Bullying is a serious health dilemma across the United States. Reports concerning this aggressive behavioral issue have become widespread. Bullying in school and work settings results in mental and physical health issues, huge financial costs, employee turnover, poor academic performance, high absenteeism, and escalated suicide rates among youth.
Bullying is caused by a lack of attention and affection at home, poor parenting, and wanting to gain attention in school. Bullying causes mental health issues, including concentration problems, depression, and anxiety among victims. Randall illuminated that bullying normally results in mental ‘difficulties of depression, anxiety and nervousness attendant upon psychosomatic symptoms and cognitive effects such as attention dysfunction, lack of initiative, irritability, and insecurity’ (147). According to Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center, youngsters who have become bullying prey are blaming themselves and felt they are worthy of being ridiculed and harassed and have a strong tendency to experiencing prolonged victimization and major depressive disorder. The most common consequences of bullying are physical health complaints such as headaches, high blood pressure, ulcers, poor appetite, and stomachache.
Bullying in the workplace is caused by jealousy and wanting to have authority over other employees. It results in high rates of employee turnover, growing financial costs for finding employee replacements, poor productivity level, lack of focus, failing performance in school, and frequent use of sick leave. Csiernik expounded that the monetary expenditures of ‘workplace bullying to Australian employers range from AUD$6 to $13 billion annually’ (33). Targets of bullying are having difficulty making effective decisions, losing their confidence, and losing their drive as they are disturbed and apprehensive on how to defend themselves when the situation repeats itself, keep on mulling over the situation, making plans on avoiding the perpetrator, and seeking ways to find support groups.
Bullying victims are highly comparable with sexual harassment victims as both plan on leaving the company, become less committed to work due to lack of support from the management, become more stressed due to repeated bullying, and ponder on filing a legal case against the aggressor. Bullying in the work environment builds an uncomfortable and intimidating atmosphere, destroys the image of a welcoming and open organizational culture, generates controversial legal cases, and deteriorates the reputation of the employer.
Bullying causes an increased rate of suicide among teenagers. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention justified that any participation ‘with bullying behavior is one stressor which may significantly contribute to feelings of helplessness and hopelessness that raise the risk of suicide’ (3). Thinking about or planning of self-harm is the result of overpowering feelings of defenselessness and weakness. Some teenagers have no courage to answer back or defend themselves against bullies, especially if more than one bully harasses them. Those who are not able to cope effectively with bullying and cannot find emotional support from family and friends will resort to suicide.
Bullying brings tremendous emotional distress, mental agony, and health issues among victims. This social issue does affect not only students and teenagers but also adults. It remains to be a worldwide health issue that needs to be addressed immediately.
Works Cited
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Relationship Between Bullying and Suicide: What We Know and What it Means for Schools. 2013, https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/bullying-suicide-translation-final-a.pdf. Accessed 14 February 2020.
- Csiernik, Rick. Workplace Wellness: Issues and Responses. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc., 2014. Print.
- Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center. Bullying Statistics. 2020, https://www.pacer.org/bullying/resources/stats.asp. Accessed 14 February 2020.
- Randall, Peter. Bullying in Adulthood: Assessing the Bullies and Their Victims. Hove: Brunner- Routledge, 2001. Print.
- ‘Stopbullying.Gov’. Stopbullying.Gov, 2018, https://www.stopbullying.gov/. Accessed 5 Oct 2018.
- Tamietti, Robin. ‘Bullying’. Bullying190.Blogspot.Com, 2018, http://bullying190.blogspot.com. Accessed 5 Oct 2018.
- ‘Should Bullying Be Illegal?’. Debate.Org, 2018, https://www.debate.org/opinions/should-bullying-be-illegal. Accessed 5 Oct 2018.
- ”Dealing With Bullying’. Kidshealth.Org, 2018, https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/bullies.html. Accessed 5 Oct 2018.
- ‘Bullying Statistics’. Pacer.Org, 2018, https://www.pacer.org/bullying/resources/stats.asp. Accessed 5 Oct 2018.
