Acknowledging Bullying As a Problem

During this blog I will finish discussing research findings found within the academic journal article, “The causes and nature of bullying and social exclusion in schools” by Maria el Mar Badia Martin. First I will discuss a potential reason why new cases of school bullying keep emerging. Afterwards, I will discuss some elements that need to be addressed before schools can confront the issue of school bullying.

1)   The text notes that “despite [the] apparently high rates of victimization and the potential influence of [sibling bullying] experiences on peer relationships, sibling bullying has been relatively ignored [within] literature, perhaps because it is so common.” In my opinion this claim is very significant in understanding, and partially explaining, why new cases of school bullying keep emerging. One of the best ways to stop a problem is to prevent the problem from ever developing and occurring. However, as the text notes, this is not what has been happening with sibling bullying, which has been linked to school bullying. Instead, sibling bullying, a potential precursor to school bullying, has been mostly ignored and normalized by the general public. In addition, many scholars, investigators, and researchers have failed to conduct additional studies that investigate the correlations that may exist between sibling bullying and school bullying.

2)  Before schools can confront the issue of school bullying, some elements need to be addressed. According to the text,  research has shown that bullying occurs in all schools. However, before school bullying is confronted, it must be acknowledged as a possible problem. In other words, schools must acknowledge that they are not fault free and must be willing to accept the fact that bullying is a problem, or at least a potential problem, within their school system. A problem cannot and will not be solved, if it is not acknowledged first. In addition, research has shown that although “high profile [anti-school bullying] campaigns at national, local, or school level are useful ways of initiating action, on their own they do little or nothing to help [decrease the amount of bullying that occurs within schools]”. As a result, when trying to design a plan for diminishing school bullying it is important to keep in mind that although high profile anti-bullying campaigns may be useful in attracting attention and awareness to school bullying as a problem, they are not solutions. In fact, there is no "single-solution" or "one-size-fits-all solution" that can be applied to rid all schools of school bullying. Instead, each school must individually find out what strategies and actions will work best within its own school system.