The Quite Victims of Bullying

On this blog I will wrap up my description and analysis on victims of bullying as discussed within the 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 victims are often more quite, cautious, anxious, insecure, and sensitive than their peers. In addition, they usually have poor communication skills and problem-solving skills. The poor communication skills exhibited by victims often deter them from conversing with their peers, which consequently results in fewer friends. In fact, Smokowski and Kopasz report that a study found that “victims of bullying demonstrated poorer social and emotional adjustment, greater difficulty making friends, few relationships with peers, and greater loneliness.” Another study found that many victims relate much better to adults, than their own peers. This last finding may prove to be extremely critical towards understanding victims of bullying. It seems that victims of bullying are in a way reaching towards help. However their lack of social and communicative skills seems to be the factor that prevents victims from expressing their needs. As a result, anti-bullying strategies should aim to improve the communication that exists between bullies and the corresponding authoritative figure. However it should be noted that the improvement of communicative skills should be focused on all age groups, not only children.

Smokowski and Kopasz point out that the lack of communication skills often hinders victims from reporting their bullying incidents. This is particularly concerning because when victims neglect to report bullying incidents, it may encourage and cause bullies to continue to target these individuals as victims. As I have stated before, bullies seem to have a false sense of invisibility. On this occasion bullies see their victims as easy target. The journal article also highlights that victims of bullying often suffer from poor self-esteem and see themselves as failures, unattractive, unintelligent, and insignificant. This ends up creating for victims an erroneous sense of self-blame. As result, anti-bullying strategies should not only focus on the remediation of bullies and correcting their behaviors. Anti-bullying strategies should also pay attention towards the remediation of the victims of bullying, since they may suffer deep and invisible mental wounds.

Victims of Bullying

On this blog I will begin my analysis victims of bullying as discussed within the 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 Smokowski and Kopasz most victims of bullying are passive or submissive, however one-third of bullying victims exhibit aggressive attitudes. The journal article only briefly mentions this tendency. However, I believe that this statement is of critical importance and demands further investigation. Researchers may be neglecting a critical sub-population of victims. It may be that these victims are in the process of becoming the bully-victims I have previously discussed in the past. These victims may provide critical revelations to researchers investigating the factors that trigger aggressive behaviors within people. In fact, it may be that the aggressive behavior exhibited by certain victims provides one answer for the existence of bully-victims. It may be that these victims have found that their only route of escape or temporarily relief from bullying is to bully other individuals themselves. In this manner these victims may at least deter some individuals from bullying them all of the time.

Smokowski and Kopasz describe victims of bullying as being physically small, weak, and frail when compared to bullies. In fact, the journal article states that the physical composure of victims is what often leaves them vulnerable and “unable to protect themselves from [the] abuse [of bullies].” The journal article goes on to state that victims of bullying may exhibit “body anxiety” and fear towards getting hurt. In fact, when victims of bullying are attacked, Smokowski and Kopasz report that victims usually react by crying or withdrawing.  Although all the aforementioned characteristics are typical of victims, it would be erroneous to believe that they are always true. In fact, I believe it would be erroneous to think of bullying as being based exclusively on physical characteristics. For example, individuals can be marginalized based on their mental capabilities. This phenomenon can be observed within school settings during the formation of groups for school based projects. Students considered “smart” will often marginalize certain students and prevent them from joining their groups. In fact, on some occasions, “smart” students can be seen making fun of students who are not as knowledgeable as they are.

The Importance of Not Labeling Kids "Bullies" or "Victims"

In this blog I will discuss an online post found within the website “stopbullying.gov”, regarding the importance of not using bullying terms to label children. According to the stopbully.gov, “it is easy to call the kids who bully others ‘bullies’ and those who are targeted ‘victims’, but this may have unintended [negative] consequences.” When children are labeled according to bullying roles, it can “send the message that the child’s behavior cannot change.” In addition, bullying labels “fail to recognize the multiple roles children can play in different bullying situations,” and can “disregard other factors contributing to the [bullying] behavior, such as peer influence or school climate.”
           Since using bullying labels on children has a negative effect on the mindset of children, adults should do their best to refrain from using such labels, at least when in the presence of children. The online post does a great job of pointing out the inefficiency of using bullying labels. As the online post points out, it is important for researchers working on creating anti-bullying strategies to realize and keep in mind that some children alternate between occupying the role of a bully and occupying the role of a bullying victim, depending on the specific scenario. The online post also points out the importance of taking into consideration all the possible factors that can lead to the creation of a bullying scenario. By being mindful of all the factors that can possibly lead to the creation of a bullying scenario researchers may have an easier time determining the source of a specific bullying scenario, which I believe will facilitate the job of researchers who are working on creating and implementing effective anti-bullying strategies.
           Overall, this online post, points out the arbitrariness that exists within bullying. As the online post reminds us, not only can the definitions of “bullying,” “bullies,” and “victims” vary from person to person, the factors that lead to the creation of each bullying scenario can vary and are virtually infinite. Although the aforementioned realizations may be discouraging for researchers who believed in the existence of a perfect anti-bullying strategy capable of resolving all bullying scenarios, perhaps the realizations have also led to an inspiring new discovery. It may be that until now bullying researchers and investigators have failed to realize that discovering the source of bullying may be the most important step in creating effective anti-bullying strategies. If this is the case, then perhaps these realizations are a step in the right direction.

Bully, Victim, and Bully/Victim Characteristics

             Today I will discuss some of the characteristics that according to “The causes and nature of bullying and social exclusion in schools”, by Maria el Mar Badia Martin, are exhibited by bullies, victims, and bully/victims. According to the text, victims of bullying are “often targeted because they are considered different,” which usually entails being “overweight, small, [having] a learning disability, or [being] overly sensitive.” However, I think it is important to realize that victims may be equally targeted for having the opposite traits, such as being underweight, being extremely tall, being very intelligent, or being emotionally indifferent. As a result, I believe that the key word found within Badia Martin’s description of victims is the word “different”. There is no perfect category that encompasses all victims of bullying because humans, especially children, are extremely creative, even if the creativeness is not always used for good intentions. As a result, if children set their minds to bullying, they will always find a way to make fun of another person who is different or whom they dislike.

            The text states that both boys and girls can be bullies and victims. However, the text also notes that “there is a pattern to their meanness.” According to the text, “girls generally mock others for their physical appearance.” On the other hand, “boys tend to make more sexually explicit comments.” The text offers no possible explanation for these findings. However, it seems to me that in both cases there may be issues regarding self-conscious awareness. It may be that bullies, both boys and girls, are trying to increase their own-self esteem. Perhaps bullying originates as a form of retaliation to bullying experiences of the past, or as a form of protection in which the bully bullies others with the intent to appear as the dominant individual and to deter other individuals who might try to bully them.

            In regards to bully/victims the text states that bully/victims “have irritative tendencies, are often hyperactive in [school], often break rules in games, try to join groups in a heavy-handed manner and provoke bullying behavior from others.” In addition, the text states that bully/victims are “provocative, physically stronger and more assertive than pure victims and have been found to be the least popular children in class.” The awkward position in which bully/victims find themselves might be what forces these individuals to act in the aforementioned manners. Just imagine the amount of inner pressure bully/victims feel as they pass from being the victim to being the bully, and vice-versa. It seems to me that most bully/victims begin as victims only, but then because of social pressures and the necessity to “fit in”, or in order to no longer be victimized, the victims start to bully others who are weaker than them. As a result, bully/victims are left being the most unpopular children in school, because they are hated by those who bully them and are also hated by their victims. The text seems to support this viewpoint, because it states that “bully/victims and their behavior problems appear to match closely [to] the picture of the rejected aggressive pupil.”