by Ellen deLara, Ph.D., M.S.W., Associate Professor, Syracuse University
School of Social Work, Falk College
Bullying, with all of its concomitant forms, such as hazing and sexual harassment, is a global problem. With severe impacts on lifelong development and mental health, finding a way to prevent bullying is a major public health concern. Far more prevalent than we once believed, bullying occurs in vivo in our schools and via cyberspace on an around-the-clock basis. It is experienced by virtually every student as witness, target, or perpetrator. Many students experience it in all three forms.
Bullying includes instances of emotional, psychological, and physical violence. Exact statistics are hard to come by as what constitutes bullying varies by researcher, but studies indicate that between 33 and 80 percent of children experience bullying or sexual harassment. Approximately 55 percent of those who want to join an athletic team or other student organization are subjected to hazing as the price of admission. After years of media exposure, after coverage of youth suicides, and after violent incidents like what was experienced at Columbine High School, the general public is aware that bullying exists and can result in detrimental, if not deadly, outcomes. Thousands of children have suffered for us to arrive at this understanding.
We know that there are immediate consequences of bullying, hazing, and sexual harassment. They include skipping school, dropping out of school, anxiety, depression, suicide, and homicide. Most people would like to believe the impact of bullying stops at graduation. That the doors to high school close and students leave the ill-effects of bullying behind them.
Unfortunately this is not the case.
There are long-term costs that haunt those involved, and these consequences are not solely carried by the victims. Bullies are more likely than the general population to become workplace bullies or to end up involved with the criminal justice system. My research with adults, and that of others, establishes that both bullies and victims can experience lifelong depression, anxiety, difficulties in relationships, and an inability to trust others. Because bullying is traumatic, it can result in post-traumatic stress disorder.
There are numerous theories about what causes bullying. Oftentimes, adults will offer the simple explanation that kids are cruel. However, this reasoning is reductive and does not take into account that adults—their mentors—are often cruel themselves. Ethologists studying primate behavior think intimidation and physical bullying are inherent among most primates. Social psychologists believe bullying is a learned response based on viewing the behavior of others. It is certainly true that intimidation is one approach to obtaining benefits at the individual, group, and even national level. And children are not unaware of these benefits. An observation from my research with secondary school students suggests they are mindful of the dissonance between what adults say and what they do. While adults admonish children to stop bullying each other, there is an adult moral code that allows for—and promotes—bullying and revenge.
Schools and grassroots movements attempt to curtail bullying by involving children who witness peer-on-peer violence. While it is commendable to engage students to stop bullying, it is simply not enough. Bullying and hazing flourish in organizations where they are tacitly permitted, inadvertently enabled, or worse, openly sanctioned by the behavior of adults. Parents know that children are great imitators. Children watch their parents, and their moral development is based on what they see within the family. Children watch their teachers and other school personnel, and this contributes to their growing moral compass. Yet research informs us that 45 percent of teachers have admitted to bullying children. When this happens, bullying is a systemic problem and becomes almost intractable as part of the school or organizational culture. Consequently, we have to realize that children do not have enough power to change it and it is not their responsibility. Prevention of this pervasive phenomenon is the direct responsibility of adults. Adults at school and in the community need to make the commitment to examine and change their own behavior if they hope to diminish bullying among children.
Dr. deLara’s areas of research include childhood bullying and adolescent development. Her research agenda focuses on systemic school violence, bullying, and social policy. Her original research was provided to the American Medical Association for its platform statement on the national recognition of the social phenomenon of bullying. Dr. deLara is the co-author of And Words Can Hurt Forever: How to protect adolescents from bullying, harassment, and emotional violence and she is currently authoring a new book, Bullying Scars: The impact of childhood bullying on adult life and relationships, for release in 2015.