets, and they are also likely to be among the more popular students in school. For at least some of them, bullying and harassment effectively boost their status and influence among schoolmates by winning the admiration of peers or by tearing down social rivals. Generally speaking, however, bullying is more effective at harming victims than aiding aggressors.

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Consequences of Bullying

It is important for parents and people who work with children and adolescents to understand that bullying can have both short- and long-term effects on everyone involved. While most research on bullying has been about children and adolescents who have been bullied, those who bully others are also negatively impacted, as are those who are both bullied and bully others, and even those who are not directly involved but witness bullying.

Children Who Have Been Bullied

Research has found that children and adolescents who have been bullied can experience negative psychological, physical, and academic effects.

Psychological Effects

The psychological effects of bullying include depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, self-harming behavior (especially for girls), alcohol and drug use and dependence, aggression, and involvement in violence or crime (especially for boys). While bullying can lead to mental health problems for any child, those who already have mental health difficulties are even more likely to be bullied and to experience its negative effects.

Cyberbullying – bullying that happens with computers or mobile devices – has also been linked to mental health problems. Compared with peers who were not cyberbullied, children who were cyberbullied report higher levels of depression and thoughts of suicide, as well as greater emotional distress, hostility, and delinquency.

Physical Effects

Bullying and Suicide

Bullying is a risk factor for depression and thinking about suicide. Children who bully others, are bullied, or both bully and are bullied are more likely to think about or attempt suicide than those who are not involved in bullying at all.

The physical effects of bullying can be obvious and immediate, such as being injured from a physical attack. However, the ongoing stress and trauma of being bullied can also lead to physical problems over time. A child who is bullied could develop sleep disorders - such as difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep - stomachaches, headaches, heart palpitations, dizziness, bedwetting, and chronic pain and somatization (i.e., a syndrome of distressful, physical symptoms that cannot be explained by a medical cause).

Being bullied also increases cortisol levels – a stress hormone – in the body, which typically happens after a stressful event. Stress from bullying can impact the immune system and hormones. Imaging studies show that brain activity and functioning can be affected by bullying, which may help explain the behavior of children who have been bullied.

Academic Effects

Research has consistently shown that bullying can have a negative impact on how well children and adolescents do in school. It has a negative impact on both grades and standardized test scores starting as early as kindergarten and continuing through high school.

Children Who Bully and Those Who Witness Bullying

Very little research has been done to understand the effects of bullying on children who bully, and those who witness bullying (e.g., bystanders). More research is needed to understand the consequences of bullying on the individuals who bully others, particularly to understand the differences between those who are generally aggressive and those who bully others.

Studies of children who witness bullying usually focus on their role in the bullying situation (e.g., if they backed up the child who bullied, or defended the victim) and why they did or did not intervene. While studies rarely assess the effects of bullying exposure on the witness, some research has found that bullying witnesses experience anxiety and insecurity based on their own fears of retaliation.

Children Who Bully and Are Also Bullied

Children and adolescents who bully others and who are also bullied are at the greatest risk for negative mental and physical health consequences, compared to those who only bully or are only being bullied. These children and adolescents may experience a combination of psychological problems, a negative perception of themselves and others, poor social skills, conduct problems, and rejection by their peer group.

Compared with non-involved peers, those who have bullied others and have also been bullied have been found to be at increased risk for serious mental illness, be at high risk for thinking about and attempting suicide, and demonstrate heightened aggression.

Exposure to bullying in any manner – by being bullied, bullying others, or witnessing peers being bullied – has long-term, negative effects on children. The School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey found that in 2015, about 21 percent of students ages 12-18 reported being bullied at school during the school year. Given the prevalence of youth exposed to bullying across the nation, it is important to understand the consequences of bullying on children and adolescents, how it relates to other violent behaviors and mental health challenges, in order to effectively address them.

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Source and Research Limitations

The information discussed in this fact sheet is based on the comprehensive review of bullying research presented in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s report entitled Preventing Bullying Through Science, Policy, and Practice .

This report includes the most up to date research on bullying, but it is important to note that this research has several important limitations. Most of the research is cross-sectional, which means it took place at one point in time. This type of research shows us what things are related to each other at that time, but cannot tell us which thing came first or if one of those things caused the other to occur.

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Cyberbullying: Everything You Need to Know

• Cyberbullying
• How to Respond

Cyberbullying is the act of intentionally and consistently mistreating or harassing someone through the use of electronic devices or other forms of electronic communication (like social media platforms).

Because cyberbullying mainly affects children and adolescents, many brush it off as a part of growing up. However, cyberbullying can have dire mental and emotional consequences if left unaddressed.

This article discusses cyberbullying, its adverse effects, and what can be done about it.

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Cyberbullying Statistics and State Laws

The rise of digital communication methods has paved the way for a new type of bullying to form, one that takes place outside of the schoolyard. Cyberbullying follows kids home, making it much more difficult to ignore or cope.

Statistics 

As many as 15% of young people between 12 and 18 have been cyberbullied at some point. However, over 25% of children between 13 and 15 were cyberbullied in one year alone.

About 6.2% of people admitted that they’ve engaged in cyberbullying at some point in the last year. The age at which a person is most likely to cyberbully one of their peers is 13.

Those subject to online bullying are twice as likely to self-harm or attempt suicide . The percentage is much higher in young people who identify as LGBTQ, at 56%.

Cyberbullying by Sex and Sexual Orientation

Cyberbullying statistics differ among various groups, including:

• Girls and boys reported similar numbers when asked if they have been cyberbullied, at 23.7% and 21.9%, respectively.
• LGBTQ adolescents report cyberbullying at higher rates, at 31.7%. Up to 56% of young people who identify as LGBTQ have experienced cyberbullying.
• Transgender teens were the most likely to be cyberbullied, at a significantly high rate of 35.4%.

State Laws 

The laws surrounding cyberbullying vary from state to state. However, all 50 states have developed and implemented specific policies or laws to protect children from being cyberbullied in and out of the classroom.

The laws were put into place so that students who are being cyberbullied at school can have access to support systems, and those who are being cyberbullied at home have a way to report the incidents.

Legal policies or programs developed to help stop cyberbullying include:

• Bullying prevention programs
• Cyberbullying education courses for teachers
• Procedures designed to investigate instances of cyberbullying
• Support systems for children who have been subject to cyberbullying 

Are There Federal Laws Against Cyberbullying?

There are no federal laws or policies that protect people from cyberbullying. However, federal involvement may occur if the bullying overlaps with harassment. Federal law will get involved if the bullying concerns a person’s race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, disability, or religion.

Examples of Cyberbullying 

There are several types of bullying that can occur online, and they all look different.

Harassment can include comments, text messages, or threatening emails designed to make the cyberbullied person feel scared, embarrassed, or ashamed of themselves.

Other forms of harassment include:

• Using group chats as a way to gang up on one person
• Making derogatory comments about a person based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, or other characteristics
• Posting mean or untrue things on social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, as a way to publicly hurt the person experiencing the cyberbullying  

Impersonation

A person may try to pretend to be the person they are cyberbullying to attempt to embarrass, shame, or hurt them publicly. Some examples of this include:

• Hacking into someone’s online profile and changing any part of it, whether it be a photo or their "About Me" portion, to something that is either harmful or inappropriate
• Catfishing, which is when a person creates a fake persona to trick someone into a relationship with them as a joke or for their own personal gain
• Making a fake profile using the screen name of their target to post inappropriate or rude remarks on other people’s pages

Other Examples

Not all forms of cyberbullying are the same, and cyberbullies use other tactics to ensure that their target feels as bad as possible. Some tactics include:

• Taking nude or otherwise degrading photos of a person without their consent
• Sharing or posting nude pictures with a wide audience to embarrass the person they are cyberbullying
• Sharing personal information about a person on a public website that could cause them to feel unsafe
• Physically bullying someone in school and getting someone else to record it so that it can be watched and passed around later
• Circulating rumors about a person

How to Know When a Joke Turns Into Cyberbullying

People may often try to downplay cyberbullying by saying it was just a joke. However, any incident that continues to make a person feel shame, hurt, or blatantly disrespected is not a joke and should be addressed. People who engage in cyberbullying tactics know that they’ve crossed these boundaries, from being playful to being harmful.

Effects and Consequences of Cyberbullying 

Research shows many negative effects of cyberbullying, some of which can lead to severe mental health issues. Cyberbullied people are twice as likely to experience suicidal thoughts, actions, or behaviors and engage in self-harm as those who are not.

Other negative health consequences of cyberbullying are:

• Stomach pain and digestive issues
• Sleep disturbances
• Difficulties with academics
• Violent behaviors
• High levels of stress
• Inability to feel safe
• Feelings of loneliness and isolation
• Feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness

If You’ve Been Cyberbullied 

Being on the receiving end of cyberbullying is hard to cope with. It can feel like you have nowhere to turn and no escape. However, some things can be done to help overcome cyberbullying experiences.

Advice for Preteens and Teenagers

The best thing you can do if you’re being cyberbullied is tell an adult you trust. It may be challenging to start the conversation because you may feel ashamed or embarrassed. However, if it is not addressed, it can get worse.

Other ways you can cope with cyberbullying include:

• Walk away : Walking away online involves ignoring the bullies, stepping back from your computer or phone, and finding something you enjoy doing to distract yourself from the bullying.
• Don’t retaliate : You may want to defend yourself at the time. But engaging with the bullies can make matters worse.
• Keep evidence : Save all copies of the cyberbullying, whether it be posts, texts, or emails, and keep them if the bullying escalates and you need to report them.
• Report : Social media sites take harassment seriously, and reporting them to site administrators may block the bully from using the site.
• Block : You can block your bully from contacting you on social media platforms and through text messages.

In some cases, therapy may be a good option to help cope with the aftermath of cyberbullying.

Advice for Parents

As a parent, watching your child experience cyberbullying can be difficult. To help in the right ways, you can:

• Offer support and comfort : Listening to your child explain what's happening can be helpful. If you've experienced bullying as a child, sharing that experience may provide some perspective on how it can be overcome and that the feelings don't last forever.
• Make sure they know they are not at fault : Whatever the bully uses to target your child can make them feel like something is wrong with them. Offer praise to your child for speaking up and reassure them that it's not their fault.
• Contact the school : Schools have policies to protect children from bullying, but to help, you have to inform school officials.
• Keep records : Ask your child for all the records of the bullying and keep a copy for yourself. This evidence will be helpful to have if the bullying escalates and further action needs to be taken.
• Try to get them help : In many cases, cyberbullying can lead to mental stress and sometimes mental health disorders. Getting your child a therapist gives them a safe place to work through their experience.

In the Workplace 

Although cyberbullying more often affects children and adolescents, it can also happen to adults in the workplace. If you are dealing with cyberbullying at your workplace, you can:

• Let your bully know how what they said affected you and that you expect it to stop.
• Keep copies of any harassment that goes on in the workplace.
• Report your cyberbully to your human resources (HR) department.
• Report your cyberbully to law enforcement if you are being threatened.
• Close off all personal communication pathways with your cyberbully.
• Maintain a professional attitude at work regardless of what is being said or done.
• Seek out support through friends, family, or professional help.

Effective Action Against Cyberbullying

If cyberbullying continues, actions will have to be taken to get it to stop, such as:

• Talking to a school official : Talking to someone at school may be difficult, but once you do, you may be grateful that you have some support. Schools have policies to address cyberbullying.
• Confide in parents or trusted friends : Discuss your experience with your parents or others you trust. Having support on your side will make you feel less alone.
• Report it on social media : Social media sites have strict rules on the types of interactions and content sharing allowed. Report your aggressor to the site to get them banned and eliminate their ability to contact you.
• Block the bully : Phones, computers, and social media platforms contain options to block correspondence from others. Use these blocking tools to help free yourself from cyberbullying.

Help Is Available

If you or someone you know are having suicidal thoughts, dial  988  to contact the  988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline  and connect with a trained counselor. To find mental health resources in your area, contact the  Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline  at  800-662-4357  for information.

Cyberbullying occurs over electronic communication methods like cell phones, computers, social media, and other online platforms. While anyone can be subject to cyberbullying, it is most likely to occur between the ages of 12 and 18.

Cyberbullying can be severe and lead to serious health issues, such as new or worsened mental health disorders, sleep issues, or thoughts of suicide or self-harm. There are laws to prevent cyberbullying, so it's essential to report it when it happens. Coping strategies include stepping away from electronics, blocking bullies, and getting.

Alhajji M, Bass S, Dai T. Cyberbullying, mental health, and violence in adolescents and associations with sex and race: data from the 2015 youth risk behavior survey . Glob Pediatr Health. 2019;6:2333794X19868887. doi:10.1177/2333794X19868887

Cyberbullying Research Center. Cyberbullying in 2021 by age, gender, sexual orientation, and race .

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: StopBullying.gov. Facts about bullying .

John A, Glendenning AC, Marchant A, et al. Self-harm, suicidal behaviours, and cyberbullying in children and young people: systematic review .  J Med Internet Res . 2018;20(4):e129. doi:10.2196/jmir.9044

Cyberbullying Research Center. Bullying, cyberbullying, and LGBTQ students .

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: StopBullying.gov. Laws, policies, and regulations .

Wolke D, Lee K, Guy A. Cyberbullying: a storm in a teacup? . Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2017;26(8):899-908. doi:10.1007/s00787-017-0954-6

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: StopBullying.gov. Cyberbullying tactics .

Garett R, Lord LR, Young SD. Associations between social media and cyberbullying: a review of the literature . mHealth . 2016;2:46-46. doi:10.21037/mhealth.2016.12.01

Nemours Teens Health. Cyberbullying .

Nixon CL. Current perspectives: the impact of cyberbullying on adolescent health . Adolesc Health Med Ther. 2014;5:143-58. doi:10.2147/AHMT.S36456

Nemours Kids Health. Cyberbullying (for parents) .

By Angelica Bottaro Bottaro has a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and an Advanced Diploma in Journalism. She is based in Canada.

Library Health & Wellness Social Life Bullying The Long Term Effects Of Bullying

The Long Term Effects Of Bullying

What Are The Effects of Bullying?

Immediate impact of bullying.

Bullying, a pervasive issue across schools and digital platforms, inflicts significant immediate harm on victims, manifesting through both emotional and physical channels. Understanding these impacts is crucial for prompt intervention and effective support.

Emotional Effects:

• Increased Anxiety and Stress: Victims often experience heightened anxiety, leading to panic attacks and chronic stress conditions.
• Depression: The relentless nature of bullying can plunge victims into deep depression, sometimes with lasting effects beyond the immediate situation.
• Low Self-esteem: Regular demeaning treatment erodes confidence, contributing to a poor self-image.
• Fear and Isolation: Bullying instills a fear of social interactions, leading to withdrawal from peer groups and activities.

Physical Effects :

• Sleep Disturbances: The stress and anxiety from bullying can lead to insomnia and other sleep disorders.
• Somatic Complaints: Victims frequently report headaches, stomachaches, and other physical symptoms with no medical basis, often a manifestation of psychological distress.
• Injuries: In cases of physical bullying, bruises, cuts, and other injuries can occur, sometimes requiring medical attention.

Bullying, a detrimental behavior pattern observed across various social settings, significantly impacts individuals well beyond the immediate moments of aggression. Characterized by repeated acts of physical, verbal, social, or cyber aggression, bullying inflicts profound psychological and emotional distress on its victims. We’ll delve into the lasting repercussions of such behaviors, exploring how they extend far into the victims’ future, affecting their mental health, self-esteem, social relationships, and overall quality of life.

The enduring effects of bullying are complex and multifaceted, with victims often experiencing long-term challenges such as chronic anxiety, depression, and heightened susceptibility to further victimization. Moreover, the impact transcends the individual, affecting families, schools, and communities.

Through an examination of the various dimensions of bullying, including physical confrontations, verbal harassment, exclusionary tactics, and online abuse, this article aims to shed light on the critical need for effective prevention and intervention strategies. It underscores the importance of understanding bullying’s deep-rooted impact to foster resilience and recovery among those affected.

Bullying is a serious problem that affects the lives of countless children and adults. No one should have to feel unsafe or threatened by someone else, but it happens all too often in our society. While bullying can manifest itself in many different forms, the effects it has on an individual are always significant. From mental health issues to decreased self-esteem and even perpetuating cycles of further bullying behavior, the consequences of bullying can have long-lasting and damaging impacts.

• Mental Health Issues:  Bullying has been linked to a variety of mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Victims of bullying often suffer from feelings of helplessness and hopelessness as they struggle to cope with the relentless verbal and physical abuse. As these negative feelings build up, they can manifest as more serious mental health issues that require professional help to overcome.
• Low Self-Esteem:  Bullying can do a lot of damage to an individual’s self-esteem. When someone is constantly put down and belittled, it’s hard for them to feel good about themselves. Victims of bullying may begin to believe the negative things they are told and feel like they’re not good enough. This can lead to a cycle of low self-esteem that is difficult to break out of. Erin L George, MA-MFT, says, “While bullying can hurt people at any age, it can be particularly damaging to young adults, teens, and school-aged children who are in developmental life stages where they’re forming their identity. Bullying, particularly verbal, at this stage can be severe enough to lead to suicidal ideation and even suicide due to low self-esteem and the pain it causes.”
• Perpetuating Bullying Behavior:  Unfortunately, bullying isn’t just a one-way street. Victims of bullying may end up becoming bullies themselves as a result of the trauma and pain that they have experienced. They often bully others to feel they are not alone or to get the negative attention off of them and onto someone else.  This behavior can perpetuate the cycle of bullying, as those who have been victims may act out their aggression on others in the same manner that they have been treated. 

If you’ve been a victim of bullying and are looking for support, consider finding an online therapist to help. Some popular online therapy providers include BetterHelp, ReGain, Talkspace, Teen Counseling, and Pride Counseling.

Bullying is Abuse

Bullying is a form of abuse, and it is a form of narcissistic behavior. Both bullying and traditional forms of abuse are selfish and sadistic, destructive, or violent acts perpetrated upon others. Ringleader bullies (those who organize bullying) behave as though the emotional and physical health of their victims is not important or is less important than their desire for the thrill of aggression and dominance. 

Bullying Causes Long-Term Emotional Damage

The experience of being bullied can end up causing lasting damage to victims. This is both self-evident and supported by an increasing body of research. It is not necessary to be physically harmed to suffer lasting harm. Words and gestures are quite enough. In fact, the old saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never harm me,” is more or less exactly backwards. For the most part, physical damage sustained in a fistfight heals readily, especially damage that is sustained during the resilient childhood years. What is far more difficult to mend is the primary wound that bullying victims suffer, which is damage to their self-concepts and to their identities. Bullying is an attempt to instill fear and self-loathing. Being the repetitive target of bullying damages your ability to view yourself as a desirable, capable, and effective individual.

Two ugly outcomes stem from learning to view yourself as a less-than-desirable, incapable individual. The first outcome is that it becomes more likely that you will become susceptible to depression, anger, or bitterness. Being bullied teaches you that you are undesirable, that you are not safe in the world, and that you are relatively powerless to defend yourself. When you are forced, again and again, to contemplate your relative lack of control over the bullying process, you are being set up for learned helplessness, which in turn sets you up for hopelessness and depression.

At the same time, you may be learning that you are helpless and hopeless; you’re also learning how you’re seen by bullies, which is to say, you are learning that others see you as weak, pathetic, and a loser. And, by virtue of the way that identity tends to work, you are being set up to believe that these things the bullies are saying about you are true.

It would be great if the average person had unshakable self-confidence, but this just isn’t how identity works. Identity is a social process. Other people contribute to it. Particularly when people are young and have not yet survived a few of life’s trials, it is difficult to know who they are and what they are made of. Much of what passes for identity in the young (and in the older, too) is a kind of other-confidence, which is to say that many people’s self-confidence is continually shored up by those around them telling them in both overt and subtle ways that they are good, worthy people. This is one of the reasons people like to belong to groups – it helps them to feel good about themselves. Bullying teaches people that they are explicitly not part of groups; that they are outcasts and outsiders. It is hard to doubt the reality of being an outcast and an outsider when you have been beaten or otherwise publicly humiliated. It takes an exceptionally confident (or otherwise well-supported) person not to internalize bullies’ negative messages and begin bullying yourself by holding yourself to the same standards that bullies are applying to you and finding yourself a failure. In other words, it is rather easy for bullying victims to note that they have been beaten up and then to start thinking of themselves as weak, no-good, worthless, pathetic, and incompetent. These are the sorts of thoughts that lead to depression or, if they are combined with revenge fantasies, to anger and rage feelings.

Where the first ugly outcome of bullying unfolds rather immediately in the form of a wounded self-concept, the second ugly outcome unfolds more slowly over time. Having a wounded self-concept makes it harder for you to believe in yourself. When you have difficulty believing in yourself, you will tend to have a harder time persevering through difficult situations. Deficits in academic performance can easily occur when bullying victims succumb to depression or otherwise become demoralized. They certainly also occur when victims ditch school to avoid bullies. The deficits themselves are not the real issue. The real issue is that if deficits occur for too long or become too pronounced, the affected children can lose out on opportunities for advancement, further study, and, ultimately, employment. I’ve read retrospective studies where people report having left school early to avoid continued bullying, and this, of course, will have altered and limited the job prospects they have available to them as adults. Leaving school may be a dramatic (if occasionally realistic) example of how early bullying can affect one’s life. However, there are other ways that anger or depression caused by bullying harms and developmentally delays people’s progress.

Inevitably, sensitive kids—the kids who cry easily—get singled out. Targeted as they are, many sensitive kids learn to think of their sensitivity as a bad thing and to avoid it or channel it into revenge fantasy and anger. This doesn’t work when you are a kid because it’s difficult to reinvent yourself without moving to a new place. It can have negative consequences in adulthood when the same children, now emotionally avoidant, angry, or cynical adults, find themselves having difficulty entering into or maintaining loving, intimate relationships.

A similar form of damage comes when bullied kids internalize negative attitudes concerning aspects of themselves that set them apart from others, such as their sexual orientation, minority group membership, or religious affiliation. In such cases, bullying sets up peer pressure to reject aspects of the self that are fundamentally not rejectable, and thus, a potentially lifelong tension gets set up inside that person.

(If anyone out there has a better idea for how someone can end up becoming a homosexual-hating homosexual, an antisemitic Jewish person, or other seemingly self-contradictory person, I’d like to know about it.)

This list, culled from my reading on this subject, summarizes some effects bullying victims may experience the following short-term effects:

• Avoidance of settings where bullying may occur.
• Lower grades than non-bullied peers
• Suicidal thoughts and feelings

In one British retrospective bullying experiences survey I came across, 20% of the sample attempted suicide secondary to having been bullied, whereas only 3% of participants who were not bullied attempted suicide.

In the long term, survivors of bullying may experience:

• Reduced occupational opportunities
• Lingering feelings of anger and bitterness or a desire for revenge
• Difficulty trusting people
• Interpersonal difficulties, including fear and avoidance of new social situations
• Increased tendency to be a loner
• Perception of self as easy to victimize, overly sensitive, and thin-skinned
• Self-esteem problems
• Increased incidence of continued bullying and victimization

Interesting observations of factors that seem to lessen the negative impact that bullying has on people include the following:

Perception of Control

A 2004  Spanish college student sample study  suggests that there is a direct relationship between the victim’s perception of control over their bullying experience and the extent of long-term difficulties they experience as a result of bullying. This is to say that bullied students who believed they were able to influence and/or escape their bullies reported fewer negative long-term effects from having been bullied than did students who felt helpless to influence their situation while it was happening. Perception of control (and not reality of control) was key in this study, as no relationship was found between the ways students coped with being bullied and how they turned out.

I can see the outline of a mechanism working here (where students who believed they still had control over their situations avoided developing learned helplessness and, therefore, had less of a chance of experiencing depression). However, the study doesn’t help us know what to recommend to lessen the chances of long-term problems. Remember, it didn’t matter what the students did; it only mattered what they believed.

Let’s go with the idea that believing you have control over events is important. The thing to do if you are being bullied is to keep persevering in your efforts to stop the bullying, as though those efforts will result in your getting the bullying to stop. No single thing you do may stop the bullying, but the effect of continually working under the assumption that you haven’t tried all options and may still get the bullying to stop may do the trick. And, of course, you might get the bullying to stop because of something you do or don’t do.

Rather than try to control the past (which is impossible), it might make more sense for survivors to focus on what they can control in the present to benefit their future happiness and fulfillment. As the poet George Herbert’s classic phrase wisely advises, “Living well is the best revenge.”

Early Exposure

The age at which kids are first bullied seems to be important, according to  research on bullying . Young children who are first bullied during their preteen years appear to be less negatively impacted in the long term than children who are first bullied as teens. People first bullied as young children report experiencing higher long-term stress levels than people who were never bullied.

However, people who were first bullied as teens report more long-term social withdrawal and more reactivity to violence than other groups. There is a greater tendency towards the use of self-destructive coping mechanisms in the first-bullied-as-teens group, and an interesting but hard-to-make-sense of sex difference, where women tend to become more aggressive as a result of their bullying experience, and men demonstrate a greater tendency to use substances.

I can’t help but wonder if the increased independence and emancipation that teens enjoy makes them more likely to experiment with and then get locked into maladaptive coping strategies, such as substance use, than their younger peers.

Social Support

Finally, multiple researchers point to the protective effect a good social support network has on the survivor’s short- and long-term outcomes. Having supportive family members and peers around who can be confided in when one has been bullied and who can offer support and advice tends to lessen bullying’s impact.

There are several reasons why it makes sense that a supportive social network should help, but one of them deserves to be made explicit. Namely, when a survivor of bullying is surrounded by and brought into a supportive social network, they receive many positive messages about their worth from network members. There are, therefore, fewer opportunities for bullies’ negative messages to be internalized and take over self-esteem. If bullies can only succeed in harming people physically and they do not succeed in harming them emotionally, then relatively little lasting damage can be done.

Undoing the Damage

Suppose the primary damage that bullying causes is damage to identity and self-esteem. In that case, taking steps to repair identity and self-esteem is for people looking to heal from past bullying experiences. What needs to heal, in most cases, is not the physical body but rather identity and self-concept. Bullied people need to learn how to feel safe again in the world (or safe enough). They need to learn that they are acceptable people with much to offer, to feel in control over their moods and urges, and to know they can accomplish goals. 

I’ll refer people to our topic centers on Depression and Anger Management for ideas about how to treat these. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is likely to be of particular utility concerning depression and anger.

In the language of cognitive behavioral therapy, depression and anger are based on dysfunctional core beliefs. They could be addressed using cognitive restructuring techniques that encourage people to closely examine the beliefs and dispute them when they contain exaggerations and distortions.

Social withdrawal problems and social anxiety also can be very profitably addressed within the context of cognitive therapy. One positive aspect of the therapy setting is that role-playing can take place between therapist and patient to provide patients with the opportunity to practice and improve how they interact in social situations. When basic social fears and skill deficits have been addressed, it should become easier for socially withdrawn people to find the connections they need to finally feel fundamentally accepted by others.

I typically hate the overused word “empowered,” but I’m going to use it here because it fits. People who have been bullied have been fundamentally disempowered. Their feelings of personal safety have been violated, and their belief in their competency and adequacy has been minimized. They may exist in a state of perpetual avoidance and paralysis.

To feel good about themselves, they need to break through that paralysis and engage in something that helps them feel like they are gaining power—not power over others, but power over themselves. No one else can do this for them. Each person has to decide to empower themselves.

There are a million avenues a person can take to fulfill an empowerment goal. However, the right avenue is based on that person’s talents and opportunities. Anger can be productively funneled into a competitive endeavor, such as education, business, sports, or gaming, or creative expression, such as art or music. Fears can be faced down, and courage can be discovered.

Doing this entails picking out a goal you desire to accomplish, which will assert yourself, and then deciding to make it happen. As with any self-improvement goal, it is good to start small and dissect larger goals into their smallest possible elements so that each step you take on the way to a big goal is manageable. You can read more about this process in our Psychological Self-Tools self-help book.

In confronting the complex issue of bullying, understanding its profound and lasting effects is crucial. The scars inflicted by bullying—whether through physical confrontations, verbal harassment, social exclusion, or online attacks—reach deep, impacting individuals’ mental health, social relationships, and self-esteem long into the future.

Addressing the repercussions of bullying with urgency and compassion is imperative. Creating environments of empathy and understanding paves the way for victims to speak out and seek the support they need. It takes a collective effort to combat bullying effectively through implementing robust prevention and intervention strategies that foster a culture of kindness and respect.

The importance of seeking help and offering support cannot be overstressed. Every individual has a role to play, whether as a friend, family member, educator, or community member. Advocating for those who feel voiceless, facilitating open discussions about bullying and its impacts, and providing resources for recovery are vital steps toward healing.

MentalHealth.com is a health technology company guiding people towards self-understanding and connection. The platform offers reliable resources, accessible services, and nurturing communities. Its mission involves educating, supporting, and empowering people in their pursuit of well-being.

The content on this page was originally from MentalHelp.net, a website we acquired and moved to MentalHealth.com in September 2024. This content has not yet been fully updated to meet our content standards and may be incomplete. We are committed to editing, enhancing, and medically reviewing all content by March 31, 2025. Please check back soon, and thank you for visiting MentalHealth.com. Learn more about our content standards here .

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Further Reading

• Understanding Different Types Of Bullying And Their Impacts
• Benefits Of Healthy Self-Esteem In Children's Development
• Helping Children Cope With Teasing And Bullying
• Understanding Trauma And Its Long-Term Effects
• Online Therapy For Trauma: Accessible Healing Options
• Introduction To Self-Esteem And Its Impact On Mental Health
• Why Self-Esteem Matters: Dimensions And Life Impact
• Identity Development And Self-Esteem In Middle Childhood
• Physical Health Effects Of Social Rejection In Teens
• Understanding Teen Peer Relationships And Social Dynamics
• Healing Without Closure: Moving Beyond The Myth
• School Popularity And Future Success: Is There A Link?
• Practical Tips For Improving Self-Esteem At Any Age
• Recognizing And Healing From Narcissistic Abuse

Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Cyber Bullying — Causes and Effects of Cyber Bullying

Cause and Effect of Cyber Bullying

• Categories: Cyber Bullying Digital Era Internet

About this sample

Words: 883 |

Published: Jul 15, 2020

Words: 883 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, causes of cyberbullying (essay), effects to the victims, works cited:.

• Brooks, D. (2011). Amy Chua is a Wimp. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/opinion/18brooks.html
• Chua, A. (2011). Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. The Penguin Press.
• Child of Tiger Mom Speaks Out [Video]. (2011, January 18). YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU6o4vV5Dm0
• Gross-Loh, C. (2014). Parenting in America vs. Parenting in Other Countries: What Makes Chinese Moms So Different. Slate.
• Hogan, L. (2012). The Tiger Mom Meets A Western Dad. NPR.
• Kohn, A. (2012). The truth about the Tiger Mother's family. Salon.
• Lee, J. (2015). Chinese parents vs. Western parents: Why Chinese mothers are superior. CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2015/06/03/opinions/china-western-parenting/index.html
• Lin, J. (2014). Cultural differences in parenting practices: What Asian American families can teach us. The Science of Psychotherapy.
• Tong, R. (2012). From Tiger Mothers to Dragon Ladies: East Asian Women, Symbolic Ethnicity, and Politics. Asian Ethnicity, 13(2), 139–158. doi: 10.1080/14631369.2012.670594
• Wang, S. (2018). Parenting Styles: A Comparison of Chinese and American Parents. Master’s thesis, University of Tennessee.

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