Bullying is a serious matter that occurs all around the world, and to more people than one realizes. In this essay, I am going to discuss the causes of bullying and its potential effects for both victims and bullies.
I will start with the reasons. What causes bullying? The feeling of insecurity is one of the causes that drives a person to bullying their peers. Bridget Green, a journalist for the Journal Postsecondary Education and Disabilities, notes: “The three individuals who identified as cyberbullies were four times more likely to be diagnosed with depression than the participants who have not experienced cyberbullying in any way”. When a person feels insecure, he or she will feel inadequate, or even endangered. The feeling of not being good enough can possibly lead others to being depressed and want to bully people around them. Due to the fact that bullies most of the time feel insecure, they are more likely to want to make others feel insecure as well.
Another cause of bullying is that individuals envy others and project their feelings onto those they have the envious feelings towards. When someone is jealous towards another individual, they are resentful of that person. They most likely feel negative and jealous about an individual because of that person’s looks, popularity, or potential love interests. Most people who turn out to be bullies cannot stand to see the positive things and/or outcomes that occur to others. According to Pepler, Jiang, Craig, and Connolly, children who consistently bully their peers from elementary through high school have peer relationship problems, including high conflict with peers, association with similarly aggressive peers and susceptibility to negative peer pressure. When a person is jealous, he or she will most likely become aggressive and project their insecurities onto others around them, especially those whom they find to be easy targets.
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A person who has been previously bullied may cause that person to bully others. According to Huitsing, Snijders, Van Duijn, and Veenstra, being a victim or a bully will likely affect the way in which one intervenes when witnessing bullying. Due to the fact that someone has been bullied, he/she may want their peers to experience how it feels to be in that position. Instead of helping to prevent bullying, he/she will take part in bullying others to feel as if they are in control. The power they obtain from hurting others is their common goal.
After discussing the causes of bullying, now I want to pay attention to what are its effects. Bullying can negatively effects everyone involved physically and psychologically, including the bully. According to Olweus (2010), bullying can be very harmful and can have negative effects on the victim both short and long term. Many bully victims may experience effects straight away, such as bruises to the body, scratches, cuts and may even cry. Additionally, victims of bullying may also develop an increase or somatic complaints such as headaches, stomach pain, problem with sleep such as trouble sleeping and nightmares, furthermore they tent to avoid going to school due to fear of bullying, which can result in not doing well in school. Not only from skipping school, but for being overwhelmed with negative emotions and lack of concentration, victims may also not do well in physical activities such as sports. Bullying can also lead to psychological effects such as anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, loneliness, increase risk of eating disorders and suicide. Often the psychological and physical damage cause by bulling can continue throughout adulthood and may also have permanent effects. Victims who have stopped being bulling during school might show remaining effects, but much less than victims who have been bullied severely.
Bullies also have similar negative effects to victims. According to NSSC (National School Safety Center), they tend to also not do well in school, which may affect their employment, and they also have a higher risk of criminal conviction.
In conclusion, bullying is an extremely serious issue that must be prevented. No one deserves to be treated with disrespect and humiliation. As an individual would say, treat others with kindness and you will be treated with kindness too.
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