Introduction
Bullying is usually associated with aggression and abuse of power. It can occur regardless of social status or income; however, there is a direct connection between bullying incidents and poor parenting. A significant number of these incidents occur within educational establishments. Bullying takes many forms, such as physical, verbal, relational aggression, cyberbullying, and prejudicial harassment. A properly chosen parenting style, either authoritative, or permissive, or uninvolved, or authoritarian, can produce effective defensive tools for children to stay protected against bullying. Parents should educate their children to create their own safe environment for healthy development, both physical and mental, guaranteeing the absence of abusive behavior or victimization. Using recent studies and opinions, this paper aims at proving that there is a relationship between parenting styles and bullying with both direct and indirect impacts.
The Concept of Bullying
Bullying is an essential concern for society and education establishments. Every fifth student is being bullied at school, and every third student experienced cyberbullying (Bullying Statistics, 2020). The consequences of this problem can be psychological and physiological (Rajendran et al., 2016). They may also be immediate, like an injury, or revealed several years later. Bullying triggers a feeling of insecurity in children, when they develop a distrust of people, including the family, and depression caused by isolation from society (Moore et al., 2017). Some physical consequences of bullying, such as bruises, traumas, and pain, are usually noticed at once (Rajendran et al., 2016). At the same time, parents are responsible for psychological control, and the identification of psychological effects, such as stress, headache, and insomnia, that happen later, cannot be ignored (Kuppens & Ceulemans, 2019). These outcomes include depression, anxiety, self-harming, aggression, and victimization and are characterized by a significant negative impact on the quality of life (Moore et al., 2017). The connection between bullying and parenting is a critical issue that influences a child’s future social life, provokes multiple emotions, and determines socializing abilities that are revealed with time.
Parenting Styles
The choice of an appropriate parenting style usually contributes to the child’s mental and physical self-defense and behaviors. Parents perform role models, and it is crucial for them to demonstrate the best examples for their children (Njagi et al., 2018). However, the styles parents choose to cooperate with their children depend on a variety of factors, including available resources, emotional well-being in a family, or the influence of other illnesses or disorders (Rajendran et al., 2016). Within the frames of this research, four main types of parenting styles have to be identified: authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and uninvolved.
There is a relationship between different parenting styles and associated bullying, which means that even the most professional approaches could cause problems and support bullying behaviors. For example, an authoritarian style is based on the intention of parents to control and assess children as per an absolute set of standards, with high demandingness and low responsiveness (Gómez-Ortiz et al., 2016; Kuppens & Ceulemans, 2019). As a result, children are raised weak, with limited powers, and observe violence regularly, which rouses bullying (Wernert, 2016). Permissive parents demonstrate their love, warmth, and desire to become children’s best friends (Kuppens & Ceulemans, 2019). Wernert (2016) explains bullying possibility in this case as an outcome of the lack of respect, rules, and control when children are allowed to do everything they want. An uninvolved parenting style means that parents do not want to control their children, as well as do not find it necessary to share their love and warmth (Kuppens & Ceulemans, 2019). Children of such parents know nothing about self-worth and care, which makes them easy targets for bullying at schools or other establishments.
There is also an authoritative style of parenting that becomes a frequent topic for modern evaluations. Wernert (2016) calls it an ideal style that is hardly associated with bullying because children are raised in a democratic fashion and receive enough attention and love to set priorities. Kuppens and Ceulemans (2019) discover that the authoritative style is the one with the most favored outcomes. According to Rajendran et al. (2016), such parents offer support to their children’s autonomy. Children learn how to behave, solve problems, and establish fair relationships with different people under various conditions.
Bullying and Parenting
Sometimes, it is hard for parents to understand what style they prefer in the development of their relationships with children. However, Nocentini et al. (2019) underline that people who grow up in healthy family environments are bullied less often. This is related to the appropriate parenting philosophies, ethical values, and personal life experiences that are shared with the purpose of demonstrating appropriate lessons. When children experience bullying inside the family (when one or both parents show inappropriate action with abusive behavior), the chances to suffer from bullying in other establishments raise (Rajendran et al., 2016). Therefore, one should remember that parenting could cause extreme deterioration and affect physical and mental development in the future.
Bullying, Parenting, and the Modern Environment
In modern society, bullying is no longer a problem of educational facilities only. It also extends to every aspect of life, and the role of parents in controlling bullying triggers and outcomes cannot be neglected. Bullying exists in various forms today, including physical bullying, verbal bullying, relational aggression, cyberbullying, and prejudicial bullying (Rajendran et al., 2016). Physical bullying may be demonstrated by parents (kicking, beating, or slapping) and shape the future behaviors of children (Rajendran et al., 2016). Verbal bullying, when parents use verbal insults or threats to punish or control a child, increases the child’s vulnerability to humiliation and offense at other places (Rajendran et al., 2016). Relational aggression is negatively affecting other people’s relationships by manipulating them, and parents (especially divorced and remarried) find it normal to manipulate children for their own benefits (Rajendran et al., 2016). Cyberbullying is another outcome of poor parenting because of the impossibility of controlling the impact of social media (Rajendran et al., 2016). Finally, prejudicial bullying considers racial, cultural, or gender stereotypes as a reason for bullying. It usually occurs in traditional and deeply religious communities.
Effective Parental Styles for Protecting Children
Appropriate parenting is the key to children’s healthy development and prevents them from being bullied. It is essential to communicate with them so that children can learn how to detect the problem and solve it without any interference from the family (Nocentini et al., 2019). Parents also must remember that even overprotection can result in more bullying. The most effective way to teach kids how to resist bullies is a parental example in different social situations. If parents are bullied by other people, there is a higher chance that their children would be bullied as well. Therefore, the most appropriate parenting style would be teaching in a natural environment. Parental interventions, such as nurturing, discipline, teaching, monitoring, managing, should be implemented appropriately and only if necessary, to establish trust between parents and children (Rajendran et al., 2016). Too strict or too lenient parental styles must be controlled to avoid the production of oppressors and oppresses. Unequal application of these styles has the potential to harm the parent-child connection (Nocentini et al., 2019). Therefore, it is crucial to teach and monitor children but let them have some freedom.
Conclusion
The issue of childhood bullying and its direct connection to the parenting style creates many discussions and provokes new positions and attitudes. Parents should teach their children how to identify and avoid bullies with minimum damage, but most importantly, they must appropriately show the example that produces favored results. There are several types of parents in modern society, including authoritative, permissive, uninvolved, and authoritarian, and each of them has its benefits and impact on bullying behaviors. It is essential to develop trustful relationships in a family so children can rely on their parents’ help and understanding of bullying. Parents, in their turn, must ensure their children’s ability to deal with bullying if it happens to them, which proves the connection between chosen concepts.
References
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