Pupils who experienced bullying at school or elsewhere are more likely to experience long-term effects of bullying.
Bullying can be in many form. It can be homophobic, racist and even sexist. Reasons people bully others could depend on their personal circumstances. These could include insecurities, problems at home, a troubled childhood, personality and even receiving lack of attention from parents and/or teachers.
For others, it may be about being in control, gaining popularity or even a sense of importance. Those who don’t receive enough attention can turn to bullying as a way to assert power.
People who’ve been bullied could suffer forms of mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, they can also experience difficulties in sleeping, loss of appetite, and a loss of interest in activities that they would usually enjoy.
The effects of bullying can continue well into adulthood and can have a persistent effect on mental health and social life. They can also have a negative effect on grades and academic performance at college and university. There’s also a chance of a higher risk of substance abuse and bad employment performance.
Bullying can be physical or verbal. It can consist of name-calling, physical attacks, isolation, spreading cruel rumours, threatening, intimidation, stereotyping and belittling. It can be in person or online, and it can involve inappropriate sexual remarks, taking and breaking someone else’s things or even spitting on them.
Our course, Bullying in Schools, can help you understand ways in which you can support victims of bullying and help reduce levels of bullying.
During this course, you’ll learn to identify the different types of bullying, understand the effects of bullying on a pupil, identify what schools do to successfully manage bullying, understand types of help and support available for children experiencing bullying and how to keep children safe in schools.
For example, educational professionals in Finland understand how to reduce bullying and victimisation in their country, which has one of the world’s leading education systems. They already have a comprehensive anti-bullying program in place called KiVa™ (from the Finnish words “kiusaamista vastaan,” meaning “against bullying”).
A key measure of the programme’s success is that 98% of the students whose bullying incidents were tackled by the school’s KiVa™ team said their situations improved.
Our course will give you an in-depth knowledge of how to implement effective methods (e.g. preventing and responding to bullying, and creating a culture and systems that enables children to report bullying incidents without feeling that they are ‘telling’ on their bullies), and practices and procedures to follow to reduce and prevent bullying in schools.
It covers a variety of areas, including helping and supporting victims, staying safe online and developing a whole school response. It is perfect not just for teachers, teaching assistants and anyone in the education sector, but for parents too.
The course will also help you to understand cyber bullying and how to keep children safe online. These are all very important issues to help prevent children from experiencing the long-term effects of bullying later on in their lives and to stop problems persisting into adulthood.
Effects of Bullying in Adulthood
The long-term effects of bullying in adults can include increased social difficulties and difficulties in establishing and maintaining relationships and friendships. They may have difficulty trusting people, an increased tendency to be a loner and they might be more likely to engage in self-destructive behaviours such as substance misuse.
The effects of bullying in adults can produce feelings of low self-worth and lingering feelings of anger and bitterness. They can include self-image issues and lead to mental health conditions such as body dysmorphia, anxiety disorders related to personal appearance and body image issues.
There is help and support available for victims of bullying, often in the form of counselling. Lots of schools have their own in-house counselling services. The Samaritans are also a fantastic resource, as their 24 hour helpline and walk-in service branches across the UK are staffed with highly trained staff and volunteers.
Short-Term Effects of Bullying:
- Increased anxiety
- Increased depression
- More withdrawn
- Loneliness
- Feeling severely unhappy
- Traumatised
- Fearful
- Low Self-Esteem
- Loss of confidence
- Struggle to adjust
Cyberbullying
With the ever-growing popularity of social media websites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and the number of users growing every month, young people today face even bigger threats with online trolling (posting inflammatory messages and starting arguments over the internet) and abuse.
It has given way to another type of bullying – cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying is damaging, but awareness is on the rise. The abuse can be much more frequent. It has received a lot of attention in the media and has even led to the suicide of many teens and young people.
Cyberstalking
Cyberstalking is another form of bullying, it involves using the internet to stalk and harass someone. It can include identity theft, threats and monitoring.
It is a criminal offence and is often motivated by a desire to control, intimidate or influence a victim. A conviction can result in a restraining order, probation, or criminal penalties against the assailant, including jail.
Spot the Signs…
It’s clear to see that the effects of bullying can be highly damaging to adults. Understanding the effects of bullying is useful in order to prevent children from experiencing the effects of bullying later on in adulthood.
Bullying is often an overlooked and stigmatised issue in society and our Bullying in Schools course will help you to spot the signs of bullying early on.
What are your thoughts on the effects of bullying? Has it affected you later in life? Do you think the effects are long-lasting? Let us know below…
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