Bullying is something that is not strange to our society today. This has reached a level that is extremely frustrating and alarming by various parties such as school, parents, government, society, and others. Bullying is considered a common form of violence in schools. Maliki et al., 2009 stated that bullying causes schools to be a life-threatening place for the school’s students and it leads to the idea that some schools are becoming not safe anymore.
According to a research, bullying case is increasing every year among students, especially school students and in public higher education institutions. School bullying is psychologically dangerous to not only the victim but bullies because of the harmful words, physical violence and harassment involved as well as the ramifications for the bully. Research also shows that there is a slightly higher percentage of female students being bullied in schools with 23% compared to male students which only 19%. Therefore, precaution steps should be taken to address bullying problems in schools. According to UNICEF Malaysia, up to 80%of primary school students have been bullied and most of it taking place in the classroom. The National Centre for Educational Statistics shows that bullying always takes places in the hallway or stairwell at school, inside the classroom, in the cafeteria and outside on school grounds.
There are various forms of bullying such as physical harassment, verbal bullying and threats of non-verbal communication. Bullying also involves the use of the modern digital interface such as media social for spreading fake news. A survey from them shows that around 44% of the bullied were being teased and name calling followed by spreading rumors and lies, pushing, hitting and slapping, stealing belongings and sexual harassment. Kartal and Asude stated that bullying happens at any moment and it has negative impacts largely on student’s academic, emotional and social development during the school day.
Bullying is a serious matter and hence it needs to be prevented. One of the causes of bullying cases among school students is the influence of negative peers. These symptoms are attributable to peers because, in this age, teens prefer their peers in their lives. Usually, this group of students has a self-established group to take care of the interests of their respective members. According to Bradshaw, Sawyer, and O’ Brennan, there are approximately 30% of young people admitted to bullies others in a survey. Data implies that teenage bullying is more popular among younger teens than it is among older teens. Therefore, students should be smart and wise in choosing their peers so that they do not mistakenly befriend with bad people. This is because their friends are the reflection of themselves. If their friends are well behaved, then their attitude will be good. The active involvement of student groups in associations such as the Prevention of Crime Association will make the student avoid unnatural social symptoms.
Furthermore, it is important to have teachers and other adult control present when possible to curb bullying practices. Other than that, bullying often comes from a dysfunctional family, where affection and openness are very limited. Mostly, many students and youths are involved in bullying after they have seen their parent’s aggressive attitude towards friends, siblings or other family members. When they witness their parents adopting a bullying behavior, children will be affected and they will simulate it with their peers. Besides, in this modern age, parents are more concerned about their profession and their motivated career which results in neglecting their responsibilities towards their children.
Therefore, most of them are lack of love and compassion from their own parents. Another major reason behind this problem is the lack of proper supervision and guidance from parents. On March 20, 2005, Jeff Weis a student at Red Lake High School, Minnesota, USA has been raging and shooting five of his colleagues, a teacher, and a security guard. The question is, is this action arising because of the pressure of living in a troubled family? Therefore, parents play important roles in educating their children to avoid this bullying cases to become more critical. Bullying is not something that occurs and then disappears without remnants but it has a plenty of negative effects on the victim. According to the National Centre for Educational Statistics, 19% of bullied students denote that bullying has a negative impact on how they think about themselves, 14% of them stated that their relationships with family, friends and school performance is not in a good term and 9% of them stated that they have health issues.
A research from the Centre for Disease Control founds that students who acquaintance with bullying are at a high opportunity of having poor in accommodation with school, sleep problems, anxiety, and depression. What is even more worrying, these problems not only develop in early adolescence but tend to last throughout the whole life of a person. Other than that, bullying can also affect student’s achievements in school. For example, Brank et al. (2012) found that bullied students have fear of coming to school because they feel unsafe and therefore they are unable to concentrate in class which leads to lower academic performances. McCallion and Feder (2013) stated that school-based bullying prevention programs decrease bullying by up to 25%. Therefore, teachers and school management have to set some programs and campaigns to educate the children about the effects of bullying.
