Bullying is a form of abuse that is based on an imbalance of power or a systematic abuseof power

(Smith & Sharp, 1994; Rigby, 2002).The imbalance of power may be social powerand/or
physical power. It is an aggressive, intentional act or behaviour that is carried out by agroup or an
individual repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him orherself
(Whitney & Smith, 1993, Olweus, 1999). It can include verbal harassment, physicalassault or
coercion and may be directed repeatedly towards particular victims, perhaps ongrounds of race,
religion, gender, sexuality, or ability.The victim of bullying is sometimes referred to as a "target".
Bullying consists of three basic types of abuse
–
emotional, verbal, and physical. It typically involves subtle methods ofcoercion such as
intimidation(Lara et al., n.d.).In school for instance, it is a longstanding physicalor psychological
abuse of a student who is unable to defend himself by either an individual orgroup of other
students.The act of bullying is rampant in secondary schools and it has a lot of effects on
thestudents. It is difficult to discover a secondary school today where bullying does not
exist.According to the Journal of the American Association; out of more 15,000 public school
studentsurveyed in the United States, nearly 30 percent reported occasional to frequent
involvement in bullying, whether as a bully, a target or both. In the united Kingdom, the British
School HealthEducation unit found that a quarter of 10 - 11 years old survey were bullied either
everyday of"often", another report says that 15 percent of Australian children admit to have being
bullied

weekly, the case with Nigerian schools may not be different if appropriate statistic is
taken.These figures can be higher in percentage depending on how one defines the problem
and viewits prevalence (Tambawal, n.d.).Bullying is considered as a widespread problem that
has significant deleterious effects onthe physical, mental, and social health of youth. Most
researchers estimate that between 14 and20% of students in schools will experience bullying at
least once during their academic career(Elinoff et al., 2004). In a survey conducted by US
Department of Education (2011) in over 30million U.S. students between the ages of 12 and 18,
nearly 32 percent reported that they were bullied at school. Bullying seems to increase as a
student reaches middle school. Because of this,the bullying behaviour that is taking place in the
schools has become of interest to school personnel, since many students are critically
affected and they do not come to school as a result(Halama S., 2004).The characteristic of
bullying has two basic facts. First, research on bullying indicatesthat relatively few children are
purely victims or purely bullies, rather a large number play bothroles, and they bully some
students, and are bullied inturn by others (Vermande, Oart,Goudenard&Rispens, 2000). Second,
bullying seems to be common all around the globe. Baron&Bryne (2005) asserted that, on this
topic bullying has been truly international in scope and has been examined the occurrence of
bullying in many cultures. Bullying is played out with alarmingfrequency nowadays and bullies
and their victims may be of either gender. Thus, in general,students who get bullied can be
regarded as being passive or being submissive victims. They areusually quiet, careful, and
sensitive and may start crying easily. They are unsure of themselvesand have poor self-
confidence of negative self-image (Oghiagbephan, 2010).
Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children thatinvolves a
real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has thepotential to be
repeated, over time. Bullying includes actions such as making threats,spreading rumors,
attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someonefrom a group on purpose
(Brookshire, 2014).

The effect of bullying on the victim

It has to be borne in mind that bullying adversely affects not only the bully but also the
victim.75 Research now shows that bullying victims are
more likely to manifest signs of depression than non-victims.76 Both
bullies and victims, however, are at a higher risk of depression than learners not involved in
bullying.77 A direct nexus has been drawn
between continuous victimisation through bullying, depression, suicidal
ideation and suicide; which also places a bullying victim at a much
higher risk of depression and related mental disorders than nonvictims.78 In order to obtain a
better understanding of the devastating
effects of bullying, it is necessary to conceptualise these terms further.
https://thegreatmind.weebly.com/discussion-on-bullying.html

vhttps://ejournals.ph/article.php?id=6817

https://www.coursehero.com/file/16181083/bully/

https://www.slideshare.net/dennimardomingo/the-impact-of-bullying-in-adolescents-on-school

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/10/10/1858828/130-million-kids-worldwide-experience-
bullying

130 million kids worldwide experience

bullying
Pia Lee-Brago (The Philippine Star) - October 10, 2018 - 12:00am