How bullying affects school life

Welcome back to the Think B4 U Type Blog!

Last week we identified different types of online abuse and the facts and effects of cyberbullying. 

In this blog post, we will be discussing how bullying affects school life and why people bully people online. 

How bullying affects school life

Being bullied can affect a plethora of aspects of a person's life while they are at school. (Young-Jones, A., Fursa, S., Byrket, J.S. et al.) found that, 'When bullying acts are carried out on school grounds, exposure to violence can result in students experiencing lower self-esteem, achievement, and/or motivation in the classroom; academic achievement can also decline from low social support or high stress while victimization is occurring.' This displays some of the ways that bullying can affect young people in school. This also includes cyberbullying which is much more common nowadays with the availability of online social media. 

Furthermore, this shows that when being bullied, it can affect your mental health and this can impact on other things including your confidence and your ability to retain information when learning at school because other things are on your mind which makes it hard to concentrate. Ultimately, this can lead to lower attainment at school and could affect a young person's future. And this shows why you should always Think B4 U Type something to someone online, as this could affect them in many ways. 

Why do people bully people online?

There could be a million reasons why somebody decides to bully another person, many do it subconsciously and even the perpetrator may not know that their actions could amount to bullying. (Underwood MK, Ehrenreich SE) show that, 'Youth may engage in bullying to harm others’ relationships as a way of protecting their own, and as a way of coping with their intense feelings of anxiety about feeling excluded.' This suggests one reason why young people often engage in bullying and harassment behaviour, they are often struggling within themselves. Young people experience a lot of challenging times at school and bullying may seem like a way to cope with their own struggles. 

This displays that being a young person and being at school is an already very tough time for all, and this is why you should always be kind to your peers and stay safe on social media platforms. Through educating one another on the risks of cyberbullying and reporting instances of it when we identify it online, we can help to protect one-another and make social media platforms a happier place. 

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Bibliography

Young-Jones, A., Fursa, S., Byrket, J.S. et al. Bullying affects more than feelings: the long-term implications of victimization on academic motivation in higher education. Soc Psychol Educ 18, 185–200 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-014-9287-1

Underwood MK, Ehrenreich SE. Bullying May Be Fueled by the Desperate Need to Belong. Theory Pract. 2014;53(4):265-270. doi: 10.1080/00405841.2014.947217. PMID: 26236056; PMCID: PMC4520317.