The federal government has been collecting data on school bullying in America since 2005
and according to statistics reported by the National Center for Educational Statistics,
in 2016 more than one out of every five students reported being bullied.
When someone intentionally bullies another person they use force or threat to intimidate
or aggressively dominate that person.
And kids who bully are using their power to try and control or harm others.
But is it always obvious when you are being bullied?
That’s what we’ll be looking at today as we research bullying in this episode of
The Infographics Show: What Are 10 Signs That You Are Being Bullied?
Rates of bullying vary massively across studies, ranging from 9% to as high as 98%.
According to Pacer.org, the National Bullying Prevention Centre, who analyzed 80 studies
for both bullying others and being bullied among students aged between 12 and 18 years
old, the average stands at 35% for traditional bullying involvement and 15% for cyber-bullying
involvement.
We’ve looked at government websites and what psychology experts are saying to create
this list of 10 signs that will alert you to the fact you’re being bullied.
10.
Physical assault – Punching, hitting, or striking is one of the most obvious signs
of bullying.
The person may physically harm you with their own hands or an object, and it could be once
or a number of times, with the harm increasing in severity with each incident.
To avoid being noticed by parents or supervisors a bully may also inflict injuries in places
that are hard to detect, such as digging or pinching your sides to cause bruises.
A bully may try and laugh off the abuse but if someone is physically harming you, it is
no laughing matter.
9.
Group pressure – Group pressure is a common tactic for a bully.
The bully may act in a discriminatory manner by talking down to you in front of others.
They may deliberately try and treat you differently to the rest of the group and try to humiliate
you.
A bully will also try to bring people onto their side to increase bullying power and
put more pressure on the person being bullied.
8.
Invading your personal space - Bullies will often try and be subtle about how they impose
their power over you and one way to do this is by invading your personal space.
If you are trying to work in the library at school, the bully may pull up a chair and
sit very close to you, acting as if this behavior is normal.
But what the bully is actually trying to do is scare you without using physical assault.
This bullying behavior often escalates to physical attacks later.
7.
Verbal abuse – A bully will often scream and shout directly at you, so as to focus
aggression in your direction.
The bully may yell insults at you or put you down in the presence of others.
Though the effect on the victim is less obvious, verbal abuse can be as damaging as physical
abuse as it can lead to mental and emotional damage.
It is important to be aware if the bully is causing you psychological discomfort through
hurtful words.
6.
Discrimination - A bully may draw on discrimination to attack you.
It can be race, religion, disability, LGBTQIA status, gender presentation, size, ethnicity
or even something as simple as hair color.
To the bully it does not matter what it is, what is important is that they can use it
as a tactic to make you feel isolated and unsafe.
Even if you don’t fall into any of these categories, a bully may still find ways to
make you feel uncomfortable by picking on other parts of your appearance or behavior.
5.
Undermining your capability – A bully will often try to exercise their power over you
by creating situations where you will fail.
In a school setting they may try to get you in trouble with the teacher and cause you
to suffer academic setbacks.
They will do this as a way to limit your progress or to prevent you from succeeding.
They may also highlight failures that do not exist to try and marginalize you from others
and reduce your confidence and make you more susceptible to being bullied.
4.
Understand your own reactions – Sometimes you may not be sure if someone’s behavior
is bullying but you can always see the effects in other ways.
Your body may respond to bullying in physical ways by you becoming ill due to mental trauma
or stress.
People who are under stress become nauseous or anxious, and when in the presence of the
bully your heartbeat will speed up, and you can even experience panic attacks.
You may also feel these symptoms before any bullying has taken place.
For example, the night before school you may feel physically ill at the thought of having
to see the bully.
These are all psychosomatic reactions to bullying and will only go away when you deal with the
bullying.
3.
Gain the opinion of a friend - If you believe you are being bullied, it’s always good
to confide in a friend you trust.
An outside perspective on a situation can help you to be 100% sure with what’s going
on.
Ask your school friend if they notice how the person is acting towards you and whether
it looks like bullying.
It can even be a good idea to ask that friend to be with you when you know the bully is
going to be in the same classroom or near you in the playground.
They will be able to help see if you are being bullied and also act as a witness if you report
the behavior.
2.
Spreading rumors - Some people spread rumors as a way to intimidate others and gain popularity
with other kids.
But spreading rumors is a type of bullying, as it’s a way to turn people against someone.
These rumors could be word of mouth or online using social media.
Unfortunately when other people see this kind of thing happening they don’t always speak
up, so you need trusted friends who will warn you about any untrue stories that are being
passed around about you.
If you hear a story, it’s always good to speak up.
Bullying is like pollution and affects everyone in the environment.
1.
Cyber bullying – Cyber bullying has come around since we have all become more digitally
connected.
It has given bullies a new way to pick on others by using technology, including hardware
such as computers and smartphones, and software such as social media applications, instant
messaging, texts, websites and other online platforms.
In many ways cyberbullying can be more dangerous as it can happen at anytime.
You need to be aware of abusive texts, emails or posts; images or videos that undermine
you, or sometimes bullies even imitating a person online by using their login or copying
their identity.
That’s 10 signs you might be being bullied and we certainly hope that it helps.
If you feel you are being bullied then it’s always best to speak to a parent, friend or
teacher.
Do you have other ways that people bully others that we didn’t mention?
Let us know by commenting in the notes.
Also be sure to check out our other video, US Teachers vs. UK Teachers - How Do They
Compare?
Hours & Salary Comparison.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of The Infographics Show, and as always please remember
to like, share and subscribe.