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Introduction
The problem of school bullying has been addressed on different levels, including political, economic, cultural, juridical, educational, and many others. The causes of bullying vary, but they lead to severe issues that can remain unresolved for years. Bullying is aggressive behavior that can be seen in different children, teenagers, and adults, and it is able to lead to problems with mental and physical health, social life, and the ability to work. In this paper, the causes of bullying and the effects of it will be presented and discussed.
What Is Bullying?
To understand the causes behind bullying, a precise definition of it needs to be presented. According to deLara, bullying can range from psychological intimidation (e.g. sexual gestures) to verbal abuse (e.g. name-calling) to physical abuse (e.g. kicking) to life-threatening violence (weapon threat) (2). Bullying is double-sided, as it can be used both as a psychological attack and as a defense. It is also important to notice that bullying is always unwanted and is able to cause lasting problems both for the bully and the bullied. In schools, students can also practice the so-called social bullying, when they leave one of the students out, spread rumors about that student, or persuade others not to befriend this person or to ignore them together (deLara 2). Nevertheless, deLara also stresses that bullying can have different definitions, depending on the individuals experience (4). Moreover, a bully and a victim can also be the same person (deLara 4). The author also criticizes the definition given by the US Department of Education that excludes siblings and dating partners from the definition; as the author states, siblings and dating partners can bully each other too (deLara 6). Therefore, bullying can affect anyone.
There are different reasons why people decide to bully somebody; among others, psychological traumas, specific cultural and societal factors, or complicated relationships with and aggressive behavior of parents are more likely to influence the persons decision to bully somebody (deLara 17). A person is more likely to be bullied if they are different, e.g. they are of a different race, gender, sexuality, have disabilities, problems with health, etc. Moreover, the possible effects of bullying, including traumas and even a PTSD syndrome, are rarely discussed by the public (deLara 5). These effects can vary and severely complicate adult life.
How Bullying Affects the Adult Life
Elfen deLara points out that adults who have been bullied in childhood can both seek revenge or try to become people-pleasing to avoid harassment. Other studies stress that there is a high probability for a school bully to become more violent is their adult life (Ttofi et al. 409). Moreover, the findings of the study also indicated that the younger the children are when they exhibit this form of problem behavior, the more likely it is that they will be violent later in life (Ttofi et al. 409). The relation between victimization and violence was also established: if a person was a victim of bullying, the chances of becoming violent in later life increased by approx. One-third (Ttofi et al. 415). As can be seen, bullying is harmful both to the bully and to their victim. DeLara also states that people might experience trust issues in their adult relationships, including those with friends and intimate partners. Bullying can also lead to domestic violence (deLara 21).
People who have been bullied can also make different decisions about their health and employment due to the events that they experienced (deLara 22). Although bullying is often perceived as a phenomenon typical for schools, it can traverse into the working process, interfering with the adults duties and tasks. Another study that addressed the impact of bullying on adults at age 25 to 50 demonstrated that those who have sometimes or frequently been bullied had higher levels of psychological distress at age 23 and also at age 50, almost 40 years after exposure (Takizawa et al. 3). Therefore, the effects of bullying can be extremely long-lasting and affect the physical and mental health of the victims. Bullying victimization sometimes leads to social isolation, and the victims might have lower education levels, are more likely to be unemployed, seldom meet with the friends, and are less likely to have access to social support (Takizawa et al. 3).
Conclusion
Although bullying is often perceived as a period in childs life that is forgotten after graduation, it has a moderate or severe impact on the persons adult life, physical and mental health, ability to build relationships, work efficiently, and enjoy life. Bullies are more likely to become more violent in their adult life, while victims can have mental health disorders and avoid social life due to their childhood experience.
Annotated Bibliography
Delara, Ellen W. Bullying Scars: The Impact on Adult Life and Relationships. Oxford University Press, 2016.
The author decided to base the book on her previous research that included 800 adults. Using focus groups, individual interviews, and questionnaires the author gathered information about people who had bullied or been bullied and explained the impact of it on the later adult life. The author also presented a new definition, adult post-bullying syndrome , that addresses problems with relationships and self-esteem these adults might experience. She also discusses why some persons are more likely to be bullied than the others, how people respond to bullying, and how it reflects their relationships.
The source gives the reader a profound overview of adverse impacts of bullying, stressing how difficult or traumatizing this experience can remain for those who were bullied even decades ago. What is more, this book is based on individual stories and interviews that often provide extremely uncommon stories behind bullying. Unlike qualitative studies, this book gives the reader an insight into the victims and bullies life, thus creating a more intimate picture than qualitative researches do. Moreover, researches usually focus on the impact of bullying on adolescents, ignoring the adult perspective.
I used this source to provide a clear definition of bullying and stress the variety of ways how bullying is interfering with the life of the adults. It was also useful for me to understand how adults perceive and reflect this experience several years after it.
Takizawa, Ryu, Barbara Maughan, and Louise Arseneault. Adult Health Outcomes of Childhood Bullying Victimization: Evidence From a Five-Decade Longitudinal British Birth Cohort. American Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 171, no. 7, 2014, pp. 1-8.
The study focused on 7,771 participants whose parents reported that the child had been bullied in their childhood, and who took part in the follow-up assessments. The authors measured the levels of stress, the signs of depression, anxiety disorders, suicidal behavior and/or thoughts, and general health of the participants. The findings have shown that those participants who had been bullied had increased levels of distress and higher rates of depression and/or anxiety disorders.
The sources credibility is solid as it was published in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. Moreover, the study conducted in the research had a big sample size; therefore, it can be assumed that the findings can be applied to non-participants as well. The discussion of the results is profound and provides valuable data to the reader.
I chose this source because of its high relativity to my essay and the sample size that is usually smaller and provides less credible results. It gives detailed information about the connection between bullying and mental/physical health disorders and presents the long-lasting effects of bullying.
Ttofi, Maria M., David P. Farrington, and Friedrich Lösel. School Bullying as a Predictor of Violence Later in Life: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prospective Longitudinal Studies. Aggression and Violent Behavior, vol. 17, no. 5, 2012, pp. 405-418.
This study addresses the probability of violent behavior in those persons who had bullied or been bullied in childhood and school. As the authors state, previous reviews did not calculate an unbiased standardized effect size on the relation between bullying and aggression in the later life. Each of the findings presented by the authors is provided with a detailed bias analysis that demonstrates no evidence of bias.
This source provides a complicated and detailed research on the connection of violence and bullying. It is also valuable because it excludes any possibility of research bias. It is based on a significant number of other researches and studies that support the methods and the research analysis that the authors used. The link between bullying and violence in adult life is, therefore, clear and undoubtful.
This source provides various meta-analyses of tens of studies that address bullying and violence in adults. I used this source to understand whether bullies and victims are indeed capable of becoming more violent or they are not as affected by this experience as one might expect. This study has shown that the link between bullying and violence is strong in bullies and moderate in victims, which was useful for my research on the topic.
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