Ariadna Marrero Professor Massy Enc1101 11/4/13 Bullying

A beautiful young girl killed herself due to being cruelly called a whore. These suicides happen too often in todays society, yet people choose to believe that bullying is a harmless part of growing up. Bullying is the most frequent and most overlooked problem in children and adolescence. It has accounted for a great part of psychological problems and suicides in children and teens. One thing people dont realize is that bullying and suicide go hand in hand. This is an age old problem which has taken over a new guise called cyber bullying. Bullying is one of the most frequent problems people dont even realize is overtaking the youth today. Bullying is a problem many children go through every day in school. According to Sharp the author of School Bullying: Insights and Perspectives bullying is the systematic

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abuse of power. The Oxford dictionary defines bullying as use superior strength or influence to intimidate (someone), typically to force him or her to do what one wants. Bullying can be characterized as physical harm, threats, being constantly teased, intentionally being harassed by others, and having rumors spread about them. Children who are bullied can also experience being ostracized by their own peers. Studies in England have shown girls are more likely to bully other people by teasing, spreading rumors, ostracizing other people. On the other hand boys are more likely to tease or cause physical harm, instead of spreading rumor or ignoring their peers. There is not one specific type of person who is bullied but on the contrary everyone is susceptible to it. According to one study, they sent 6000 questionnaires to students in middle schools, finding that ethnicity, gender, and age isnt linked with bullying which proves that any student may be at risk to being bullied. Most parents dont even realize this is happening to their own children. Bullying occurs in circumstances hidden from adult supervision causing bullying to go virtually unrealized by parents or other adults. In one study where 276 participants went to school, the majority of the participants were bullied and only half the teachers and parents realized it. This is a problem that is overlooked by many people because even parents dont realize this is going on in their own homes. Bullying is an age old problem but it has found a new guise. Cyber bullying is a new form of bullying that has developed over time because of the use technology in this generation. Cyber bullying is bullying on the internet by email, phones, websites, and social media. Bullying is now following children to their home, whereas before, bullying would only occur in school and children could go home and feel safe. Now with cyber bullying

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children no longer feel as safe at home because problems follow them into the one place where they should feel safe. This has caused children to feel like theyre being bombarded with problems and there is no escape. The problem with cyber bullying is that there is no known exact number of children who are being bullied because the victim population is growing as children are reluctant to tell their parents, but children dont realize this happens to the majority of their peers so they feel a sense of isolation. Cyber bullying could occur by using derogatory terms to a person, sending pictures without consent, or revealing someones secret or personal information; a very common way to bully someone would be to post an embarrassing picture on the internet or sending it to other people. Due to cyber bullying, suicide rates have gone up becoming the most frequent form of bullying that occurs in society today. Bullying is a team effort. People dont realize that bullying is composed with the help of many different roles. According to Lagerspetz there are six different possible positions when it comes to bullying; bully, victim, assistant of the bully, reinforcer of the bully, defender of the victim, and outsider. In most cases the boys are either the bully, assistant of bullying, and the reinforcer, while the girls are usually the victim, defender of victim, and the outsider. Children dont realize that everyone has a role when it comes to bullying; if children dont participate in bullying and walk away they are still participants, the outsiders. Children who see bullying should stand up and speak up and stop the harassment. Children who encourage bullying would be considered the reinforcers of the bullying and are also part of the problem and should be reprimanded. Everyone has a role in bullying but people dont

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realize that they are active participants of it can make a difference just by standing up to the harassment. Many children now suffer from psychological symptoms such as depression and anxiety. The main cause of the rapid increase of psychological problems is because bullying has reached its acme. Bullying is a larger problem that people dont realize affects 9 to 54% of people worldwide causing a plethora of problems such as, depression, anxiety, low selfesteem, phobias of school, feelings of insecurity, isolation, loneliness, and unhappiness.

Psychologist Bond says bullying has been proven to cause depression, anxiety, isolation, stress, and low self-esteem. A study where they sent 40 minute questionnaire to 26 different schools, about 16% percent of students have experienced anxiety, and 61% students who have been suffering from reoccurring bullying for eight or more have reported anxiety or depression. There has been a study where they put 276 participants from the British Stammering Association people who have speaking deficiencies to go to school, interviews, and other things. In this study they learned that the majority of the participants had difficulty making friends, socializing, and they were bullied. Most of the participants accounted for harmful effects and 46% reported long term effects. The bullies themselves have been reported to have depression, more likely to be antisocial, and are more likely to get in legal trouble later in life, the majority of students who bully other students have been bullied, or they come from broken homes. The victims of bullying have been reported to have a plethora of clinical problems, such as depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, phobias of school, feelings of insecurity, isolation, loneliness, unhappiness. Bullying doesnt only affect the victim, but the victims family. The family of the victim can feel a sense of helplessness because they

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are not in control of the situation and have absolutely no possible way mediate the circumstance. These families may feel at fault for the problems their child are dealing with, if a child could be feeling depression the parents may feel a certain responsibility to help the child even if its not in their control. These psychological can lead people to feel helpless and that nothing in their life will ever get better; suicide is the third leading cause in adolescents, bullied has widely contributed these suicide. Even if a child may not reach the point of suicide they could begin to self harm such as cutting their wrist or even their hips so the scars wont show. Eating disorders are also a possibility when looking for a way to drown out the emotional pain caused by bullying. A common eating disorder in people being called fat is anorexia, not eating to lose weight. Bulimia is also very common, this is when people dont eat but lose their self control and binge eat then they feel bad for eating, so they force themselves to vomit everything theyve eaten. This proves that bullying isn't a problem that just blows over but has lasting consequences that can possible end with death.

Bullying is a problem has often been disregarded as a part of a regular part of childhood. Parents have never paid much interest in the affairs of their children. When children go complain to their parents usually brush it off with a Man up, Sticks and stones

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may break your bones but names will never hurt me, or Dont listen to them. Bullying has been around for years but has recently reached an epidemic in the media. Theyre has been more programs and antibullying campaigns arising in this past decade. Even after all the awareness the media is bringing towards bullying parents still remain ignorant to the fact that this can cause psychological problems or even death. Parents refuse to see all the signs that point to bullying such as, frequent headaches or stomach aches, feeling sick or faking illness, difficulty sleeping or frequent nightmares, declining grades, loss of interest in schoolwork, or not wanting to go to school, sudden loss of friends or avoidance of social situations, feelings of helplessness or decreased self esteem. Parents stay ignorant to the fact that their child may be at risk to suffer from bullying, because parents choose to believe that it would never happen to their child. They may also believe that bullying isnt an important issue because its just words. Parents dont see the relevance that those words can have on a child; considering this is the age where a parents opinion is no as longer relevant to the child as the opinion as their peers. This problem should be taken more seriously in todays society. Bullying has been the cause of many psychological problems and it encourages suicide. This is a problem that has been ignored for centuries and has given rise to its importance form the media. The blindness of teachers to bullying in school has helped this problem reach a astonishingly high number. The lack of empathy in people has helped the bully create an environment where bullying is tolerated, and has made the victim feel a sense of isolation, loneliness, and helplessness in the situation. This problem needs to be taken care of before bullying and suicide reaches an all time high. This problem is already outlawed in some states for example, New Jersey and Florida; this should be outlawed in all states and in the world. The consequences for this law

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should be moderately severe to stop bullying, by bring fear into the eyes of those that bully others. This problem needs to be taken care of to end the torture in the lives of these people, to give these people hope, a reason to live, strength to carry on with their daily lives.

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Work Cited Page Bond Lnydal, Carlin John, Rubin Kerryn, Patton George. "Does Bullying Cause Emotional Problem? A Prospective Study of Young Teenagers." British Medical Journal September 2001. Google Scholar. Web. Viewed on October 29, 2013.

Campbell, Marilyn. "Cyber Bullying: An Old Problem New Guise?" Australian Journal of Guidance and Counseling. Volume 15 issue 1 (68-76) 2005. Google Scholar. Web. Viewed on October 28, 2013.

Hugh-Jones Siobhan, Smith Peter. Self-reports of short- and long-term effects of bullying on children who stammer. British Journal of Educational Psychology volume 6 issue 2 (141-158), June 1999. Google Scholar. Web. Viewed on October20, 2013. Lagerspetz Kirsti, Salmivalli Christina. Bullying as a group process: Participants roles and their relations to social status within the group. Aggressive Behavior Volume 22 issue 1 (1-15).Google Scholar. Web. Viewed on October 2, 2013. Kim, Young, Levental, Bennett. "Bullying and Suicide. A Review." International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health. Volume 20 2(133-154). May 2, 2011. Google Scholar. Web. Viewed on October 29, 2013. Nansel Tonja, Overpeck Mary, Pilla Ramani, Ruan Juan, Simons-Marton Bruce, Scheidt Peter. Bullying Behavior among US Youth Prevalence and Association With Psychosocial Adjustment.

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The Journal of the American Medical Association 285(16) April 25, 2001. Google Scholars. Web. Viewed on October 20, 2013 Smith Peter, Whitney Irene.A survey of the nature and extent of bullying in junior/middle school and Secondary Schools. Educational Research Volume 35 number 1 1998. Google Scholar. Web. Viewed on October 20,2013. Sonia Sharp, Peter Smith, Peter K. Smith. School Bullying: Insights and Perspective. London. Routledge, 1994. Print.