We can say that a child is a victim of bullying if he is subjected to physical or verbal abuse by another child or group of children in a recursive manner. This abuse may be beating, teasing, or insulting and it may be a face grind and perhaps spread lies and rumors only intending to bother the bullying child. Several studies indicate that bullying occurs between two unbalanced forces, even if this superiority is only conceptual.
We can list the types of bullying in the following :
takes many forms, such as hitting, pushing, and deliberately obstructing others.
includes insulting, insulting, bad epithets, threats, and spreading rumors.
is the exclusion of the child from the group and the refusal of friendship or even incitement to do so.
which is the result of the development and spread of social media, which is the sending of threatening or ridicule messages, and a child suicide has been recorded in the United States because of this type.
Many factors push a child to bully his friends and also may make him vulnerable to bullying from their side.
The causes of bullying differ from one child to another, as the child may have been a victim of bullying before or seek to attract attention. Jealousy drives children to harass their peers who surpass them in educational attainment or are more liked by teachers. Family problems also play a role in pushing children to bully, as well as violence from parents, and the child may be bullying just because he joins a group of bullying children, where support is read from them.
Most children who have been subjected to bullying share weakness and young age, especially if they are accompanied by a high rate of educational attainment or loss of self-confidence, and on the contrary, a child with poor educational achievement may be exposed to ridicule and bullying from his friends And the loss of psychological or family safety may be a reason for making a child a victim of bullying.
Bullying has negative consequences for both the victim and the bully including the following :
Bullying is wrong behavior, and there is no doubt that it carries many negative effects, including getting into constant quarrels and moving away from the main goal of going to school, but getting used to violence at an early age without parental attention and interference will have several effects in the long term, the most important of which is drug addiction and criminal activities.
Bullying involves the child in psychological and social problems that drives him to hate school, which weakens his educational attainment and may even lead to leaving it at an early age, reluctance from group activities, and tendencies towards isolation, in several cases the child turns from a victim to a bully.
Most children hesitate to tell parents about their exposure to bullying, due to several reasons, one of them is the child's shyness and fear of his father's reaction and perhaps the bully's reaction.
So when your child tells you about bullying, you should keep calm, listen carefully and avoid any severe or violent reaction, and you should not ignore the situation and consider it unimportant. The child's feeling that there is someone who shares his fears and understands them gives him a positive impulse to deal with bullying.
Open up a discussion with the child and try to find a way with him to deal with bullyings, such as staying with his friends and avoiding the bully, or perhaps asking help from an adult in schools such as a teacher or counselor. Do not suggest violence as a solution to the problem, like hitting the bully or responding with bad words It is probably won't work.
Boost the child's self-confidence by persuading him that the bully is the one who does the bad thing, and he is the one who should be ashamed while he did a good job when he told you. Try to know the strengths of his personality and help him to develop them, ignore the weaknesses in it because they will disappear with time. Encouraging him to participate in school activities and play sports will enhance his self-confidence even more.
If the matter gets worse, you must go to the school and explain the problem to the teacher or counselor, this will help solve the problem greatly or may meet the parents of the bully if he does not stop practicing his bad behavior.
Who among us wants to receive a call from the school telling him that his son is bullying his classmates. Even though the bullying is verbal or physical, you must deal with the problem immediately because, as we mentioned previously, this could lead to major problems in the future.
To solve this problem first hear the story from his side and try to find out the reasons that lead him to bully. It may not help to repeat to him the phrase "stop bullying" because children usually respond better to being told what to do than what not to do. Teach your child to treat with respect and kindness, convince him that bullying is bad behavior. Be the role model to follow, keep in mind that no matter what you say to the child, he will only takes from your actions, not from your words so be careful how you behave.
Get in yourself more in your son's social life and support him to make good friendships and make him get rid of bad friendships because this has a great impact in determining whether the child will give up bullying or not. Involve him in activities inside and outside the school, which will help him to get to know new friends.
If the home environment does not help to support the child in getting rid of this bad behavior, you can ask help from outside, such as a teacher or relatives, and a psychiatrist will help if needed.
