On 21st November 2023, a 16-year-old queer make-up artist Pranshu died by suicide as a result of overwhelming cyberbullying due to their gender identity. Cyberbullying is a type of a broader behavioural tendency called bullying.
What is bullying?
Bullying refers to any hostile behaviour that is meant to cause harm to another person. Such behaviours could include name-calling, hitting, pushing, threatening, insulting, spreading rumours, purposefully excluding or undermining someone. Bullying can begin at a very young age and is frequently observed in children who attend school. In addition, bullying could be coupled with violence involving a real or implied threat of any form – verbal, sexual, or physical, and perpetrated with or without weapons.
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According to a 2019 statistics report, 22% of young people aged 12-20 said that they have experienced bullying behaviour in the past 12 months; 45% reported to have experienced it at least once a month, and 31% had experienced it at least once a week. As for violence in schools, a report by the United Nations estimates that 246 million girls and boys worldwide experience violence in and around schools every year.
But why do children become bullies and/or engage in violence at schools? Bullying has shown strong links to power imbalances. Children who bully others typically come from higher social classes or are perceived to have a higher position of power. Have we not seen English movies where the “popular” girl/guy always ends up being a bully? Looking beyond the power imbalances, bullies could also suffer from insecurities, low self-esteem, and a high need to control others. Additionally, bullying could also be a learned behaviour.
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Targeted Vulnerabilities:
Often, the “bullies” tend to bully vulnerable children from marginalized communities, poor families, or those with different gender identities, disabilities or those who are immigrants or refugees. These children being the weaker section of the school are easy targets to being bullied. Children living in households where bullying is used as a coping mechanism or to get their way become bullies at school, as they perceive it as a safer environment for them to utilize their bullying tactics. It is also possible that some bullies were bullied themselves. As a result, these children see bullying as a behaviour required to exert control over others, which leads them to repeat the behaviour to feel strong.
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Impact of bullying and violence in schools
Bullying and violent behavior in schools affects not just the children being bullied, but also the bullies and the other children witnessing such acts.
Impact of bullying and violence on children who are bullied
The targets of bullying often develop mental health problems like anxiety and depression, and experience symptoms disrupting their daily functioning such as changes in appetite or sleep, feelings of loneliness and isolation, and withdrawal from activities that they previously enjoyed. Dropping out and absenteeism are also common in such children. Further, these children are also likely to have suicidal thoughts and are at higher risk of engaging in suicidal behaviour.
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Children who are victims of school violence are likely to get physically injured and may show cuts, scrapes, bruises, broken bones, concussions, physical disability or in the worst cases, could experience fatal consequences, including death. Being a victim of school violence has also been linked with risks for long-term psychological and behavioural issues such as attachment disorders, substance abuse, obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and respiratory conditions.
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Impact of bullying and violence on children who bully
Similarly, bullies themselves also show an increased risk of substance abuse and criminal behaviour such as engaging in physical fights, and sexual activity at younger ages. These children are likely to show bullying behaviour at their workplaces and homes as adults. This can result in a vicious cycle whereby “bully” parents bring up “bully” children.
As for those children committing violence, the behaviour that they engage in might initially satisfy their emotional need for strength or safety. However, this satisfaction is short-lived as these children start to fear punishment, which might trigger anger and increase their likelihood of engaging in violence.
Impact of bullying and violence on bystanders
One of the obvious impacts seen in bystanders, or children witnessing bullying and school violence, is guilt. Despite feeling guilty, they do not intervene and act upon bullying and violence because of the underlying helplessness and threat the circumstances put them in. As a result, there is a looming guilt and a feeling that the world is an unsafe place to be in. As adults, they might condition their children with the same ideology, unless they have processed their trauma.
How can we prevent school violence and bullying?
Reporting and taking action
First and foremost, encouraging children to report incidents of bullying and violence and taking action immediately would help prevent further incidents. Teachers and school administrators must receive training on how to listen to pupils who have these kinds of worries in an accepting and nonjudgmental way. Educators should teach parents to recognize signs of bullying or instances where their children witness or experience bullying and violence. It is advised that parents talk to their kids on a frequent basis about their health and school experiences in order to recognise warning signals early.
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Educating children about bullying and violence
Often, students are not aware that bullying and violence are harmful behaviours. We are living in a culture that normalizes violence and bullying. Educating oneself and others, particularly children, about the negative consequences of bullying and violence would help them identify these tendencies in others, and also themselves.
Reaching out to children
It is important to reach out to all three categories of children – the targets, the bullies and/or the perpetrators, and the bystanders – and understand what they are experiencing so that they can receive the care and support they need. Employing school psychologists and counsellors.
By hiring mental health specialists with specialised training in addressing children’s and students’ well-being, including school psychologists and counsellors, schools and other educational institutions can methodically implement all of the aforementioned measures. These professionals develop prevention activities on general and specific levels, counsel and conduct social-emotional assessments on students from the three categories, develop interventions and help replace negative behaviours with positive, prosocial behaviours. They also provide consultation to the parents and/or guardians of bullies and targets and offer them resources, support and strategies for managing their children’s behaviour.
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School violence and bullying can be a traumatic experience with long-term physical, mental, emotional and behavioural effects. Therefore, parents and educational institutions need to invest in programs and strategies aimed at the identification, intervention and prevention of such behavioural tendencies.
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