Adolescence and Bullying - Research Paper Example

? Bullying Adolescence and bullying are quite inter connected. A child needs to learn to harness his energy in a positive manner. Making your child indulge in sports and other extreme exports will help him divert his energy in a more positive manner and towards better utilization. Also, identifying better activities and discovering the hidden potential of the child and giving him better opportunities. A favorable environment should be created so that the bullied can also have the confidence to come forward and talk about their experience. It is very important for the parents to also support the management of the school and help realize the problem that their child might have. Punishing the bullies is a hard but in effect the best method that can be used to overcome the bullies. BULLYING The word Adolescence means the stage in life when the child is between two life stages the child and that of an adult. They are adjusting to a lot of psychological and physical changes within their bodies and minds. They develop a new insight to social perspectives and want to have a say in everything in their life. Their parent’s opinions seem like interference to them, and they want to have complete control over their lives. They are still looking and struggling to identify their own identity and tend to be more bent towards the inclination of their peers and follow group fashion and trends so that they are identified with a group rather than as lonely individuals. They are identified as individuals who are just about to attain puberty to a stage where they start getting a better idea of their role in life. Their ages range from 11-19 roughly. Some researchers believe that range of age should be from 9-19 years, but both of them are rough estimates. Since the kids are approaching towards adult hood they learn to realize their responsibilities as well with time. It is the most formative years of any child. Kids usually go through a lot of psychological problems once they hit the period of adolescence, they tend to remain aloof from their friend and family alike, but some kids start spending higher amount of time with friends, this may disturb the parents, it is highly recommended that the parents shouldn’t be too hard on their adolescent kids at this will turn them into delinquents and make a rebel out of them (Rosenthal, 2008). The adolescent is usually in state of conflict with his/her parents and gets stressed out very easily. The person is seeking freedom and at the same time strives to get the protection from his superiors or parents. They are generally in a sense of confusion with their identity and the kind of relations they should have. They also start feeling attracted to their opposite gender and again feel confused about the feelings that they are having. As the adolescents are themselves very confused, there are some from their peer who are too confident about themselves and sometimes due to overly exposure or disturbance in their families mature quicker. They may also be living in such environments that had helped them learn quicker about the ropes of maturity. These kids generally have a crony or two as they are seen as more experienced or as kids put it “cool” as compared to their peers. They misuse this reputation and usually bully the ones who are still confused. Getting attention from their own peers is the most vital thing that they seek and to establish this they try to overpower their own peers and sometimes even o to great lengths which might even be harmful to them in the long run (Rosenthal, 2008). Bullying is classified as an intentional physical or verbal behavior that is done so as to apparently mitigate the person or dominate the person in front of you so that the person feels threatened or does not as the person is demanding. Bullying not necessarily is done by a person who is physically big. It has been also seen that kids that are smaller in size as compared to their peers also tend to behave in an intimidating way so as to overcome their own sense of deprivation. The insults can be on the basis of race, religion, color and weight. Bullying is an intentional act that can be done deliberately and persistently to humiliate or control others. Bullying is an incident that occurs on daily basis, a onetime incident cannot be confused with bullying. Bullying is the continuous harassment that goes on until some strict measures are taken to stop it. Bullying has three basic characteristics that are common in all kind of bullying. The first and the most foremost is that it is repeated behavior and there always exists a serious imbalance in power, the weaker person has no chance or will power to defend himself or herself. The worst part is that it is a deliberate and intentional behavior, which means that the person bullying knows that he has complete command and he has the false sense of authority over the weaker kid. The most important thing about bullying is the weakness of the one being bullied. The bully is like a demon that feeds on the fear of the one being bullied. The habits of bullying are usually inherent in the child even when he is young. It is the duty of the parents to keep an eye on the kids and take corrective measures to prevent such budding activities. It is highly advisable to keep a watchful eye on the child so that he can get rid of any such habits (Hinduja, Patchin, 2009). The psychological factors that lead to a child becoming a bully are usually psychological ones. A child tends to feel for his own limitations and inadequacy. It is the duty of the parents to help the child overcome these negative feelings, otherwise it is usually seen that a child becomes either very withdrawn or adopts the habits of a bully so as to overcome his weaknesses. Kids that bully are those who usually shirk their responsibilities and are not ready to own it as well. The kids are heartless and are not ready to accept the fact that they are causing pain to others around them. Parenting plays the most major role in the development of the child. If the parents argue with each other a lot and are not careful with what they discuss in front of their children, the child tends to pick up the wrong things and this gets imbedded in their minds. If a father of the family has drinking problems and is abusive then the child remains a very subdued person in front of his parents but then outside among his peers he becomes a bully. If a child is abused by his parents or is beaten up ruthlessly by them, the self-confidence of the child shatters and he tends to become a bully among his peers to demonstrate that he has got power and self-worth. Such a child only bullies to regain his self-worth in his own eyes. Children who feel insecure also bully to overcome their own insecurity. It is also found that some children bully to gain attention. It has been derived from studies that children from broken homes are more prone to bullying and as well as being bullied (Levine, & Munsch, 2011). Environment also has a very important part in a child’s development. Children from minority backgrounds usually have a very disturbed upbringing and therefore they tend to be more of an active participant in the social wrongs. Even children who come from poor families have quite hard exposures to different kinds of brutality and sick behavior. This kind of attitude makes the children have a high level of acceptance of things which wouldn’t be perceived acceptable in the civilized society. The society in which the child is being brought up and the people living around him affect the makeup of the child’s behavior. During adolescence, a child faces cognitive development along with physical development, at that point and time a child absorbs the things that he sees and implements later in life. It is at this stage that a child develops or learns to give up his biases. These biases if not curbed later become a habit ingrained in the child and he starts to behave according to them. As an adolescent is undergoing a set of hormonal changes as well he tends to be quite confused as person. He has high hormones in him which make him feel frustrated at small things. He gets a sense of self-satisfaction when he has a method to let go of his inbuilt ever growing energy (Hinduja, Patchin, 2009). Bullying is a huge problem in high school as well as elementary schools. Schools usually hire psychologists and as well as counselors that remain in school full time. They are easily accessible to kids so that they can come forward and get their problems solved. It is also advisable that schools hire a separate counselor who just roams around and observes the behavior of kids so as to spot any wrong activity. Schools also make extra effort to refer any problem child to better psychologists who are more trained and can help the kid in a far better way than the school counselor can. It is also advisable that the parents should try and strive to provide a better environment to their kids so that the children gain healthy habits only. The parents should avoid fighting in front of their kids so that the children feel less threatened. Providing an environment that has peace, love and respect for each other, makes a child adopt positive things in life, because if a child witnesses abuse, slangs and unruly behavior the child is supposed to have negative impression of nearly everything in life, this negative approach makes a child indulge in self destructive behavior which is harmful to him as well as his peers. The schools should also try to adopt an approach that helps the kids who are being bullied to learn to stand up to the bullies and have enough self-confidence. This will give a boost to their own egos but will also help the bullies learn that they cannot always achieve everything with power. It is highly advisable to make the bullies have sittings with the psychologists as it will help them have a better chance at life (Rosenthal, 2008). REFERENCES Levine, L. E., & Munsch, J. (2011). Child development: An active learning approach. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE. Hinduja, S., & Patchin, J. W. (2009). Bullying beyond the schoolyard: Preventing and responding to cyberbullying. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Corwin Press. Rosenthal, B. (2008). Bullying. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. Read More