What Are Various Forms of Bullying?

Students Must Be Taught Differences Between Teasing and Bullying

Nov 17, 2008 Barbara Pytel

Students caught "bullying" often respond, "I was just messing around." How are messing around and bullying different?

Students often do not know the difference between being funny and bullying. Adults can step in and teach the differences.

One guidance program that teaches these skills with enjoyable role plays is The Second Step program by Committee for Children. This curriculum not only teaches relationship skills in a manner that is fun for children to learn, but also has Steps to Respect: A Bullying Prevention Program at several grade levels. Both of these programs stress respectful behavior and clearly draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable behaviors.

Horseplay

Two children are wrestling and giggling. They are of equal size and age. Suddenly one hits his head hard on the floor and begins to cry in pain. The other child instantly stops and asks, "Are you okay?" The child feels bad that he hurt his friend. This is horseplay.

Fighting

Children have been fighting for thousands of years. A "fair fight" is between two children equal in power. After the fight is over, the situation is usually resolved and the event is forgotten. The issue has been laid to rest.

Bullying

Bullying is about power. It may be physical power or social power or emotional power but it is about "power." While horseplay and fighting often happen between friends, bullying is usually not between friends. It is often between a stronger and weaker person. The stronger person targets a weaker person and exerts power over them. It is repeated, intentional and it often happens in school. The bully knows he or she is hurting the targeted person and does it anyway.

There are eight main areas of bullying:

• Direct physical bullying results in hitting, kicking, shoving, threatening gestures, spitting on someone, pulling hair, stealing property or destroying property.
• Indirect physical bullying results in getting someone else to do the hitting, kicking, shoving, spitting, and stealing from the victim.
• Direct social bullying is purposefully embarrassing someone by publicly announcing that they are not invited to the birthday party of the year. It could also be the announcement that a person is no longer welcome to join a group in activities. It could be social rejection resulting in threatening notes, letters, email, text messages, or any other form of public humiliation.
• Indirect social bullying is often accomplished by vicious rumors, telling embarrassing secrets, ignoring someone, or setting someone up to be humiliated. The movie Carrie is a perfect example of leading someone on and then humiliating them.
• Direct verbal bullying is very obvious. The target is called names, taunted; teased about how they look, included in notes passed from student to student, and humiliated is some manner.
• Indirect verbal bullying is when students get others to do the mean spirited acts for them. Electronics are often used for this form of bullying. Texting a message for someone else, using MSN, MySpace, or posting embarrassing pictures of someone are all forms of indirect bullying.
• Direct intimidation is a dirty look, cornering someone in public with no escape, threats of bodily harm, and making public derogatory comments about family.
• Indirect intimidation is telling someone that another party is going to beat him or her up. It is also getting others mad at a person or getting them to make threats toward someone. Going up to John and telling him that everyone hates him and saying everyone wishes he were dead is a form of indirect intimidation.

Bullying Damages Long-Term

Bullying and harassment is not a petty incident resulting in a few tears. It should not be treated lightly with "boys will be boys" or "that's just middle school." Bullying may have long-term effects affecting people for a lifetime. Some adult anxieties are related to being bullied in school. It is vicious and should not be permitted in any schools.

Source: "Early intervention and prevention are the keys to stopping the bullying in our schools." Stephanie Duffek, The Hartley Sentinel, Hartley, IA. 2007.

Related article: Suicides Increasing from Bullying

The copyright of the article What Are Various Forms of Bullying? in Educational Issues is owned by Barbara Pytel. Permission to republish What Are Various Forms of Bullying? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Bullying Is Usually Not Among Friends

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Comments

Nov 17, 2008 11:50 AM

Guest :

While many think bullies are most likely to be boys, our school has a group of girls so vicious that the boys are afraid of them. The teachers have recently become aware of what is going on. They fly under the radar as you mentioned. The girls started petitions wanting to fire selected teachers for giving too much homework. They expected reserved seating on buses and got people to do their homework for them. If they didn't like a hot lunch, they got students to boycott the lunch by sitting down in the lunchroom and refusing to eat. Anyone that ate was a traitor. The parents were called in for a meeting. The majority of parents felt truly bad and would handle this at home. But two of the mothers supported their daughters and called them "leaders" stating others were jealous of their leadership capabilities. It was amazing to watch the denial. So, yes, bullying is not always about lunch money or the clothes you wear. Bullying is about control.

Nov 19, 2008 1:27 PM

Guest :

Boy, do we as parents and teachers really miss the indirect bullying! Kids get the "underlings" to do the dirty work for them and think they aren't bullying.

Dec 1, 2008 8:38 AM

Guest :

i think this article is a good one because to me it brings a lot of truth to the bullying world in that you can be bullied by anyone in any way so truly it is all how you look at it.

Dec 2, 2008 9:22 AM

Guest :

Great information. I copied the eight points and made a lesson on bullying out of it for my students. They were shocked that many of these behaviors were considered bullying. They thought only physical aggression was bullying and didn't realize that verbal battering or leaving someone out could be bullying too. This led to recent headlines of a student that committed suicide because of internet bullying. It was a very productive and eye-opening class period. Thanks.

4 Comments