Children Development And Causes Of Bullying

Children Development and Bullying Shunshun Lyu LAI 205 Amy Mace 2018/5/16 Children Development and Bullying Introduction Bullying can be explained using its three pertinent elements: an aggressive act intended to cause harm; the acts are repeated again and again, and they take place within the power imbalance context. Power imbalance can arise from differences in physical strength, access to crucial information, and popularity of an individual or a group (Aydin et al., 2018). This means that bullying is a series of acts committed by a child to achieve or affirm greater power over a different child who is hurt in the process. By defining bullying, we gain the ability to differentiate rough and tumble play and other elements of developing social skills of young children and an act of bullying. Research studies show that 20.4% of 2-5 years-old children suffered from physical bullying and 14.6% were verbally bullied in their lifetime (Snow, 2014). Additionally, a study on 4-year-olds shows that 25% of them are bullies, 22% are victims, and 2% are victim/bully (Snow, 2014). Bullying has harmful affects the mental and physical well-being of the bully, the victim, the bully-victim, and the witnesses (Rivers & Duncan, 2013). The research question is: How does bullying affect the early development of the child bully, victim, and witness? The research is based on bullying amongst school children. Causes of Bullying Family changes Divorce is the primary cause of family changes (Al-Raqqad et al., 2017). After a divorce, life changes for everyone, including children. Children especially, at a young age are affected more by divorce. After divorce, children experience many drastic changes in life which can disorient them. Divorce leads to low self-esteem among children. To rejuvenate their self-esteem, children can resort to excessive aggressiveness and violence (Yegelski, 2018). The violence and unwanted aggressiveness can cause a child to bully the weaker children. Changes on Views of Discipline Different parents have varying views about discipline. Some parents may have been raised by parents in a strict way. The parents who come from the overly strict households may also try to use the same approaches for their own children (Al-Raqqad et al., 2017). In attempts to be tolerant, the parents may end up being lenient with any form of behavior in their children. The leniency with children’s behavior can lead to aggressive behavior in children. Effects of Bullying Effects on the Victim With early childhood bullying, the biological development of children is incomplete. The children also do not have a proper understanding of themselves. Any form of distress can lead to alteration of the children’s development. Bullying is a form of distress that can be traumatizing to the victims (Heath et al., 2013). Trauma from bullying affects development and children’s understanding of their environment. Bullying may cause psychiatric disorder among children victims. Bullying can lead to children’s depression, antisocial personality disorder, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and substance use disorders. Copeland and his colleagues found that victims of bullying are significantly more likely to have recurrent thoughts of committing suicide and to attempt suicide (Copeland, Wolke, & Cosello, 2013). They also discovered that youths and children who experienced or are experiencing bullying have higher rates of psychiatric disorders. Bullying affects victims’ academic progress adversely. Kowalski & Limber (2013) explains that bullying affects academic achievements of children negatively. Such is influenced by high rate of school absenteeism among victims. Bullying influences children to associate school with unnecessary and unjustified suffering. They respond by avoiding going to school, which in the long-run is manifested in their poorer academic outcomes. Victims also tend to be fearful of participating in school and class activities; this makes them lose opportunities of meeting their peers to discuss academic issues (Al-Raqqad et al., 2017). Another development problem of the bullying victims is manifested in their physical health developments. Bullying victims are likely to be unhealthy or to develop health issues (Kowalski & Limber, 2013). Victims may experience stomach pains, headaches, poor appetite, and fatigue. The can also experience sleeping problems and since sleep is essential for mental and physical growth, the victims are likely to have mental problems and weak physical growth. Effects on the Bullies Bullies tend to be more aggressive within the school environment. The bullies are much stronger and healthier than their victims. Bullies also like the victims experience and the developmental effects of their acts such as anti-social behavior (Wolke & Leraya, 2015). The anti-social behavior can result in the bullies engaging themselves in early sexual activities. The premature sexual activity can lead to early pregnancies and families (Zuckerman, 2016). The bullies can also manifest the aggressive behavior in their adolescence or adulthood such as intolerance behaviors towards their wives and children (Zuckeman, 2016). They may not be able to show love to their close relatives. Another effect is indulgencing in drug abuse. Since bullying has the effect of...