Bullying can result in both physical and emotional damage, but do we all share the same understanding of it?
The general consensus is that bullying is a pernicious form of mistreatment that can lead to significant harm for those targeted. However, there is a lack of agreement on what specific behaviors define bullying.
What is bullying?
A recent poll by the University of Michigan focused on children’s health and surveyed a national sample of adults regarding behaviors that should be classified as bullying and circumstances that would necessitate intervention from school authorities.
The findings revealed that 95 percent of adults believe that schools should act when a student feels threatened regarding their physical safety, yet only 90 percent think that threatening a student’s physical safety equates to bullying.
Eighty-one percent of respondents believe schools should step in when a student experiences humiliation or embarrassment; however, only 62 percent consider this a form of bullying.
When it comes to social isolation, opinions are less uniform among American adults, with only 56 percent believing this issue warrants school intervention, and just 48 percent considering isolation as bullying.
“The primary takeaway from this poll is that adults do not view behaviors across the spectrum of bullying as equivalent,” explains Matthew M. Davis, director of the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health.
Different forms of bullying?
According to Stop a Bully, a national non-profit organization focused on preventing bullying in Canada, there are three categories of bullying: emotional, verbal, and physical. It often arises from imbalanced power dynamics, involves harmful actions—either direct or indirect—and is typically repetitive.
Social exclusion represents a particularly serious form of bullying, as it has been connected to incidents of violence and even suicide.
Stop a Bully’s statistics indicate that exclusion and being left out represented 14 percent of reported bullying cases from September 2011 to April 2012.
Stop a bully
What is particularly troubling about bullying is that, while many oppose it, few individuals are willing to step in to support the victim. Educating students on how to confront bullying is essential for fostering safe and healthy school communities.
Stop a Bully’s “3 R’s to Stop Bullying”:
1. Recognize bullying: Understand what behaviors are considered bullying and take measures to stop it.
2. Refuse to be a bystander: Don’t remain passive when witnessing bullying, and avoid giving it an audience.
3. Report bullying: Inform a parent, friend, teacher, or principal if you are a victim or witness to bullying.
