Bullying Prevention- What To Do If Your Child is Being Bullied
Bullying has become a prevalent issue within today’s society, with it more frequently being an issue within schools and amongst students and children. Understanding and seeing the signs of bullying are some of the keys to being able to stop it from happening or continuing to occur. Today’s post will look more into what Bullying is and what can to be done to address it before a situation becomes worse.
What is Bullying?
According to StopBullying.gov, Bullying is as followed: unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully others may have serious, lasting problems.
In order to be considered bullying, the behavior must be aggressive and include:
- An Imbalance of Power: Kids who bully use their power—such as physical strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularity—to control or harm others. Power imbalances can change over time and in different situations, even if they involve the same people.
- Repetition: Bullying behaviors happen more than once or have the potential to happen more than once.
Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.
Effects of Bullying:
Kids who are bullied can experience negative physical, social, emotional, academic, and mental health issues. Kids who are bullied are more likely to experience:
- Depression and anxiety, increased feelings of sadness and loneliness, changes in sleep and eating patterns, and loss of interest in activities they used to enjoy. These issues may persist into adulthood.
- Health complaints
- Decreased academic achievement—GPA and standardized test scores—and school participation. They are more likely to miss, skip, or drop out of school.
A very small number of bullied children might retaliate through extremely violent measures. In 12 of 15 school shooting cases in the 1990s, the shooters had a history of being bullied.
As a parent, trying to understand a situation or what can be done for you child can be a very difficult thing to handle and manage. It’s important to be aware of signs of your child is being bullied and keep in the mind the following to better address and understand these concerns:
Help Kids Understand Bullying
Kids who know what bullying is can better identify it. They can talk about bullying if it happens to them or others. Kids need to know ways to safely stand up to bullying and how to get help.
- Encourage kids to speak to a trusted adult if they are bullied or see others being bullied. The adult can give comfort, support, and advice, even if they can’t solve the problem directly. Encourage the child to report bullying if it happens.
- Talk about how to stand up to kids who bully. Give tips, like using humor and saying “stop” directly and confidently. Talk about what to do if those actions don’t work, like walking away
- Talk about strategies for staying safe, such as staying near adults or groups of other kids.
- Urge them to help kids who are bullied by showing kindness or getting help.
- Contact yor Child’s teacher or Principal and work with them to find a resolution to stop the Bullying.
Keep the Lines of Communication Open
Research tells us that children really do look to parents and caregivers for advice and help on tough decisions. Sometimes spending 15 minutes a day talking can reassure kids that they can talk to their parents if they have a problem. Start conversations about daily life and feelings with questions like these:
- What was one good thing that happened today? Any bad things?
- What is lunch time like at your school? Who do you sit with? What do you talk about?
- What is it like to ride the school bus?
- What are you good at? What would do you like best about yourself?
Talking about bullying directly is an important step in understanding how the issue might be affecting kids. There are no right or wrong answers to these questions, but it is important to encourage kids to answer them honestly. Assure kids that they are not alone in addressing any problems that arise.
If Your interested in building your child’s confidence and learning how to better manage situations like these, schedule a free lesson at our school with one of our professional instructors today by calling us at 856-405-0008! We are a Black Belt School and Bullying Prevention is an integral part of our curriculum. By building better confidence and conflict resolution skills for our students, we ensure a better future and overall outlook for our students overall!!
Mr. Lee MSW
3rd Degree Black Belt Instructor