1. BYE TO BULLYING : CULTIVATING THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT TO NURTURE OUR CHILDREN Done by: Denise Tan, Esther Chang & Vanessa Goh
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3. The Different Types of School Bullying 1) Verbal 2) Physical 3) Social 4) Psychological/Mental 5) Cyber
4. The Bullied: Common Characteristics Noted 1) Having a different appearance (Erling & Hwang, 2004) 2) Small, weak & soft (Boulton & Underwood,1992) 3) Low self-esteem : Both genders considered themselves less attractive than others (Bjorkqvist etal., 1982) 4) Sensitive, more quiet, anxious and insecure (Glew et al., 2000) 5) Often alone & without friends (Schwartz et al., 1993)
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Hinweis der Redaktion
Our group will provide some background knowledge about bullying in school. Firstly, bullying is defined as: student is being bullied or victimized when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and overtime, to negative actions on the part of one or more students. (Olweus, 1993a, 1996 cited in Olweus 1997) and It is also a negative action when someone intentionally inflicts, or attempts to inflict, injury or discomfort upon another
1) Verbal : When someone is being called names or being teased or even blackmailing. Sometimes students were verbally bullied for no apparent reason at all, but some are specifically focused on physical appearance, disability, religion, sexual orientation and etc. This type of bullying is the most prevalent of all because it cannot be visually seen; no scratches or bruises are left behind and it often happened when no adults are around hence it is difficult for parents and teachers to notice what is going on in class. 2) Physical: This involves violent physical acts; such as beating, pushing, kicking and all forms of physical bullying. This often put the victims’ life at high risk. There were some cases whereby the physical bullying went out of control and lives were taken. 3) Social: It means social exclusion or boycotting a person from a social group/activity to make him/her feel isolated and unwanted. This includes the spreading of rumours or gossips, trying to break up existing friendship(s) the victim has and at the same time tarnishing his/her reputation thus he/she will be unable to develop any potential relationship with anyone else. People will most likely shun away, leaving the victim all alone. 4) Psychological/Mental: When a victim is stalked, intimidated or blackmailed/threatened, he/she will constantly be living in fear worrying about when the threats would be carried out by the bullies. Such constant scare of getting hurt can be lead to a tremendous psychological and emotional drain to the victim. 5) Cyber: The advancement of technologies shifted the bullying episodes from happening face-to-face onto the cyber world via emails, instant messaging, social networking sites, YouTube and etc. Among all forms of bullying, cyber bulling can be extra hurtful and embarrassing in comparison because any negative information regarding the victim are all out for the whole world to see. It is also said that cyber bullying is usually meaner than the face-to-face bullying as the bully is unable to see the victim; which means that those who do not dare to bully up front of the victim, they “hide” and do all the bullying online.
If boundaries are not set in early years, a child can find no limits and no inner security. Nobody punishes them or explain to them when they did something wrong. This continues into adulthood. With a lack of boundary setting in childhood, adult bullies do not have secure feelings about who they are, their ‘true’ selves. B ullies may be able to read the emotional responses of others but they often lack empathy, the ability to relate to the feelings of others. Next, we have 2 interviews that re-emphasize on the characteristics of the bullies.
Started bullying during upper secondary Bullied 2 secondary one students Ordered them to buy food and run errands for him and his friends. Extorted money from the victims to pay for all their expenditures Threatened the victims when they did not comply When asked about the reasons why R bullied, he said that that his friend asked him to follow him and do whatever he did. That included bullying other weaker students. His friend also treated him very well, especially when the parents of R were in the midst of a divorce and that had causes a lot of problems at home. His friend would cheer him up and bring him out. R also did not want any people to know his family problems so he think that was why he acted brave and tough in front of others by bullying people. From the above interview, we can see that the student had turned into a bully because he had some insecurities which he did not want to show and he was led astray by his peers.
We also had an interview with Rachel Loh. She is a social worker who works with youth; moslty with school dropouts. They want to exert their power. They find satisfaction from being strong and cool. It also gives them a sense of control. Their parents may intimidate them, making them feel powerless by being physically and verbally abusive. Thus, they use bullying as an outlet to express their frustration at home.
3) According to Smith & other reseachers, the findings also suggest that school pupils who consistently cannot cope with bullying, or try to make fun of the bullying, are more at risk for later problems in the workplace.
Therefore, peer victimization prevention programs need to extend beyond the school context and instill sources of emotional support within the family environment. For instance, schools and teachers need to work with the parents of adolescents who are involved in peer victimization experiences. The idea is to get parents involved by focusing on adolescents’ behaviors rather than on who is to blame. Second, training can give parents skills to initiate consistent conversations with their adolescents. For example, parents can ask what the conflict is about, and brainstorm solutions with their adolescents that can be used to resolve the conflict. When parents help their adolescents to deal with conflicts, this offers their adolescents support and maintains a relationship that allows for open
After "To Respond to reports of Victimization") e.g., encourage students to talk about their experiences rather than telling them what they should think, and use this to inform their response) How to address conflics appropriately: (e.g., meet with the victim and the bully to discuss how he or she could respond appropriately to future situations).