What is Bullying?

Bullying is repeated verbal, physical, social or psychological aggressive behavior by a person or group directed towards a less powerful person or group that is intended to cause harm, distress or fear.

Types of bullying behavior

There are some specific types of bullying behavior:

• verbal or written abuse - such as targeted name-calling or jokes, or displaying offensive posters
• violence - including threats of violence
• sexual harassment - unwelcome or un reciprocated conduct of a sexual nature, which could reasonably be expected to cause offence, humiliation or intimidation
• homophobia and other hostile behavior towards students relating to gender and sexuality
• discrimination including racial discrimination - treating people differently because of their identity
• cyber bullying - either online or via mobile phone.

What is not bullying?

There are also some behavior, which, although they might be unpleasant or distressing, are not bullying:

• mutual conflict - which involves a disagreement, but not an imbalance of power. Unresolved mutual conflict can develop into bullying if one of the parties targets the other repeatedly in retaliation.
• single-episode acts of nastiness or physical aggression, or aggression directed towards many different people, is not bullying
• social rejection or dislike is not bullying unless it involves deliberate and repeated attempts to cause distress, exclude or create dislike by others.

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/bullystoppers/Pages/what.aspx

What is Bullying ?

As a parent are you aware of your children? Lazy to go to school, fear in going outside your house and have time to their friends? Fear to talk to other people? Or do you have friends who are currently acting like this? Then you must be aware of this from now on. One possible cause of this is what we called Bullying.

What is Bullying by the way?

Bullying is a pattern of aggressive behavior meant to hurt or cause discomfort to another person. Bullies always have more power than victims. Their power comes from physical size, strength, status, and support within the peer group.

There are three types of bullying:

1. Physical: a person is harmed or their property damaged
   Some examples are:
   • slapping, hitting, pinching, punching, kicking
   • locking in a confined space
   • unwelcome touching
   • extortion
2. Verbal: a person’s feelings are hurt through insults and name-calling
   Some examples are:
   • name-calling
   • unwelcome teasing
   • taunting
   • spreading rumors, gossiping
   • racist or homophobic comments
3. Social: a person is shunned or excluded from groups and events.
   Some examples are:
   • excluding from a group
   • threatening or insulting graffiti
   • threatening notes, letters, emails, telephone calls
   • threatening words, actions or weapons

Bullying may be obvious or hidden. Children who are being bullied...or are bullying others may:

• complain of being poorly treated
• change their behavior (for example, sleeplessness, loss of appetite, angry outbursts, being sick in the morning, become more aggressive towards siblings)
• be unwilling to leave the house, change their route to school, or skip school
• come home with torn clothes, unexplained bruises, new clothes or other items, or money not accounted for
• talk about responding to others in a way that may result in the school taking disciplinary action
• start doing poorly in school

The terms harassment and intimidation are sometimes used when referring to bullying situations involving junior and senior high students.

Harassment is any behavior or comment that is hurtful, degrading, humiliating or offensive to another person.

Intimidation is the act of causing fear in order to force or influence someone to do, or not to do, something.

Some examples of harassment and intimidation:

• name-calling
• unwelcome teasing
• locking in a confined space
• racist or homophobic slurs
• unwelcome touching
• threatening notes, letters, e-mails
• threatening words, actions or weapons
• taunting
• excluding from a group
• spreading rumors
• threatening or insulting graffiti
• stalking
• extortion

I n another term Bullying is repeated verbal, physical, social or psychological aggressive behavior by a person or group directed towards a less powerful person or group that is intended to cause harm, distress or fear.

References :

http://www.ed.gov.nl.ca/edu/k12/bullying/whatis.html

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/bullystoppers/Pages/what.aspx