Myths and Facts About Bullying

A subject atomic number 18a of enormous concern among American ordering, and pargonnts in quiticular, is that of offspring force out. The media ofttimes makes the situation appear as though juvenility strength is on the increase in the United States. However, scientific research shows that youth violence is non truly increasing, hardly that certain environmental situationors make the statistics read as though the violence is increasing. Statistics can be influenced by a number of factors besides veridical increases in violence, such as the cornerstone of secret code tolerance policies in prep atomic number 18s or the reduction of police discretion on police forces.These environmental factors lead to to a greater extent incidents of youth violence being observe by those who measure youth violence, unless dose non actually comprise an actual concrete increase in the violence. However, there is one atomic number 18a of youth violence that has increased al nearwh at oer the past three decades. Although the increase is non drastic, browbeat is a comprise of youth violence that is highly prevalent in all disciplines in North America, and abroad. browbeat is a lesser form of violence in which one or more than savants pick on, verbally or fleshlyly misapply a nonher student who is viewed as a weaker child.This often fritters the form of physical and/or psychological harm (Bastche & Knoff et al. , 1994). Although blusterous is a major caper inwardly the school system, the report is not amply understood and there argon galore(postnominal) circulated myths related to the subject. This paper attempts to highlight several(prenominal) of these myths and clarify the actual facts that do pull through inside the documented literature. Myths intimately the topic of blustering(a) ar widespread and are commonly studyd by the majority of individuals.One of the about common myths can change surface be seen in the above definition of s trong-arm, in that the victims of push around are not always weaker children than are the bullies. One of the myths about cocking relates to the fact that some schools say their do not shake off push around. Sometimes schools with zero tolerance policies in place believe that they confound successfully managed to end bullyrag as a trouble for their students, that it is highly unlikely that this is true (Byrne, 1994).There are m both(prenominal) different ways push around can occur beyond the pickle of teachers and authority figures, as blusterous is often a actually subtle form of violence or harassment, and can be as simple as a glance from one student to other. The only difference between schools with the subject of determent is whether or not they choose to do by with it in an utile manner. Schools that take a proactive approach to the problem of bullying, by educating their students and brooding with it promptly and firmly, are the most likely to have succes s in combating the issue, but no school exit ever fully remove the problem of bullying (Byrne, 1994).Another common myth about bullying relates to how children are encouraged to band with the issue. Nearly everyone can relate to a parent or teacher utter the victim of bullying to patently trim it. Nearly all victims of bullying are told that they should ignore their bully, not give in to them or respond, as all the bully wants is to get a reaction. But bullying should not be ignored. Every student and child has the right to attend school without being harassed or bullied by other students (Hoover et al, 1992).To tell the student to simply ignore the problem is telling them that the problem does not matter, and the other student is within his or her have right to bully. This is not true. Victims of bullies should maintain records of the events and insist that the school deal with the problem goodly by gruelling the bully (Hoover et al, 1992). many another(prenominal) adults believe that bullying really has no damaging private make on children. It is often believed that bullying is a part of life, or a part of growing up and that all children are teased over one topic or another. Thus, the lesson to be learned is how to confrontation it off and continue on with life.Some adults exit say that it builds character, but this is not true. blusterous does have immediate and abundant stipulation detrimental effects on victims. It certainly go away build character, but not the positive time. Victims of bullies often carry the reproach with them for the remainder of their life, and whitethorn become harass of social situations or develop a habit of being submissive to any other person who appears to be sensibly dominant (Craig, 1998). Victims of bullying have even been found to suffer from forms of post traumatic stress disorder, in that they often put across the majority of their school years in fear.The fear of bullying victims can in addition h ave negative impacts on their school performance. Thus, the effects of bullying are utmost from being fleeting or unimportant. Victims of bullying have their psychological injuries reinforced by such myths and untrue so called facts, as they never witness anyone telling them that it is not their fault, that they should not have to put up with bullying, or that the bully is the individual in the wrong. Another related myth is that bullying serves to toughen kids up and make them unsusceptible to future problems as adults, but this is not true at all (Craig, 1998).Myths uprise concerning who the steers and victims of bullying are. Many believe that the bully-victim dichotomy is one that is analogous to the strong-weak dichotomy. This, however is not true. Victims of bullies are often sensitive, caring individuals. piece of music their kindness, intelligence, honesty or creativity may be taken as a form of weakness, in reality they are strong individuals who endure years of abuse at the hands of bullies (Olweus, 1997). The typical victim of a bully is not prone towards violence in the least, making them an well-situated target, but hardly a wimp or weakling.Often this meek inclination towards violence is a resultant role of high levels of personal integrity and values, not a result of being a wimp. If society were make up solely of these so called wimps and weaklings society would be a much make better and safer place to live. Many have viewed bullying as something at attacks individuals who are in essence, the best individuals society has created (Craig, 1998). They are smart, respectful, honest, creative, have high values, morals and integrity, and often have a very strong inwrought sense of fairness or justice.Bullies target these individuals because often they will not shin back due to their own values, but this does not make bullying agreeable or explainable. Other myths concern the blood between bullying and social skills. Many people believe that it is the popular kids with computable social skills that become bullies and pick on the children who do not have dependable social skills or who are psychologically weak. On the contrary, it is bullies who neglect the social skills and who are themselves psychologically weak. Many bullies are in fact unnerved of social situations or of rejection (Olweus, 1997).They set themselves up into social situations where they cannot be rejected because other children are afraid of them. Bullies often also suffer from low self esteem which is one of the reasons they evoke a better sense concerning their own abilities through the harassment of other students. Bullies will often also target individuals whom they envy, either due to their increased social skills or higher intelligence. Unable to articulate the fact that they are envious, or in some cases actually wish to be the victims friend, bullies react with negativity towards these individuals (Rigby & Slee, 1991).Thus it is go past that there are quite a few myths concerning the topic of bullying. bullyraging is a very serious problem that causes long lasting, and sometimes life long hurt to victims (Craig, 1998). Bullying cannot be completely outside from any school system, but effective policies can be put in place for dealing with bullying. Such policies should take the side of the victims and assert to students that bullying, in any form, is not acceptable. Both bullies and victims should be taught effective social skills and skills of communication that allow them to kind through difficulties using words that are not harmful and a lack of violence.Bullies should be dealt with harshly in a manner that informs them that their behaviour is unacceptable, yet at the same time it should not be ignored that bullies themselves are often victims of displace self esteem or may be victims of violence in another part of their life. Above all, the feelings of victims and their experiences should not be disc ounted by adults as parts of life, rites of passage, or wimpy and sensitive. The feelings of victims of bullying are very legitimate and should be dealt with immediately to sustain long term psychological effects (Craig, 1998).References Batsche, G. M & Knoff, H. M. (1994). Bullies and their victims Understanding a pervasive problem in the schools. School psychology Review, 23,165-174. Byrne, B. J. (1994). Bullies and victims in a school panorama with reference to some Dublin schools. The Irish Journal of Psychology, 15, 574-586. Craig, W. M. (1998). The singingship among bullying, victimization, depression, anxiety and incursion in elementary school children. temperament and Individual Differences, 24,123-130. Hoover, J. H. , Oliver, R. & Hazler, R. J. (1992). Bullying Perceptions of adolescent victims in the Midwestern U. S. A. School Psychology International, 13, 5-16. Olweus, D. (1997). Bully/Victim problems at school companionship base and an effective intervention pro gram. The Irish Journal of Psychology, 18, 170-190. Rigby, K. & Slee, p>T. (1991). Dimensions of interpersonal relation among Australian children and implications for psychological well-being. The Journal of tender Psychology, 133, 33-42. Online Sources Bullying by Mobile skirt and Abusive Text Messaging babe Bullying, http//bullyonline. org/schoolbully/mobile. htm Terrorism Starts in the Playground http//www. bullyonline. org/schoolbully/terror. htm