Bullying of children is one of the central concerns for educational institutions, parents, and their kids. Being a subject of violence and oppression can negatively affect young students’ physical and mental well-being (Goodwin et al., 2019). The evidence shows that compared to the previous decade, the number of children who suffered from peer-on-peer physical or psychological abuse has reduced, but only in the ‘real’ world context. For instance, in 2005, around 30% of children reported being bullied in 2017, that number reduced by 10% (Wang et al., 2020). However, according to Patchin and Hinduja (2020), the number of cyberbullying cases equals 36.5%. Therefore, it is hard to tell whether the amount of bullying reduced during the last two decades, but it is clear that children’s aggressive behavior has partly shifted to cyberspace.
Nevertheless, the general public usually overestimates the frequency of bullying appearance. Also, it is generally perceived that nowadays, peer-on-peer physical or psychological abuse happens more often than in the past. The latter can be explained by the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, which implies that people tend to overestimate the frequency of a certain event’s occurrence when they become aware of it. In other words, as people now know more about bullying and its negative impact on kids’ well-being, they start noticing this phenomenon more often. As for the former, it is known that human brains register negative stimuli more readily than positive ones, which is known as negative bias (Cherry, 2020). Therefore, individuals are willing to see more information related to bullying and other adverse events, which media makers understand and, thus, produce content accordingly. As a result, the density of shows and articles devoted to bullying creates an illusion that this event appears more often than it does in reality.
Regardless of that, all schools should develop measures that prevent bullying, which can be divided into primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. Primary intervention signifies the attempts to raise students’, teachers’, and parents’ awareness concerning the problem. It can be done, for instance, by spreading posters that would state ‘no to bullying’ or ‘bully-free zone. The secondary measures are more reactive and seek to stop the escalating issue. It may include staff training or conflict resolution cases, to name a few. Finally, the tertiary prevention methods intend to reduce the harm caused by bullying and may consist of therapy and consultation.
References
Cherry, K. (2020).What is the negativity bias?Verywell Mind. Web.
Goodwin, J., Bradley, S. K., Donohoe, P., Queen, K., O’Shea, M., & Horgan, A. (2019). Bullying in schools: An evaluation of the use of drama in bullying prevention.Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, 14(3), 329-342. Web.
Patchin, J. W. & Hinduja, S. (2020). It is time to teach safe sexting.Journal of Adolescent Health, 66(2), 140-143. Web.
Wang, K., Chen, Y., Zhang, J. & Oudekerk, B. A. (2020). Indicators of school crime and safety: 2019. Institute of Education Sciences. Web.
In this regard, the current paper intends to discuss the frequency of bullying appearance and analyze the reasons why people generally overestimate the number of bullying cases. Moreover, this essay presents the steps that can be taken to prevent the bullying.