The Effects of Bullying: Impact on School, Friends & Family - Research Paper

Introduction

Although bullying affects three main categories, these are, those students that are bullied, the ones who bully others, and those seeing it happen, bullying, in general, has an effect on the general school community, friendship groups, and families. Bullying builds up a nature of fear and impacts everyone involved negatively. When a person is bullied, it affects their physical, emotional, social and academic well-being. Those people who are affected can create a lack of confidence, bad feelings about themselves, and feel so isolated. It is an ordeal that is so stressful and a person can find it very difficult to talk about it. The victims feel so ashamed and embarrassed. The devastating effects of bullying can even last up to the adulthood stage.

The Hypothesis

Being bullied creates a feeling of insecurity among young people who are affected. When one is bullied, they can constantly feel insecure and on the guard. A person can have immediate physical health bullying consequences like a physical injury. They can also have long-term effects like sleep disturbances, headaches, and somatization. But it can be very difficult to understand the physical long-term bullying consequences and link them with the past behaviors of bullying. ( Hager and Leadbeater, 2016)

The Method

Children who experience bullying are prone to having severe physical and mental health problems when growing. Unlike other people, they are less likely to build strong relationships with their friends and family or have steady jobs. Most people would see bullying to be a small problem that will "fade away" as one grows. However, according to the findings of my research, it throws a very long shadow over the lives of those affected. As a grown person, it can take some time to heal for me to heal after I am bullied, how about a child? It is not that easy for them and people should dismiss the mindset that bullying is harmless.

The Experiment

Individuals who are bullied can also have somatic symptoms. The emotional impacts of being bullied may be conveyed through the somatic disturbances. They are the physical symptoms that originate from emotional conditions or stress. The most common symptoms may include headaches, chronic pains, palpitations, gastrointestinal concerns, and sleep disorders. According to research conducted, 5, 420 Scottish teenagers were picked and the sleeping challenges examined (Hunter, 2014). The researchers came up with a finding that the teenagers who experienced bullying had twice as many sleeping difficulties than those teenagers not involved in any kind of bullying.

Criticism

In addition, bullying can also have adverse effects on the brain. The brain will process the social pain which describes the " painful feeling which comes after an experience of ostracism, loss, or peer rejection" (Vaillancourt, 2013). For instance, a victim of bullying was asked to describe the emotional toll of the bullying experience and he replied by saying that "Emotionally, it feels like they (the bullies) have kept beating me up using a stick for the past 42 years."

Overall, bullying is a broad topic that needs to be talked about. From my research, I can say that bullying is bad, and when bullied, there is quite a lot you can do. You should try and work it out yourself before you take any other step.

References

Hager, A. D., & Leadbeater, B. J. (2016). The longitudinal effects of peer victimization on physical health from adolescence to young adulthood. Journal of Adolescent Health, 58(3), 330-336.

Vaillancourt, T., Hymel, S., & McDougall, P. (2013). The biological underpinnings of peer victimization: Understanding why and how the effects of bullying can last a lifetime. Theory into Practice, 52(4), 241-248.