As we continue our five-part series on the impacts to student achievement in Texas, we take a look at bullying. For the first two articles in the series, go to https.www.latterrainpublishing.com/blog
Bullying: an intentional use of physical or psychological power threatened against another person, group or community that either result in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, mal-development, or deprivation.
Elements
According to the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Education, the core elements of the bullying definition include:
unwanted aggressive behavior
observed or perceived power imbalance
repetition of behaviors or high likelihood of repetition
https://www.stopbullying.gov/resources/facts
Prevalence
Almost 30% of U.S. youth, (or over 5.7 million) are estimated to be involved in bullying as either a bully, a target of bullying, or both.
13% of students in grades 6-10, reported bullying others, 11% reported being the target of bullies, and another 6% said that they bullied others and were bullied themselves.
Approximately 40% of high school students experience bullying directed at their race or ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or disability (Russell, Sinclair, Poteat, & Koenig, 2012).
https://tarrant.tx.networkofcare.org/ps/library/
Modes
Direct Bullying – that which occurs in the presence of a targeted youth.
Indirect Bullying – that which is not directly communicated to a targeted youth.
Types
Physical – using one’s body and physical bodily acts to exert power over peers. Punching, kicking and other physical attacks are all types of physical bullying.
Verbal – when an individual uses verbal language (e.g., insults, teasing, etc.) to gain power over his or her peers.
Relational – especially common among girls and involves trying to hurt a peer and/or that peer’s standing within a particular peer group.
Resources
Texas Project FIRST - Social Skills & Relationship Resources or Emotional Behavior Issues for Social Emotional Learning
Bullying Resource Center - https://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Resource_Centers/Bullying_Resource_Center/Home.aspx
To find more resources on bullying awareness and prevention, visit: https://selforschools.com/familytalk
Developmental Impacts of Bullying on Student Achievement
The link between bully victimization and academic functioning is less straightforward compared with that of victimization and behavioral and mental health outcomes.
Behavioral Impacts
Bullying behavior is motivated by the pursuit of social dominance in the peer group [Pellegrini 2002; Salmivalli and Peets, 2008] as cited by Pan, Zhang, Ji, Garandeau, Salmivalli, & Zhang).
Children who strive for social dominance goals are more likely to bully others when power is less equally distributed in the classroom [Pellegrini 2002; Salmivalli and Peets, 2008] as cited by Pan, Zhang, Ji, Garandeau, Salmivalli, & Zhang).
Victims of bias-based bullying report poorer mental health compared to students who either have experienced bullying that is not based on bias, or students who have not experienced any form of bullying victimization. (Russell et al., 2012).
“...classroom status hierarchy influences the behavioral strategies of dominance-aspiring children”, [Pellegrini 2002; Salmivalli and Peets, 2008] as cited by Pan, Zhang, Ji, Garandeau, Salmivalli, & Zhang).
Academic Impacts
Teens who reported higher rates of bully victimization were more likely to have lower grades than those who did not experience peer victimization [Nakamoto & Schwartz, 2010] as cited by Davis, Dumas, Merrin, Espelage, Tan, Madden & Hong, 2018).
Often, violence and aggression directed toward teachers occurs when teachers attempt to discipline students for problem behaviors, regardless of the nature. [McMahon et al., 2014] as cited by Shurtleff, 2020).
When bullying victims perceive conflictual relationships with teachers, they tend to experience greater internalizing distress, ([Kremer, 2010] as cited by Yang and Sharkey, Reed, & Chen and Dowdy, 2018).
“Students in classrooms with less authoritative climates are victimized to a higher degree”, (Thornberg, Wänström, & Jungert, 2018).
Elizabeth Thomas is an educator, writer, publisher, entrepreneur, and change agent. She has published three volumes of poetry and two children's books. You can find them at https://www.latterrainpublishing.com/online-store. She is also the Editor-in-Chief for Queen Things Online Magazine. latterrainpublishing.wixsite.com/queenthingszine.
Find Elizabeth on social media at: www.facebook.com/dueseasonwriters,www.instagram.com/essentialeme,www.twitter.com/essentialeme,www.linkedin.com//in/ethomasmpl/
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