National Bullying Prevention Month
To call attention to this devastating issue and help families and communities find solutions, October has been declared National Bullying Prevention Month by PACER, an advocacy group for children with disabilities – a frequent target of bullies, who usually seek out the weak and powerless.
The need for such a campaign is painfully clear. According to the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), being bullied puts youth at higher risk for depression, anxiety, sleep difficulties, lower academic achievement, and dropping out of school, and can lead to physical injury, social and emotional distress, self-harm and even death.
Thankfully, bullying is no longer being shrugged off as a normal rite of childhood and no informed parent tells a child to “stand up for yourself” or “just ignore it and it will stop.” Efforts like PACER’s awareness month can help parents, educators and community members learn more about bullying so they can help prevent it. PACER calls the campaign “a nationwide call to action” that bullying can be prevented and stopped through education and awareness.
What Is Bullying?
The CDC defines bullying as repeated acts of “unwanted aggressive behavior” by one youth or youth group against another who is not their sibling or in a dating relationship with the victim. Power is the driving force behind the behavior: the stronger person attacking someone they perceive to be weaker. But physical, psychological, social, or educational harm.
Even the bullies can be harmed, says the CDC. They are at higher risk of substance misuse, academic problems and experiencing violence later in adolescence and adulthood. When they are also bullied themselves, they are at greater risk for mental health and behavioral problems.
Bullies work in several ways: physically, by using aggressive behavior like hitting, kicking and tripping; verbally, such as name-calling and teasing; socially, through harmful rumors and excluding from the group; and damaging the victim’s property.
An increasingly common form of bullying is cyberbullying, hurting the victim with technology like social media and texting. It’s an especially harmful form. Unlike other kinds of bullying, cyberbullying never stops; it follows the victim home and can be conducted virtually around the clock. It can also involve many more than one bully – groups can gang up on the victim. Even if the victim gets them to stop, the damaging rumors and false accusations remain in cyberspace forever.
Cyber activity is one of the specific acts cited in the anti-bullying policies of the school boards of both Broward and Miami-Dade counties, which added the policies several years ago in acknowledgement of the harm bullying can do to academic performance and students’ overall well-being. Both school boards’ definition of bullying includes teasing, social exclusion, threats, intimidation, stalking, physical violence, theft, public or private humiliation, destruction of property, and sexual, religious or racial/ethnic harassment.
Nationwide, bullying is on the increase – from 26 percent in 2019 to 40 percent in 2023 – according to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s annual Youth Right Now survey. The survey also reports that 18 percent said they experienced cyberbullying – up from 13 percent in 2019.
Hurting Academic Performance
Students who suffer from bullying also find their schoolwork suffering. According to a study cited by the American Psychological Association, children who suffered chronic levels of bullying during their school years had lower academic achievement, a greater dislike of school and less confidence in their academic abilities. The performance was about the same for children who had experienced moderate bullying that increased later in their school years.
The good news is that children who suffered decreasing bullying showed about the same performance as children who had never been bullied – so it may be possible to recover from bullying after it stops.
That makes it even more important to focus on prevention of bullying.
Top 5 Ways to Protect Yourself
The website StopBullying.org offers these and other strategies to deal with bullying, including cyberbullying:
- Seek assistance from an adult, friend, or classmate when a potentially threatening situation occurs.
- Avoid unsafe places; walk with friends or a small group of friendly peers.
- Never accept friend or network requests from unfamiliar people.\Follow the “forever” principle: Assume that everything you put online will be there forever.
- Block threatening or questionable people from seeing your profile and personal information.
- Regularly change passwords to sites and applications, and immediately delete profiles that have been hacked.
Get Involved and Take Action
Everyone suffers from bullying, not just the bully’s targets. When one person is diminished and discouraged from becoming all they can be, the entire community loses the contributions they might have made. The CDC advises communities to work together by creating a supportive space for all, with strategies like early childhood home visitation, parenting classes and family relationship programs. The agency recommends strengthening youth skills with universal school-based programs and building programs that connect youth to caring adults.
Be Strong International has been taking this approach since we were first founded to strengthen family relationships and provide children, youth and teens with the tools they need to succeed mentally and emotionally. From Project H.O.P.E. to the Be Strong After School Club and GEMS (Girls Empowerment Mastery Sessions), many of our programs are specifically dedicated to helping teens and young adults make informed decisions about healthy relationships and character development, while the Raising the B.A.R. Parent Alliance helps parents raise happy, healthy, successful children. We infuse all programs with Heart SkillsTM, our unique guidance that brings the mind, will and emotions into harmony for greater self-reflection and purposeful alignment with anyone we seek to meaningfully connect with. By guiding our young people to reach out in a conscious effort to understand each other, we can help them build the self-esteem and confidence they need to seek help against bullying behavior and overcome it.
To learn more about bullying and get involved in the fight to prevent it – or to report instances that affect your child or others – see the Resources section of this article.
Facts About Bullying
According to PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center and the National Center for Education Statistics:
- One of every five students report being bullied – made fun of, physically attacked or excluded from activities on purpose.
- Most say they were targeted for their physical appearance, race/ethnicity, gender, disability, religion or sexual orientation.
- Almost half of youth ages 9-12 say they have experienced bullying at school and 14.5 percent say they have experienced bullying online.
- Of students ages 12-18 who report being bullied, 15 say they were bullied online or by text.
- Cyberbullying varies by gender. Girls are more likely to be the subject of hurtful rumors while boys more often get threats of physical harm.
- School-based bullying prevention programs decrease bullying by up to 25 percent.
Resources
- CDC Fast Fact: Prevent Bullying – Defining the problem and specific action everyone can take to prevent it.
https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/youthviolence/bullyingresearch/fastfact.html
- PACER: National Bullying Prevention Month – Information and tools for raising awareness of the problem and taking action against it.
https://www.pacer.org/bullying
- PACER: Sites for Kids and Teens – How children and teens can identify and deal with the problem, including a checklist to determine if you’ve been engaging in bullying behavior.
https://www.pacer.org/bullying/info/sites-for-kids-and-teens.asp
- Stop Bullying – How to recognize bullying behavior and what you and your child can do when experiencing it.
In English https://www.stopbullying.gov and Spanish https://espanol.stopbullying.gov.
- STOMP Out Bullying™ HelpChat Crisis Line – A free, confidential online chat that helps youth ages 13-24 with issues around bullying, cyberbullying and suicidal thoughts. ; as well as providing support to youths who may be at risk of suicide.
https://www.stompoutbullying.org/helpchat
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Sources:
PACER: https://www.pacer.org/bullying/info/stats.asp
CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/youthviolence/bullyingresearch/fastfact.html
American Psychological Association: https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/01/school-bullying
