Dylan Allison

The Detrimental Effects of Bullying

Inquiry: Why do people cause physical/mental harm to others?
Proposed thesis: Bullying is becoming a huge problem, it causes so much more than
mental harm, and its not only happening at school.
Bakalar, Nicholas. "Being Bullied Is Bad for Your Health.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com. New York Times,12,May2014 n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
This article is a couple of years old now but I do not think that it would make a difference
in this case because what is discovered in the research would not change in a couple of
years. Nicholas makes his argument here by writing an article about a research done by
scientists that found that being bullied actually leads to bad health. This is because it
raises a fluid in your blood called C-reactive protein (CPR) and it raises your risk for
heart disease and many others. The weird thing they found is that the ones doing the
bullying have a low count of CRP. Even lower than that of kids that have nothing to do
with bullying at all. They also found that the social standings of the kids that are being
bullied are closely related to children that experience physical abuse at home. This article
proves that bullying causes more than just mental harm. We all know that a kid being beat
up would cause physical harm but would you think that it could lead to a child having
heart problems or forming a disease? Someone might be able to mature and get over the
hurtful words or things that were said to them but they would not be able to get rid of a
disease they have gotten from being bullied. It is something that they would have to live
with for the rest of their lives.

Cloud, John. "When Bullying Turns Deadly: Can It Be Stopped?" Time. Time Inc., 24
Oct. 2010. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
This was published in 2010 and I think that this does not take away from the credibility
because bullying is still deadly and causes the death of many people. In this article Cloud
supports his title by giving examples of kids that have killed themselves due to bullying.
Going deeper into the topic, he gives specific reasons that they committed suicide. The
big one was people being bullied because of sexual interests. A specific example that hits
the hardest is that of Seth Walsh. He was thirteen years old when he hung himself in his
own back yard. His bullying began when he was in fourth grade, and by seventh he was
afraid to walk home from school. This eventually led to him hanging himself and his
mother finding him still barely alive. Ultimately after being on life support for nine days
he passed away. Mental harm left this young boy and many others to their death. Mental
harm can do so much that a person begins thinking that life is worth living anymore.
These suicides showing that it has taken a turn for the worse.
Hertzog, Jodi L., Tammy Harpel, and Rochelle Rowley. "Is It Bullying, Teen Dating
Violence, or Both? Student, School Staff, and Parent Perceptions." Proxy Login University Libraries - USC. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
The main thing they want to see here is how the views that people have on what
behaviors cause bulling, teen dating violence (TDV), or both.. They ran an experiment
and found that the views were different between the groups they surveyed. It was written
in 2015 so it is recent data on the subject and is another one of my peer-reviewed sources
so it is a credible source. It also adds to my argument that bullying is becoming a huge
problem because it is expanding its boards. I am saying this because I did not even know
that teen-dating violence was a thing, but it is. They are not bias because they are

presenting facts for an audience and dont put personal opinions into the research or let it
change their findings. Adding to my argument as well is the fact that it is not just in
schools because dating obviously does not only partake in school.
Knopf, Alison. "Bullying, in Teen Sports and Elsewhere, Requires Parent
Intervention." Eds.b.ebscohost.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
This source tells of bullying within sports that teens partake in.; they have found that the
mail reason that it takes place is jealousy. One thing I found interesting is that they say
that it can take place in sports that are solo sports like figure skating. There are many
ways that it takes place and they do it to get in the head of the other person. It does not
give a specific time that it was written but that does not matter because I dont think time
would change this. It is a credible source because it is peer reviewed and she
Is the managing editor for The Brown University Child. She does not seem to be bias but
she could possibly be because she only talks about one thing. The reason why I say she is
probably not is because there isnt really another side to this story. This supports my
argument because this directly proves that it outside of school. It even affects the lives of
people in the sports they like to participate in.
Romero, Andrea J., Christine Bracamonte Wiggs, Celina Valencia, and Sheri Bauman.
"Latina Teen Suicide and Bullying." Proxy Login - University Libraries - USC. N.p., n.d.
Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
This source talks about how a Latina teen is more likely to have symptoms of depression
and other things related to bullying. I would like to look at another part of this study
where it shows the different types of bullying that has been going on with the teens. It
talks about the percentage of bullying at school versus cyber bullying. It clearly shows a

rise in the cyber bullying side of this. This helps my argument because it means that it is
happening in more places than just at school. This is a credible source because it is a
peer-reviewed paper. The authors do not seem bias to me because they are just telling
facts about the study. This helps me because it shows that cyber bullying is one main
reason for the bad effects on teens. It also shows how bullying is becoming a big
problem because of the great percentage that are thinking about committing suicide.

Shireen, Farhat, Himani Janapana, Sanila Rehmatullah, Hoor Temuri, and Fatima Azim.
"Trauma Experience of Youngsters and Teens: A Key Issue in Suicidal Behavior among
Victims of Bullying?" Eds.b.ebscohost.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
This source was done in 2014 so it is fairly recent it is also one of my peered reviewed
sources, this means that it credible for my research. This talks about research done that
basically sees the connection between bullying and suicides. One of the things they found
is that the risk of suicide attempts are higher in girls other than boys. They have also
shown that the depression and feelings of their being no hope of happiness are drawn
directly from bullying and are linked to suicides. This shows that bullying is a great
problem and needs to be fixed. I do not believe that the authors here are bias because they
are simply talking about scientifically proven things.

Dylan,
It looks like youve compiled some really useful sources that should be informative and
quite instructive. You show a clear sense of interest and investment in this topic. my only
real holistic critique here is that your inquiry doesnt really match up with your thesis,
and Im not sure if your thesis adds up to much more than bullying is bad. Im

wondering if there is a more specific argument to be make within the general discussion
of bullying. Cyberbullying is certainly one and you could ask the question: what role
should schools play in dealing with cyberbullying, since online is generally outside their
jurisdiction? Or something else. BIG tip, mine the works cited page of your most useful
source and see if that leads to other, more specific discussions.