The article is devoted to the causes of bullying among children and adolescents. At first glance, bullying is a particular phenomenon in psychology. However, this term originated initially in the process of studying adult collectives. Bullying develops in almost any closed community — be it an army unit or an elite college — and the fact that children regularly encounter bullying at school is an example of the prevalence of the phenomenon. There is direct harassment when a child is beaten, called names, teased, his things are ruined, or money is taken away, and indirect — the spread of rumors and gossip, boycotting, avoidance, manipulation of friendship. Direct bullying occurs mainly in elementary school, and the peaks of indirect bullying occur during the transitions to middle and high school. There are such roles as victim, stalker, and witness.
The roles of the participants in the bullying situation are not rigidly fixed and can change from situation to situation, from the society in which they manifest themselves. Since bullying, participants often have characteristic personal and behavioral traits and have several associated social risks. Modern research by psychologists and sociologists suggests that school bullying is a problem whose scale is poorly understood by society. The number of victims of bullying is increasing every year. Bullying is a rather difficult topic to study because it is ambiguous.
On the one hand, almost every person got into a situation of harassment at one time or another. On the other hand, this phenomenon is associated with controversial experiences of fear, despair, helplessness, and hatred, too personal and little discussed in society. The high risk of bullying is manifested precisely in adolescence. This period in a person’s life is characterized by the restructuring of the whole organism and the internal psychological state. Teenagers often develop anxiety, irritability, and aggression. This is because the teenager idealizes everything and diligently strives to surpass everyone and in everything. At the same time, they have not yet learned to lose and perceive every failure very acutely and painfully. Because of this, the above-mentioned negative emotions arise.
The development of bullying is facilitated by an upbringing in the family, attitudes instilled from childhood, and the microclimate of the educational institution. At the same time, the main factor and the living environment of the origin of bullying is still a teenage collective, often limited to the class framework. A child’s relationship with peers is the most meaningful part of adolescence. A teenager strives to take a favorable position for himself in a peer group. Therefore, he fully accepts its rules and norms and obeys the principle of behavior that has been established in the team (Deng & Zhang, 2021). This becomes dangerous when the peer community is inherently negative. The desire for self-expression contributes to the emergence of interpersonal conflicts. Communication with peers comes to the fore, pushing aside teaching and family communication. At the same time, any problems in interpersonal communication with peers are perceived as very hard, cause strong emotions, and are regarded as personal dramas.
Thus, bullying is a phenomenon that can affect everyone. It is becoming more widespread due to the emergence of new technologies and patterns of behavior in society. The manifestation of bullying is necessary for the early stages, as this can negatively impact all its participants. The influence of violence on personality is especially great in adolescence. The impact of any violence, direct or indirect, leaves an imprint on a person’s perception of the world picture. Having mastered a certain model of behavior, for example, the behavior of a “victim”, a teenager can follow them for the rest of his life. At the same time, the bullying situation has devastating consequences for both the victim and her abuser because often, the latter takes the path of crime and antisocial behavior.
Work Cited
Deng, N., Bi, H., & Zhang, W. (2021). Bystander behavior of adolescents in school bullying: A family functioning perspective. Social Behavior and Personality: An international journal, 49(8), e10208.