KOLEJ MATRIKULASI MELAKA

ENGLISH WB013

TITLE: BULLY

NAME : NUR SYAFIQAH ARINA BINTI SU

: WAN NOR AMIRAH BINTI WAN MOHD NAJEP

PRACTICUM : S15P6

MATRIC NUMBER : MS1711102501

: MS1711100480

LECTURER’S NAME : MISS ROZALINA BINTI MUHARAM

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Introduction

1. Objectives

The Content

1. Types of bully usually occurs

2. Effects on someone who being bully

3. Role of media to reduce bullying cases

4. Signs of being bully

5. Factors of bully

The Analysis

1. The types of bully occur

2. The effects of bully

3. The role of media

4. The signs of being bullied

5. The factors of bully

The Appendixes

1. Mind map

2. The articles

References

1. Bibliography
 THE INTRODUCTION

OBJECTIVES

1. To identify the types of bullying that usually occurs.

2. To study the effects on someone who being bully.

3. To learn on how the story or the awareness campaign by the media nowadays can help to

reduce bullying cases.

4. To state the signs of being bully.

5. To determine the factors of bully.

 THE CONTENT

Have you ever being bullied or been bullied? If you have bullied or been bullied then you

should know bullying feels like. Bullying is negative and creates major problems for our society.

It is also a very popular disease among the school students today. Bullies may be specified as

endangered species who make ridicule of others for their own fun. Although life is a journey and

a tough fight, but not everyone is a fighter. Some people feel that bullying is a normal part of

growing days but it is not normal, rather than something very aggressive sometimes can cause

death. Nothing good comes out of bullying. It could very well change or ruin a person’s life. In

fact, it does ruin many people’s lives. Kids can be mentally scarred if they are teased often. Even

worse, they could be killed or totally injured. Bullying does not always have to be childish play,

it can extremely violent. People may be bruised, injured, or even killed. Many kids do not take

bullying seriously. However, when a real incident occurs, they are unprepared, shocked,

regretful, or dead. With recent technological developments, bullying can be done online and

through social media platforms. As a result of its advance effects on the victims, bullying has

attracted universal attraction from the media, school authorities, parents and researchers. Many

studies have been done in different schools situated in different locations all over the world

examining the prevalence of harassment among the teenagers in schools and other places.

Bullying must be stopped or prevented no matter how long it will take, it is a deeply concerning

matter. These are the important things that we have to focus on to prevent bully such as type of

bully, effect of bully, role of media, sign of being bullied and also factors of bully.

Firstly, there are many types of bullying occurs among students such as cyberbullying,

beaten up, teasing, harmed, by one’s peers and harassment based on the survey among KMM

students. Bullying cases in schools are showing an alarming increase with physical bullying
being the most common form. Last year, the total number of bullying cases was 3448, about

14.5% increase from 3011 cases in 2005. Victims of bullying were more than twice as likely as

other kids to contemplate suicide and about 2.5 times as likely to kill themselves, according to a

new study than quantifies the emotional effects of being teased, harassed, beaten up or otherwise

harmed by one’s peer. Bullying behavior is prevalent throughout the world and it cuts across

socio-economic, racial or ethnic and cultural lines. Researchers estimates that 20 to 30 either

perpetrators or victims. Bullying can be begin as early as preschool and intensity during

transitional stages such as starting school in first grade or going into middle school. Victims of

bullying are often shy and tend to be physically weaker than their peers. They may also have low

self-esteem and poor social skills, which makes it hard for them to stand up for themselves.

Bullies consider these children safe targets because they usually do not retaliate a case of 12

year-old kid names Rabecca Sedwick. According to Karen Kaplan (2014), Rabecca Sedwick,

jumped to her death in a cement plant after classmates taunted her. She had been teased by her

classmates. Based on the survey on among, KMM students, we found that most of them state that

teasing is the most frequently occurs among students. Therefore, as a parent we should give

moral support to our children to avoid them thinking feel sad and trauma. All these types of bully

such as cyberbullying, beaten up, teasing, harmed by one’s peers and harassment should be

prevented from being aggressive.

Besides, there are a few effects on the bully victims such as suicidal thoughts, depression

and anxiety. When someone is being bully, it will change victim’s personality. It can cause

people who are normally confident and happy to become self-conscious, shy and unsure.

Additionally victims of bullying may also become sad or depressed. Their confidence might

completely disappear, keeping them from trying new things or trusting people. Once a person has
been bullied, they may hesitate to participate in situations where he or she might be ridiculed,

such as in public speaking or in sports. A bullying victim might even begin to possess previously

absent anxious behavior. Despite all the negative effects of bullying, there are even far more

serious consequences. People who have been bullied sometimes become so upset, scared or

depressed that they see no worth in themselves and no way out of their torment. There have been

countless reports over the past few years of students committing suicide because they were

bullied. Meanwhile, there are times when victims see no recourse but to seek revenge by serious

acts of violence against the bully and investigators. As a result of bullying, people can lose their

ability to love and trust, denying them the chance to experience a quality relationship later in

their life. They might find themselves as a submissive partner or they may want to be completely

alone. Compounding all of these problems, victims often develop eating disorders, begin to self-

injure or require extensive counseling. As Mark & Ratliffe (2011) state, “research indicates that

the risk of both thoughts and attempts at suicide seem to be higher for girl victims and girl bullies

no matter how infrequent the bullying occurs.” The bully victims usually had thought on being

suicide, feel depressed and anxiety.

Furthermore, the role of media such as newspaper are helpful a little bit in preventing

bully occurs among students. We have all heard the unfortunate stories in the news sometimes

fatal effects of bullying. Bullying incredibly hurtful and can fuel the insecurities of developing

children. By educating children and discussing these stories, we develop awareness of the effects

of bullying. We must encourage our youth to support one another, rather than tearing each other

via social media. Social media can be a great outlet for expressive youths and this should be

encouraged without the judgements and taunting bullies. The rules and terms set by social media

are also methods to prevent social media bullying. Unfortunately, despite public education and
increased awareness - there will always be bullies out there. These people feel the need to tear

people down to deal with their shortcomings or persona insecurities. In the event that someone

bullies another person on social media, there are means of reporting that person and removing

the offensive content. Repeat offenders who abuse the privileges of social media will only be

given so many warnings before being banned, which helps eliminate extreme bullying via social

media. Newspaper articles nowadays relate many deaths to bullying, yet the problem goes on.

Inner city streets are the subject of many newspaper stories. In one of the recent newspaper

articles on bullying, the LA Times points out the story of an Illinois father whose son committed

suicide at the age of 15 after being extremely bullied at school. In this article, one of the most

touching newspaper articles on bullying, the father narrates how he found solace in taking to

Facebook to past a series of small videos about his son’s bullying episodes. Newspaper articles

on bullying also severely shared this study on how bullying victims were more than twice as

likely to contemplate suicide or self hard and about two times likely to actually attempt suicide,

this was one of the shocking recent news articles on bullying. In conclusion, the role of media is

helpful a little bit to overcome bullying cases.

There are several factors that cause bullying occurrence especially among teenagers such

as because influenced of social media, jealousy, there also people hiding the incidents causing no

action to be taken by authorities and most importantly is due to parental attitudes which less

concerned about their children. Two major factors that often associated with bullying are because

of jealousy and influence of social media. Bullying occurs because of an individual who is

jealous with other people which have better life than them. Jealousy forces them to bully others

because they hate seeing others person live happily. According to Mary MacVean, usually the

popular kid become target of bully. This happened due they have a good grades, good looking,
happy family and have a stable economy. All of their good qualities making others jealous and

some of them decided to team up to bring down that person by being a bullied. Media social also

one of factor that become bad influenced especially to teenager. Lately, teens like to access the

internet to find something new and exciting. There are also those teenagers surfing the site where

there is an element of violence. In the end, they will be involved with the violence and become a

big bully for their excitement. Based on survey that we had given to KMM students, almost 68%

of them agreed that bully occurs because of jealousy and 44% of them had an opinion that bully

occurred because influenced of social media. Bully also occurs because of parents clueless about

culture and temptation online. They did not very concerned about their children when their

children surfing internet. They did not monitored their children when they using computer or

cellphone. As a parents they shall know what will their children might look or searched. They

shall block web that will give bad influenced for the children and make sure their children did

not play with gadget too long. Then it is clear that the major factor causing because influenced of

media social and jealousy.

Usually, a bully individual has signs that we can identify even though it is hard to detect

it. We can know the person being bullied when we are aware of the changes that occur on that

individual such as physical changes, behavior and emotion. Physical charges usually not

somethings that we detect easily. Most of person being bullied like to cover it. As a parents or

teachers, they shall asking the student if the accidently saw something unpleasant such as bruises

at that student body. If the reason given by that student are suspicious and unreasonable, they

shall investigate what had really happened to that student. Based on survey, 23% KMM students

said that the sign of someone being bully is they had bruises at their body. Thus, we shall be the

ones that help that student except from bully. We can also identified someone being bullied by
watching their changes in their emotional and behavior. According to Han Wilhelm, a person

being bullied are often crying and like to be alone. This things happened because they cannot

depend to other people so they keep their problem by themselves. From the survey, almost 26%

of KMM student had thought that the person being like to cry and 47% of KMM students had

opinion that the victims like to be alone. They grades also started to drop because of stress being

victims. There also some of them tried to tell their parents about their condition at school but

were not taken seriously by their parents. This is because their parents consider it is normal

things that teenagers always teasing each other. In the end, it is too late to turn back as they

might lose their children or their children might traumatized from being bully until their adult.

In conclusion, bullying is an important issue that need close attention from both parents

and schools. It has been treated as a part of growing up or something that will toughen up young

people as they grow through life. Bullying need to be resolved at early stage in avoiding further

problems in long period of time. The main risk factors include personality, psychosocial factors

such as social rejection, struggle for power, family risk factors such as painful experiences and

poor parenting. Despite all these risk factors, the effects of bullying outweigh the benefits of

bullying. However, it is important to understand that bullying is a deviance that can be controlled

and eliminated. It is also important to understand that the statistics provided above may not be

reliable because there are cases in which bullying incidences are not reported or under reported.

Research has shown that students who are being bullied can develop many emotional problems

are not a part of growing up. Therefore, principle of “strike iron while it is hot” needs to be

applied in reduction of bullying cases. Children at early age can easily be educated on the topic

and can still change to better, while adults have a hard time to receive advises from others and at
worse remains the same until deathbed. As a result, immediate and effective measures against

bullying are required.

THE ANALYSIS

40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
Number of students

15%
10%
5%
0%

Types of bully

THE TYPES OF BULLY OCCUR

The bar chart shows about the type of bully that usually occurs among students.

Generally, we can see that KMM students state that teasing is the most frequently occurs among

student.

Firstly, 25% of KMM students said that types of bully occur is cyberbullying, 35% of the

students stated that teasing is one of types of bully, 20% of them had opinion the types of bully
occur is harassment, 12% of them expressed that types of bully occur is beaten up and the rest of

them said types of bully occurs harmed by one’s peer.

As a conclusion, the majority of KMM students agreed that the bully occur is harmed by

one’s peer.

THE EFFECTS OF BULLY

15%
32%
Suicidal thoughts
Depression
Anxiety

53%

The pie chart shows about the effects on someone being bully. Generally, most of KMM

students agreed that bully can cause the bully victim become depress.

First of foremost, about 15% of KMM students had an opinion that the effect of being

bully is the victims might had thought on being suicide. Almost 32% of them agreed that the
effect of being bully made the victim being anxiety and the rest of the students thought that the

effect of someone being bully is cause depression to them.

From this pie chart, we can conclude that the majority of KMM students consented that

the effect of being bully is cause depression to victims.

THE ROLE OF MEDIA

90%

80%

70%

60%
Number of students

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
Not helpful at all Not really helpful Helpful a little bit Very helpful
The role of media

The bar chart shows the role of media to prevent bully among students. Generally, we can

see it thoroughly that most of KMM students thought role of media help a little bit in preventing

the bully.

Initially, 4% of KMM students agreed that the role of media not helpful at all to prevent

bully. Almost 16% of KMM students had an opinion that the role of media not really helpful at
all. Not a single students agreed that the role of media very helpful and the rest of them strongly

agreed that the role of media helpful a little bit.

In short, the majority of KMM students thought that the role of media help a little bit to

decrease amount of bully among the students.

THE SIGNS OF BEING BULLY

50%
45%
40%
35%
Number of students

30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Always Bruises Always smile Like to be Enjoy study
crying alone

The signs of being bullied

The bar chart shows the signs of being bully that usually occur to the victims. According

to this bar chart, we can see that most KMM students had an opinion that the sign on being bully

is the victims like to be alone.

 Firstly, there are 26% of KMM students said that the sign of being bullied, 23% stated the

sign of being bully is the victims had bruises at their body, 2% of KMM students suggested that

the sign of being are always smile and the victims like to enjoy study.

As result, the majority of KMM students strongly agreed that the sign of someone being

bully is they like to alone.

THE FACTORS OF BULLY

Strongly Disagree
Students' response

Disagree

Agree

Strongly Agree

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Number of students

Jealousy Influenced of media social

The horizontal clustered bar chart shows the factors of being bully among the students.

Overall, we can see that there most of KMM students agreed that bully occur because of jealousy

than influenced of media social.

 Firstly, there are 8% of KMM students strongly disagreed with the statement that bully

occur because of influenced media social, 24% disagree, 44% agreed and the rest of them

strongly agreed with that statement while there are 4% strongly disagreed,8% disagreed, 68%

agreed and 20% strongly agreed that the factor of bully is because of jealousy.

Consequently, the majority of KMM students agreed that the factor of bully is because of

jealousy.

THE APPENDIXES

Younger Children Falling Victim to Online Bullying

October 21, 2013|Sandy Banks


Aimee Galassi holds a sign during a carwash fundraiser for bullying victim… (Rick Runion,
Associated…)
It seems to happen often enough that we're no longer shocked to hear it: A teenager commits
suicide after being bullied online by peers.

But the recent death in Florida of 12-year-old Rebecca Ann Sedwick and arrest of two of her
former middle school classmates makes it clear that victims are getting younger and bullies more
brazen online.
Two girls, 12 and 14, have been charged with felony aggravated stalking based on evidence of a
year of online taunts and threats. Sheriff's deputies confiscated the cellphones and laptops of
more than a dozen girls accused of bullying Rebecca and found messages such as "You should
die."
This may be the first time children have been accused of a crime in connection with suicide. But
it's also a window into bigger issues that criminal charges can't resolve:

The tools and tenor of bullying are different and more dangerous in this generation than they
were in mine. Anti-bullying programs are good but not enough. We rely on them to promote
empathy and respect for those who don't fit in. But it's not just misfits singled out for torment; it
can be anybody that somebody doesn't like.
The same sort of crowd-sourcing that helps startups thrive can turn a middle school clique into
an online mob.

It's easy for bullies to enlist allies who can just post something nasty — even anonymously —
online, instead of risking an unpleasant confrontation face to face. And it's hard for victims to
hide from insults delivered 24-7 on their cellphones.

Parents are clueless about the culture and temptations online.

The 14-year-old charged with stalking displayed a stunningly callous message on her Facebook
page just after Rebecca died. "Yes [I know] I bullied REBECCA nd she killed her self but [I
don't care]," it said. The message ended with a little pink heart.

Her parents insist that the teenager is "a loving, caring, supportive young girl with many friends."
Her Facebook page must have been hacked, they said. But when the sheriff asked them to bring
her in for a talk, they refused and lawyered up.

Rebecca's mother knew she was being bullied. She pulled Rebecca from school and taught her at
home, monitored her Facebook page and took away her cellphone. But when things calmed
down, she loosened the reins and Rebecca went back online.

Rebecca posed questions about suicide, set up new social media accounts, even made a screen
saver with a photo of her head resting on railroad tracks. She called herself "That Dead Girl" on
one of her secret online sites that her mother never saw.

Rebecca attended a school that discouraged bullying. Her mother tried to protect her.

But careful parenting and school assemblies are no match for an adolescent ethos where
nastiness is acceptable and being popular means everything.

Our culture is part of the problem.

Our children grow up watching reality shows where boorish behavior is rewarded and insults,
taunts and racist remarks hike ratings and create stars. And nothing is off-limits for criticism on
countless makeover programs. Your clothes, your voice, your cooking, your weight … judges
find fault with everything, while contestants try not to cry.
Then there are the marathon sessions that boys spend with popular violent video games, where
beating and raping women is an entertaining backdrop. The latest installment of Grand Theft
Auto raked in $1 billion in three days. And we wonder why teenage boys might think it's all right
to have sex with a drunken 14-year-old girl.

Middle school has never been a very easy passage. But it's been made harder by social media,
which invites immersion and seclusion at a time when teenagers should be learning to actually
talk with one another.

Rebecca's case shows that online connections can be both a noose and lifeline.

She was shunned by her real-life best friend, the 12-year-old charged with tormenting her. The
girl feels terrible about Rebecca's death, investigators said. She told them she was more afraid of
becoming a target of bullies herself than she was aware of just how much pain she might have
been causing Rebecca.

Rebecca responded by seeking solace from far-flung friends she knew only online. They
listened, liked her and didn't judge her face, her weight, her skin.

But being online meant being vulnerable to former classmates' cruel and endless taunts. One
message read: "nobody cares about you." Her response: "Lol I know."

But she wasn't laughing when she reached out for one last time, to a boy from North Carolina
that she'd met when their paths crossed randomly in an airport.

"I'm jumping. I can't take it anymore," she wrote in a message he received the day she jumped to
her death from a silo in an abandoned cement factory near her home. He apparently told no one.
Maybe because he didn't know anyone in her life to warn.
Teens Taunted by Bullies are More Likely to Consider, Attempt Suicide

March 10, 2014|Karen Kaplan


Victims of bullying were more than twice as likely as other kids to contemplate suicide and
about 2.5 times as likely to try to kill themselves, according to a new study that quantifies the
emotional effects of being teased, harassed, beaten up or otherwise harmed by one’s peers.

Children and teens who were taunted by cyberbullies were especially vulnerable -- they were
about three times as likely than other kids to have suicidal thoughts, the studyfound.
The findings, published online Monday by the journal JAMA Pediatrics, puts the lie to the old
adage about sticks and stones. Cases of kids like 12-year-old Rebecca Ann Sedwick (who
jumped to her death in a cement plant after classmates taunted her and asked “Why are you still
alive?”) and 15-year-old Jordan Lewis(who shot himself in the chest after being picked on at
school) are not just flukes.
Experts believe that as many as 1 in 5 teens is involved in some type of bullying, and suicide is
one of the leading causes of death among adolescents worldwide. So a team of Dutch researchers
decided to investigate the link between the two.

The three researchers scoured the medical literature to find studies published since 1910 that
addressed suicide in connection with bullying, teasing, harassment and even “ragging” and
“mobbing.” Studies published in English, Spanish, German, French, Dutch, Portuguese and
Lithuanian were considered for analysis.
In the end, they identified 34 reliable studies that addressed the issues of peer victimization and
suicidal ideation. These studies included data on 284,375 people ages 9 to 21. After crunching
the numbers, the researchers calculated that kids who were bullied were 2.23 times as likely to
think about killing themselves than kids who had not been victimized.

The study authors sliced and diced their large dataset to compare types of bullying. Previous
studies had reported that cyberbullying could be just as bad as traditional bullying. But this time,
the researchers found cyberbullying was actually worse -- being bullied in person increased
one’s risk for suicidal ideation by a factor of 2.16, while being bullied via email, via text
messages or in videos posted on the Internet raised the risk by a factor of 3.12.

“This might be because with cyberbulling, victims may feel they’ve been denigrated in front of a
wider audience,” study leader Mitch van Geel said in an interview posted on the JAMA
Pediatrics website. In addition, he said, “material can be stored online, which may cause victims
to relive the denigrating experience more often.”
When Van Geel and his colleagues broke down the data according to whether children where
bullies as well as victims, those who had been on both sides of things were 2.35 times as likely to
consider killing themselves than kids who had nothing to do with bullying.

“Peer victimization is related to suicidal ideation for older as well as younger children, boys as
well as girls, and victims as well as bully-victims,” they wrote.

The researchers also found nine well-conducted studies about bullying and its relationship to
suicide attempts. These studies included data on 70,102 people ages 9 to 21. The Dutch
researchers ran the numbers and reported that kids and teens who were bullied were 2.55 times
as likely to attempt suicide than their counterparts who had not been victimized. (The dataset
wasn’t big enough to allow for additional analysis based on the type of bullying or other factors,
the researchers wrote.)

In the United States, between 5% and 8% of teenagers tries to kill themselves each year. But the
problem is global, Van Geel said.

“Suicide is one of the most important reasons for adolescent mortality worldwide,” he said.
"Schools should take every effort to reduce and prevent bullying."
Even Popular Kids are Bullied in High School, Researchers Find

April 02, 2014|By Mary MacVean


"For most students, gains in status increase the likelihood of victimization… (Christine Cotter /
Los Angeles…)
Only the prom king and queen are safe.

Researchers say that the more popular teens are – except for those at the very apex of the fragile
high school hierarchy – the more likely they are to be bullied, perhaps a surprise to people who
presumed outcasts were the exclusive targets.

Researchers Robert Faris of UC Davis and Diane Felmlee of Penn State University write that
traditional, everyday views of bullying – reported by nearly a fifth of teens – tell less than the
whole story. "For most students, gains in status increase the likelihood of victimization and the
severity of its consequences," they wrote in the journal of the American Sociological Assn.

The aggressors, too, often "posses strong social skills," and bully others to move up the social
ladder rather than to "reenact their own troubled home lives."

So while the uppermost teens on the social scale can "afford" to be nice, those in the next tier
have to keep themselves there, Faris said Tuesday.

He and Felmlee looked at how status can increase the chances of being a victim and how it can
magnify the distress caused, which can include depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.

They wrote that "the ways in which status can increase risk have been largely ignored and we
identify a new pattern of victimization," which they call "instrumental targeting." And it can
work, they said. "Evidence suggests that aggressors' campaigns of harassment and abuse are
rewarded with increased prestige … particularly when they target socially prominent rivals."

Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that popular kids get targeted: If the tormentor is aiming to
raise his or her own status, "targeting prominent rivals makes strategic sense," the researchers
wrote. And for high-status victims, the fall can be more drastic.

To sort this out, the researchers used data from more than 8,000 students in 19 North Carolina
schools about their five closest friends and five students who had "picked on or were mean" to
them, and five they in turn had been mean to. They used that web of connections to draw their
conclusions.

In that group, about half the students were white and a third African American. Most lived with
two parents. The average student was harassed by 0.72 students during the spring term, but
among victims, the average number of attackers was 2.2. Girls had higher rates of victimization.
The researchers noted that there could be differences in other populations.

Some students found protection; being friends with teens of the opposite gender provided some
shield.

The researchers don’t suggest that outcast teens of various sorts don’t get bullied – only that
theirs is not the whole story.

Faris also said that there was a message in the research for teenagers and their parents: It’s
probably better to have a few close friends than 200 Facebook friends. In addition, the "drama"
that’s often discussed about adolescent relationships might be taken more seriously – by students
and parents, he said.

And many students, Faris said, don't see what’s happening "as bullying and they may be sort of
like fish in water and accustomed to having a lot of drama around them."
The students don’t see what the researchers do: "We have very precise measures of the status and
we have access to the social map of the school. We can assign a score to each kid. … The kids
don’t have access to that degree of precision."

School Reader Level 1: Noodles: I Hate Bullies!

by Hans Wilhelm

Unfortunately, teasing is often part of growing up - almost every child experiences it. But it isn't
always as innocuous as it seems. Words can cause pain. Teasing becomes bullying when it is
repetitive or when there is a conscious intent to hurt another child. It can be verbal
bullying (making threats, name-calling), psychological bullying (excluding children, spreading
rumors), or physical bullying (hitting, pushing, taking a child's possessions).

How Bullying Starts

Bullying behavior is prevalent throughout the world and it cuts across socio-economic,
racial/ethnic, and cultural lines. Researchers estimate that 20 to 30 percent of school-age children
are involved in bullying incidents, as either perpetrators or victims. Bullying can begin as early
as preschool and intensify during transitional stages, such as starting school in 1st grade or going
into middle school. 

Victims of bullying are often shy and tend to be physically weaker than their peers. They may
also have low self-esteem and poor social skills, which makes it hard for them to stand up for
themselves. Bullies consider these children safe targets because they usually don't retaliate.

Effects of Bullying
If your child is the victim of bullying, he may suffer physically and emotionally, and his
schoolwork will likely show it. Grades drop because, instead of listening to the teacher, kids are
wondering what they did wrong and whether anyone will sit with them at lunch. If bullying
persists, they may be afraid to go to school. Problems with low self-esteem and depression can
last into adulthood and interfere with personal and professional lives. 

Bullies are affected too, even into adulthood; they may have difficulty forming positive
relationships. They are more apt to use tobacco and alcohol, and to be abusive spouses. Some
studies have even found a correlation with later criminal activities.

Warning Signs
If you're concerned that your child is a victim of teasing or bullying, look for these signs of
stress:

 Increased passivity or withdrawal 

 Frequent crying 
 Recurrent complaints of physical symptoms such as stomach-aches or headaches with no
apparent cause 
 Unexplained bruises 
 Sudden drop in grades or other learning problems
 Not wanting to go to school 
 Significant changes in social life — suddenly no one is calling or extending invitations
 Sudden change in the way your child talks — calling herself a loser, or a former friend a
jerk  

How to Help 
First, give your child space to talk. If she recounts incidences of teasing or bullying, be
empathetic. If your child has trouble verbalizing her feelings, read a story about children being
teased or bullied. You can also use puppets, dolls, or stuffed animals to encourage a young child
to act out problems. 

Once you've opened the door, help your child begin to problem-solve. Role-play situations and
teach your child ways to respond. You might also need to help your child find a way to move on
by encouraging her to reach out and make new friends. She might join teams and school clubs to
widen her circle.
 
At home and on the playground:
Adults need to intervene to help children resolve bullying issues, but calling another parent
directly can be tricky unless he or she is a close friend. It is easy to find yourself in a "he said/she
said" argument. Try to find an intermediary: even if the bullying occurs outside of school, a
teacher, counselor, coach, or after-school program director may be able to help mediate a
productive discussion. 

If you do find yourself talking directly to the other parent, try to do it in person rather than over
the phone. Don't begin with an angry recounting of the other child's offenses. Set the stage for a
collaborative approach by suggesting going to the playground, or walking the children to school
together, to observe interactions and jointly express disapproval for any unacceptable behavior.
At school:
Many schools (sometimes as part of a statewide effort) have programs especially designed to
raise awareness of bullying behavior and to help parents and teachers deal effectively with it.
Check with your local school district to see if it has such a program. 

Schools and parents can work effectively behind the scenes to help a child meet and make new
friends via study groups or science-lab partnerships. If you are concerned about your child:

 Share with the teacher what your child has told you; describe any teasing or bullying you
may have witnessed.
 Ask the teacher if she sees similar behavior at school, and enlist her help in finding ways
to solve the problem.
 If she hasn't seen any instances of teasing, ask that she keep an eye out for the behavior
you described.
 If the teacher says your child is being teased, find out whether there are any things he
may be doing in class to attract teasing. Ask how he responds to the teasing, and discuss
helping him develop a more effective response.
 After the initial conversation, be sure to make a follow-up appointment to discuss how
things are going.
 If the problem persists, or the teacher ignores your concerns, and your child starts to
withdraw or not want to go to school, consider the possibility of "therapeutic
intervention." Ask to meet with the school counselor or psychologist, or request a referral
to the appropriate school professional.

REFERENCES

1. Banks, Sandy. “Younger Children Falling Victim to Online Bullying.” Los Angeles

Times 21 October 2013: 1. Print.

2. Kaplan, Karen. “Teens Taunted by Bullies are More Likely to Consider, Attempt

Suicide.” Los Angeles Times 10 March 2014: A4. Print.

3. MacVean, Mary. “Even Popular Kids are Bullied in High School, Researchers Find.” L

Angeles Times 2 April 2014: 5. Print.

4. Wilhelm, Hans. School Reader Level 1: Noodles: I Hate Bullies!: Scholastic, 2011. Print.