Bullying and its Psychological Aftermaths on Teenagers
Research Paper: Bullying and its Psychological Aftermaths on
TeenagersApril 21, 2010
Introduction
Teenage is a crucial stage - being the transformational period
of ones life. During this period teenagers go through changing
physical, psychological and social processes. Among the major
factors contributing towards the development of a teenager,
psychological infra- structure plays an important role. And this
very mental development of teenagers is considered to be very
delicate. It can be affected vigorously due to societal, personal
or family factors.A person is being bullied when he/she is exposed,
repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or
more other persons. Negative action is when a person intentionally
inflicts injury or discomfort upon another person, through physical
contact, through words or in other ways. The actions that fall
under bullying are : Saying hurtful and unpleasant things , making
fun of others ,using mean and hurtful nicknames ,completely
overlooking someone, deliberately excluding someone from a group of
friends, hitting, kicking, pulling hair, pushing or shutting a
person inside ,telling intentional lies to dominate, spreading
false rumors ,sending mean notes ,trying to get other students to
dislike another person and many more. (Olweus, 1993, p.42).Bullying
is one of the most common destructive social practices experienced
by both children and adults. There is a growing body of research
which indicates that individuals, whether child or adult who are
persistently subjected to abusive behavior are at risk of stress
related illness which can sometimes lead to suicide.Furthermore
passive bystanders in any bullying situation also risk suffering
from anxiety that is brought on by the shame and guilt so often
felt at not being able to intervene or defend a victim. By not
challenging bullying behavior valuable opportunities are lost in
shaping society's needs for respect for each person's dignity. To
prevent and counter bullying effectively there needs to be an
understanding of bullying that is based on scientific
evidence.(Moore, n.d.)Sometimes the psychological impact created by
negative mental pressure can be lethal to the development of a
sound mental health of the teens. Research shows a large of
teenagers cannot adjust to the changes occurring puberty stage or
adapt with the process comfortably. And so, during this time
bracket, teens often become introvert and very suppressive. If any
incidence disrupts the normal balance during this very delicate
period of life , then that effect quantifies itself- creating a
deep impact on a teen mind. These kinds of negative impacts in turn
highly affect mental strength and confidence level. More often, one
of the most prominent reasons affecting the psychological balance
is found to be Bullying. Bullying, i.e. repeated use of aggression
by one or more people against another person or group, results in
multifarious psychological consequences changing the nodes of their
future life.
Background
According to definition, Bullying is - "exposed, repeated
harassment over time, to negative actions on the part of one or
more other persons." Bullying is a common occurrence that most of
the teenagers face, the consequences sometimes affecting in a
higher degree. Aftermath of bullying can be severe. Bullying is the
act of intentionally causing harm to others, through verbal
harassment, physical assault, or other aggressive or subtle methods
of coercion.
Bullying often describes a form of harassment perpetrated by an
abuser who possesses more physical and/or social power and
dominance than the victim. The harassment can be verbal, physical
and/or emotional. Bullying can occur in any setting where human
beings interact with each other. This includes school, home
neighborhoods etc. Bullying is deeply rooted with discrimination
and can exist between social groups, social classes and even
between countries.
According to the article, Student Reports On Bullying (2001),
bullying can be broken into two categories -Direct bullying, and
indirect bullying (also known as social aggression). Direct
bullying involves a great deal of physical aggression such as
shoving and poking, throwing things, slapping, choking, punching
and kicking, beating and other forms of social aggression. Indirect
bullying is characterized by threatening the victim into social
isolation. This isolation is achieved through a wide variety of
techniques, including spreading gossip, refusing to socialize with
the victim, bullying other people who wish to socialize with the
victim, and criticizing .Other forms of indirect bullying can be
more subtle and more likely to be verbal, such as name calling,
silent treatment, arguing others into submission, manipulation,
gossip/ false gossip, lies, rumors/ false rumors, staring,
giggling, laughing at the victim, saying certain words that trigger
a reaction from a past event, and mocking. (p. 15)Psychological
research suggests that passive victims of bullying are anxious and
insecure (Olweus 1999;Wilton, Craig, and Pepler 2000; and Dodge et
al. 1990). Passive victims often react to provocation by crying,
withdrawing, or becoming quiet. This signals that they will not
react or retaliate if they are attacked or insulted. Another type
of victim, the provocative victim, is characterized by both anxious
and aggressive reaction patterns (Olweus ,1999). Provocative
victims are likely to counter attack and have difficulty relating
emotionally, whereas passive victims often avoid and acquiesce to
their attackers (Wilton, Craig, and Pepler 2000). In fact, some
research has shown that socially rejected boys are more likely to
follow an act of aggression with another act of aggression than are
boys who did not experience social rejection (Dodge et al. 1990).
Students who are victims of different types of bullying at school
more often experience or engage in a variety of behaviors different
from those of students not bullied. These behaviors include fear of
attack; avoidance behaviors such as truancy from school; skipping
classes, or not participating in extra-curricular activities;
weapon carrying; involvement in physical fights; and varied
academic performance. Fear is one by-product of threats and
violence, and those students who are bullied at school may be
afraid to attend school (Ericson ,2001)
Common reactions of bullying include loneliness, depression,
anxiety, self-esteem ,increased susceptibility to illness etc. To
illustrate, bullying in most cases refers to abusing a person
verbally in publicly, insulting remarks etc. These in turn triggers
reactions of fear or dominance ,which chases the victim in
prolonged future life. Thus the seed of negativity is planted in a
teen mind that spreads it branches furthermore with his age.
Sometimes a promising child turns into a depressive loner, moving
away from the positive aspects of life. The primary step to ensure
a childs healthy mental growth is to draw a cease to any and every
kind of bullying. If conscious awareness can be generated among the
reference groups of a teenager, including the teenager himself then
the combined effort of all these can help stop teenage
bullying.Research QuestionsThe questions on which the survey is
based are aimed to find out the vitality of hypothesis. The focus
is to find out the aftermath of bullying in a teenagers life,
particularly the psychological aftermath, reflecting the types of
mental damage that can occur due to bullying, how it affects the
teenager and ways to combat the ill-practice. The research
questions are mainly targeted to the teenagers as they are the
subject concerned in this research paper. The major areas of
research on which the research questionnaires are based are :
Knowledge about teenage bullying, effects (psychological) of
teenage bullying, intensity of the after-effects, duration of the
impacts and finally the prevention of teenage bullying.
For the investigation purpose of this study, I addressed the
following research questions:
1. Do you know about teenage bullying?
2. Do you think it affects psychological health of
teenagers?
3. What do you think are the major reasons behind such frequency
of bullying?
4. Do you think bullying leaves severe impact?
5. What do you think is the most severe psychological impact of
bullying?
6. How long do you think the effect persists?
7. What according to you is the best way of prevention?
The research questions helped me to design my survey
questionnaire and in turn helped me to analyze my hypothesis with
the answers received. The questions were placed and presented in
such a way that it made the respondents think about the subject
matter and thus trigger an intention in them to know about it
furthermore.HypothesisFrom my personal perspective, I think
bullying creates mammoth effects in teenagers mind. I want to
explore the after- effects of bullying (mainly psychological) to
identify them at early stage and take necessary steps to lessen the
intensity of probable damage.
I expected that teenagers will be able to clearly identify the
negative effects of bullying and themselves seek counseling to
cease their mental sufferings.I also expected that bullies continue
their behavior because they are not aware of the long term impact
of their actions on themselves as well as others.Finally, I think
that most people dislike bullying and are prepared to step forward
to stop bullying.
Research MethodologyFor my primary research I made a
questionnaire having 10 questions. I designed the questionnaire
covering all the major areas vital to the objective of my research
findings. For each question only one answer was accepted. Depending
on the questions the options varied. Some of them had six options
and some of them had two. The survey was conducted among 40 people
in total. All of them were teenagers as they were the major subject
of my research. Most of my surveyors were students from schools
& colleges. Students from Sunbeams, BIT, Sunnydale, Govt. Lab
High School, Notredame College, City College, ESS, Mastermind etc
participated in my survey. The information I collected from the
students and teachers were not enough so I had to visit some of the
websites that dealt with these issues. The websites also helped me
with some important information that I needed to have for a
standard questionnaire. For a more detailed primary research, I
took interviews of teachers, pediatrics and teenagers themselves to
gain a focused understanding about their perspective on the subject
matter.
For my secondary research, I used North South University library
resources, Public library resources, resources from The British
Council. From the web, I used online teen health journals and
magazines, potential web-sites on the subject matter, search
engines like Google, reference based websites like Wikipedia,
Scribd etc.Data RepresentationI have conducted the survey to
analyze the effects on bullying on teenage mind. The survey was
conducted on 30 teenagers with questions aimed to bring out the
impacts, duration and aftermath of bullying. The results are
interpreted below:Knowledge about teenage bullying
Explanation and analysis:Knowledge about teenage bullying is
expressed through the pie chart above. The pie-chart demonstrates
that majority (56%) of the respondents didnt know about teenage
bullying in-depth. On an average, 30% knew about teenage bullying
fully. A minority of 14% didnt know about it at all.It is
noticeable that on average, the teenagers although are very much
acquainted with the term Bullying, most of them are not aware of
its factual meaning. They only have a vague idea about the concept.
I think this is one of the major reasons of bullying - absence of
ample knowledge about it. This very ignorance about the subject
matter could be a cause leading to the increasing frequency of
bullying.Relating the result to my hypothesis, the fact can
therefore be established that knowledge about bullying is vital as
in most cases ignorance leads to profuse negative action.Knowledge
about effects of teenage bullying
Explanation & analysis:The bar chart depicts the knowledge
about the effect of bullying. In the bar chart above, the
psychological impacts are represented in vertical axis and the
percentage conforming to the options are represented in the
horizontal axis. From the bar-chart display it can be said that a
significant portion (70%) of the survey sample thinks bullying may
or may not affect psychological balance. Equal portions of
surveyors (18%) agreed that bullying surely affects psychological
health, while (12%) said that bullying doesnt affect psychological
health at all.The striking feature is that most of the teenagers
are not even aware that it leaves a psychological impact. They
vaguely think it might or might not. If the bullies dont realize it
leaves a major impact in the first place, then it might be said
that they does it out of mere fun and not actively to cause a
negative impact trailing behind. Intensity of impact created by
Bullying
Explanation & analysis:In the chart above, the intensity of
impact is represented in the horizontal axis and the percentage of
surveyors conforming to the respective options is shows in the
vertical axis. The graph presents the intensity of impact created
by bullying. As the graph illustrates, maximum (55%) respondents
believe bullying leaves major psychological impact. 37.5% of them
expressed that bullying leaves a little effect. On the other hand,
an insignificant portion of 7.5% stated that bullying doesnt leave
an effect at all. The average notion about the intensity of impacts
is that bullying might affect a little bit.Analyzing the graph, it
can be projected that majority of the respondents unanimously agree
on the fact bullying leaves a psychological impact- no matter of
what degree. The intensity or degree might vary subject to certain
conditions or parameters, but its presence cant be disagreed upon
.Hence its certain that the degree might vary, but the existence of
the impact of bullying cant be denied. Thus, this leads
successfully to my hypothesis confirming the existence and
intensity of the effect in a parallel way.Major psychological
impacts created by bullying
Explanation and analysis:The fragmented pie chart represents the
most severe psychological impact of bullying. Commonly occurring
probable psychological impacts are displayed in fragments of the
pie chart. The graph reveals a mixed result. A vital portion (30%)
indicates that the major psychological impact is that it severely
affects the psychological health of teenagers. Another important
fraction of the survey believes that bullying makes a teenager
helpless. Equal percentage of respondents (17.5%) expressed that
bullying initiates low esteem and it destroys confidence level.
Considerably minimum portion of the sample surveyors expressed that
bullying makes the teenager introvert and depressed.Hence from the
graphical illustration we can clearly conclude that there are
multifarious psychological effects of bullying. The spans of the
effects are quite random and large in number. Most commonly
occurring psychological impacts are listed hereby, there could be a
lot more other effects but they vary to a large extent and so they
have not been incorporated with the options above. However it is
for certain from the survey result that bullying leaves negative
psychological effect that in turn affects mental health of
teenagers.Span of effect
Explanation & Analysis: The doughnut-chart demonstrates the
span of duration of the effects created by Bullying. Majority (90%)
of the respondents expressed that Bullying leaves its effects in
present and future life.A trivial (10%) respondents think Bullying
has its effect in future life only.As I have referred in my
hypothesis, Bullying imprints its effects for a considerable amount
of duration to a certain extent. The span of duration is sometimes
the present teenage life only, sometimes its a proportionate
mixture of present and future life, and at other times its only
future life. However, most of the times, as survey results depict
the effects chase present and future life.
Main reason for bullying
Explanation & Analysis: The bar chart above represents the
main reasons for bullying as identified by the target respondents.
67% of the respondents felt that the main reason for bullying is to
have fun. 20% responded that it made the bullys feel powerful,
while 13% said that it is because everyone does it.From the above
results, we can infer that most teenagers engaged in bullying do it
because it for a good laugh. This means that if bullies are made
aware of the consequences of their actions, maybe they will stop
victimizing others. The 20% who said that it made the bully feel
powerful are probably the ones who cannot be changed through
awareness and counseling. This is because this group believes that
bullying is an expression of dominance. If they knew the long term
effects of bullying on the victim, they would probably take it as
positive reinforcement- the results of their work.Preventing a
bully
Explanation and analysis: The pyramid chart demonstrates and
classifies surveyors clustered in groups according to their
intention or effort in preventing a bully. In the horizontal axis,
the actions taken in terms of prevention are represented while the
conforming percentage is expressed in the vertical axis. The graph
represents prevention of a bully.As the chart depicts, crucial
portion (75%) of the respondents wanted to stop a bully but didnt.
Whilst a significant potion expressed (12.5%) that they always
stopped bully. Another lesser fraction (10%) indicates that they
tried to stop bully. An insignificant number (2.5%) of surveyors
expressed that they never tried to stop a bully.
From the graph, we therefore can analyze that the intention of
prevention was very much prevalent among the surveyors. For some
reason, maybe they could prevent completely but at least tried to.
The reason could be the fear of being bullied in turn. This
contradicts my hypothesis that most people want to stop
bullies.Best way of prevention
Explanation & Analysis:The cylindrical chart demonstrates
the preventive measures that can be taken to stop a bully. The
horizontal axis represents the preventive measures and vertical
axis represents the percentage.As the graph depicts, a significant
potion of the sample population (35%) agreed that the knowledge
about the effects of bullying is the major preventive measure that
can cease a bully. Another important fraction (28%) revealed that
moral teaching by parent could be a probable solution. A
non-negligible portion (25%) expressed that academic counseling
could be a help. 8% of the respondents concluded that academic code
against rules and regulation can help stop a bully. A trivial
potion (5%) indicated that strict punishment could be vital
preventive measure. None of the survey respondents had anything
else to say.A conclusion can be drawn by saying that preventive
measures of bullying vary from person to person. But since the
arena of bullying are commonly academic institutions, so academic
counseling or codes against it can therefore help cease bullying in
a more effective way.Summary of Survey FindingsFindings of the
survey reflects that majority of the target population know vaguely
about teenage bullying. Although they are merely acquainted with
the term, they do not have complete comprehensive knowledge
regarding the subject matter. The survey result also predicts thats
majority of the people believe that bullying leaves a psychological
impact, that tends mostly to be negative. Therefore it can be said
that most of them believes that bullying leaves prominent effects
on psychological health of teenagers. The major reason identified
through the survey, about bullying is the lack of knowledge
regarding the negative after effects of bullying. Most people are
not even aware that bullying can actually hamper so much and thus
bullying continues in an increasing rate. From the survey results,
I have also identified that the most common psychological impact
that bullying leaves is that it severely hampers social
interactions of teenagers specially victims. Other psychological
effects are however also present, however majority of people tend
to believe this is the most commonly occurring effect generated by
bullying. Regarding the prevention issue, based on the survey
results, it can clearly be said that a considerable number of
people have at least tried to stop a bully. Most of the time, maybe
they could not take actual proper actions because of the fear of
being bullied back in return, but however at least the intention to
stop a bully was very much prevalent. Another major finding of the
survey is regarding the time span of the after-effects. According
to the survey, most people agreed to the fact that bullying
however, generates and leaves effects for a considerable long
period of time, it doesnt leave only a temporary after effect.
Finally, as per survey results, the conclusion can be drawn on the
best way of prevention of bullying. The survey results indicate
that most people think that providing knowledge about the adverse
effects of bullying is the most probable solution of
prevention.InterviewsFor the purpose of my research, I interviewed
a teenager (Sameer) who has faced bullying since the age of ten.
Now, at fourteen, he still faces the same problems as he faced
before, probably more. One of my main objectives was to determine
what other peoples reactions were when and after he was bullied.
The other was to determine his feeling as a bully victim. What I
found out was that one of the reasons that he was picked on was
because the bully wanted attention. Initially when he was bullied,
a lot of his classmates laughed at the bullys (whose name I will
not include) jibes. Sameer said that right after he started getting
bullied, first his classmates started to avoid him and then his
school friends. He reasoned that if his friends stuck by him,
pretty soon, they would also start getting picked on. His grades
dropping steadily since, and although he attends all our
get-togethers, he always seems a bit distant.
My other interview was with Dr. Firooz, who is a very prominent
psychiatrist. The interview was brief but he helped me draw
conclusions upon certain matters that did not appear apparent in
the survey. He said that the reason bully victims try to conform to
the roles appointed to them by the bullies is because the victims
themselves want belong to a particular group even if it means
giving in to the bully. They think that if they play their roles,
then the bullys will leave them alone or atleast be less abusive.
Lastly he said that in time, the bully victims tend to believe that
they are what they are accused of being. This is because the
victims, because of their lack of knowledge and experience, believe
what is said to them.
RecommendationAfter conducting the survey, I have identified
that the major reason initiating bullying in the first place is
ignorance regarding the subject matter and its probable effects. I
think that if proper knowledge regarding the bullying and its
negative aftermath can be successfully delivered to teenagers and
their reference groups, then bullying can be stopped or at least
the intensity of the negative psychological effects can be
minimized to a considerable extent. According to Dr. Firooz, a
psychiatrist by profession, teenage health is controlled by the
sustenance of balanced mental structure. He recommends that any
kind of mental trauma of teenagers should be addressed by parents
or teachers or by medical specialists if needed and be given proper
counseling. Counseling is known to have positive outcome and aids
active recovery from mental stress.(Firooz, A.H.M. April 5,2010,
personal communication) Personally speaking, I would recommend that
teenagers themselves should be given ample knowledge regarding the
subject matters so that they themselves refrain from it. Academic
codes or student counseling can actually ensure that students
refrain from this action. Also, the bullies should be discouraged
by everyone, they should be cornered and in some cases strict
punishments should also be taken to ensure they dont repeat the
action. Finally, I think active support of academic institution,
peers, friends, family combined can fight bullying and its negative
effects in an efficient way.ConclusionThe research topic was aimed
to explore if bullying actually left any psychological impact, and
even if it did then to what extent. The survey results clearly
states that my hypothesis was correct. Bullying does leave major
negative effects that can case back even for a prolonged period of
time in future life. Also during the course of time of carrying out
the survey, many respondents thought about bullying twice and the
question did trigger a conscience. I chose this research topic
because being a bully victim myself, I am well aware of its
negative impacts. And thus through doing this paper, I performed a
complete research on the subject matter and the results do indicate
I was right in my assumption.Bullying is such an activity which may
not be rooted out completely from everywhere. There is no denial of
the fact that it leaves mammoth negative psychological effects
affecting present and future life of teenagers. Teenage is indeed a
crucial stage of ones life, the base of personality, ethics,
beliefs, future goals are all formed during the stage. And so, it
is everyones duty to ensure that teenagers can live an active
teenage life without negative interruptions like bullying that
upsets their life. Therefore, we all should at least try to lessen
the impacts of bullying and the action of bullying itself, to help
teenagers live an enjoyable, robust teen life at full throttle.
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