The Characteristics of Bullies

On this blog I will discuss the characteristics of bullies as discussed within the academic journal article “Bullying in School: An Overview of Types, Effects, Family Characteristics, and Intervention Strategies”, by Paul R. Smokowski and Kelly Holland Kopasz.

According to the journal article, most bullies share common characteristics. The common characteristics of bullies include being overly aggressive, being destructive, being hot-tempered, being impulsive, enjoying dominating others, and having a low tolerance for frustration One problem with bullying is that researchers have found that bullies are “more likely to be involved with other [problematic] behaviors, such as drinking and smoking.” Another problem is that bullies tend to show “poorer school achievement” and demonstrate a dislike towards school. The journal article states that most bullies see violence positively, as a means to solve their problems or fulfill their needs. In addition to using violence to gain or maintain their dominance over others, bullies use violence as a means to obtain rewards such as money and prestige.

An interesting observation I made is that it seems that the “benefits” of engaging in bullying behaviors currently outweigh the “negative consequences” of engaging in bullying behaviors. As noted within other blogs, bullying is very hard to detect. Even when bullying is identified or acknowledged, many times it tends to be dismissed or normalized. As a result, bullies may see their activities as “low risk”. Currently, bullies have very little to lose by engaging in bullying behaviors, but much to gain. As noted within the article, by engaging in bullying behaviors bullies gain rewards and prestige, maintain their dominance over others, and are able to solve their problems. The article also makes reference to bullying as a “gateway form of violence”, which I have discussed in previous blogs. As a result, I believe the consequences of bullying should be restructured. This is not to say that bullies should be handed down capital punishment. However, I do believe some form of reprimand needs to be put in place so that bullying will decrease. Ideally it would be great if anti-bullying strategies focused on determining what has been triggering the bullying. Perhaps bullies can be shown alternative, socially accepted ways to obtain what they want. For example, perhaps anti-bullying programs could help recovering bullies obtain a job. In this manner, instead of bullying someone into handing over their money, bullies would be able to earn their own money and buy what they want.

Bullying Linked to Suicide

             Recently I posted a blog regarding a young teenage girl who committed suicide.  Although it has not been confirmed that bullying was the main cause of the young girl’s suicide, the girl’s parents feel that bullying played a major factor in the girl’s death.  On this occasion I will discuss an article regarding bullying and its link to suicide among teenagers. The article I will be discussing is titled “Teens taunted by bullies are more likely to consider, attempt suicide” and can be found on the “latimes.com”.

 According to the article, researchers in a study conducted by JAMA Pediatrics quantified the “emotional effects of being teased, harassed, beaten up or otherwise harmed by one’s peers” by citing 34 reliable studies regarding the relationship between peer victimization and suicidal ideation (with total of 284,375 participants) and 9 studies regarding the relationship between peer victimization and suicide attempts (with a total of 70,102 participants). The aforementioned studies were found within medical literature published in English, Spanish, German, French, Dutch, Portuguese, and Lithuanian since 1910, and all participants were aged from 9 to 21. In the end, an analysis of the aforementioned studies revealed that victims of bullying “were 2.23 times [more] likely to think about killing themselves than kids who had not been victimized.” In addition, it was revealed that “kids and teens who were bullied were 2.55 times [more] likely to attempt suicide than their counterparts who had not been victimized.”

One of the great features of the JAMA Pediatrics study is that it does not rely on only one study to conduct its conclusions, but rather uses a collection of studies to formulate its conclusions. In my opinion the aforementioned statistics highlight how devastating bullying can be to the self-esteem of victims. It is disturbing to realize the effects bullying can cause on children. Although all children do not respond to bullying in the same manner, the fact that suicide attempts have been linked to bullying should highlight the importance of this topic.

            The article also notes that previous studies “reported that cyber bullying could be just as bad as traditional bullying. However, this study found that victims of cyber bullying are especially vulnerable because “being bullied in person increased one’s risk for suicidal ideation by a factor of 2.16, while being bullied via e-mail, via text messages or in videos posted on the Internet increased the risk by a factor of 3.12.” A possible explanation offered by Mitch van Geel, the study leader, was that cyber bullying “victims may feel they’ve been denigrated in front of a wider audience” and that the “material can be stored online, which [… can] cause victims to relive the denigrating experience more often.”

The aforementioned claim and statistic provided by the article does not paint a promising feature for the future. As previously discussed, technology has led to the creation of cyber-bullying, a trend that has become increasingly prevalent within society and a trend that should continue to increase with the passage of time. As a result one can only expect suicide attempts to continue to increase. Researchers need to place emphasis on cyber bullying before it gets out of hand.