Bullying is the use of force, threat, or coercion to abuse, intimidate, or aggressively dominate others. This may happen in the form of physical, verbal, social, or online abuse, and it usually involves a power imbalance between the bully and the victim.
Types Of Bullying
1. Physical Bullying: It includes hitting, kicking, or destroying someone else’s property.
2. Verbal Bullying: This type involves name-calling, teasing, or making threats or hurtful comments.
3. Social/Relational Bullying: This entails excluding an individual, gossiping, or squeezing relationships to damage social standing.
4. Cyberbullying: Includes hurtful messages, sharing of embarrassing content, or spreading rumors online on social media and other digital platforms.
The Impact on Children
- Emotional and Mental Health Issues: It can lead to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and in extreme cases, suicidal thoughts or self-harm.
- Deck of academic struggles: Bullied children may experience a decline in academics As every school toilets are off limits, due to fright.
- Social Isolation: Victims have difficulty making friends, which leaves them feeling lonely and withdrawing from social interactions.
- Physical Health Issues: Stress from bullying can be behind sleep deprivation, headaches, and tummy aches.
Strategies to Raise Awareness of Bullying and Strengthen Children’s Relationships
- Talk openly about bullying with children so that they can understand its damaging effects and distinguish among the different forms of bullying.
- Model empathy by asking children to think about how others feel and reminding them to treat everyone with compassion and consideration.
- As you’re modeling positive behavior in your interactions, demonstrate how to work through conflicts and cope with relationships in healthy ways.
- Urge them to report bullying, and ensure that children feel comfortable talking to trusted adults.
- Encourage diversity in action, which must be taught to respect and achieve.
- Use group activities to promote work and support for each other.
- Instill conflict resolution skills, teaching children ways to navigate differences without resorting to bullying.
- Organize playdates and group outings to develop good friendships.
- When possible, encourage random acts of kindness to reinforce relationships and foster a support system.
- Emphasize online safety, teaching them how to identify and report cyberbullying, and engage in good digital etiquette.