Bullying

 

What is bullying and What do we mean by bullying?

Bullying is always unwanted and is a mixture of behaviours and impacts on which can impact on a person’s capacity to feel in control of themselves. It is all about relationships and role modelling, and what happens when these go wrong. How it can impact us and how it makes us feel.

 

 

DEFINITIONS

 

People have written about many different definitions and theories about what constitutes bullying, but it’s not helpful to define bullying purely in terms of behaviour.

 

Bullying is a mixture of behaviours and impacts which can impact on a person’s capacity to feel in control of themselves. this can impact on your school work, colledge or work. . Bullying takes place in the context of relationships; it is behaviour that can make people feel hurt, threatened, frightened and left out.

 

This behaviour can include:

 

•

• Being hit, tripped, pushed or kicked, pinched,

• Having belongings taken or damaged

• Being ignored, left out or having rumours spread about you

• Receiving abusive messages electronically

 Being called names, teased, put down or threatened

• Behaviour which makes people feel like they are not in control of themselves

• Being targeted because of who you are or who you are perceived to be

 

This behaviour can harm people physically or emotionally and, although the actual behaviour may not be repeated, the threat may be sustained over a long period of time, typically by actions: looks, messages, confrontations, physical interventions, or the fear of these. But this is not an exhaustive list, and it is important to consider impact, intent and persistence when defining bullying behaviour.

 

Online bullying

This is an ever growing form of bullying. Online bullying, or Cyberbullying,

is often the same type of behaviour as other bullying, for example

name-calling, spreading rumours and leaving people out, but it takes

place online, on social networking sites, in chatrooms, and via mobile

technologies, 

This has a devastating impact on the person recieving this form of bullying

and has the same impact as other forms of bullying behaviour.

It has the same consequesnces as it how it makes you feel,.

Due to the world we live in we see the advances in technology which are simply

providing an alternative vehiclefor reaching people – where malicious

messages were once written on school books or toilet walls, they can

now be sent via mobile phone or the internet, making their reach greater,

more immediate and much harder to erase or remove.

 

Some online behaviour is illegal. Children and young people need to

be made aware of the far-reaching consequences of posting inappropriate

or harmful content on forums, websites, social networking platforms, etc.

Find out more about cyberbullying here

 

If you’re being treated or threatened in a sexual way or being pressured

into doing something that you don’t want to do, this is not bullying. 

There are laws to protect you from this very serious type of behaviour.  There are helplines and contacts on here for you to access.

 

 

Junison are focusing on the

impact that it is having on

the individual, 

 

Is intent required?

Every bullying incident should be looked at individually and recorded somewhere. In some cases, children or young people may not be aware that their behaviour is actually bullying. They are perhaps copying the behaviour of adults or other children and young people around them, not understanding that it is wrong because they have never been taught otherwise.

In these circumstances, the intent to bully may not be present, but the impact and effect on the person being bullied will be no less severe because of this.

 

It must be explained to the person bullying that their behaviour is unacceptable and why.  Intent would be very difficult to prove and it’s more important to talk focusing on the behaviour and the impact that this had on the individual.

This is a better way of highlighting the impact that bullying has on the individual rather than trying to establish whether someone acted deliberately or not. .

 

Does the behaviour

have to be persistent

to label it bullying?

 

The issue with persistence is that the behaviour has to take place more than once, but the impacts of bullying can be felt after a single incident.

 

Bullying doesn’t need to be persistent to have an effect on the mental health and well-being of a child or young person. For those who have been bullied, the fear and anticipation of further bullying can affect their ability to be themselves and interact with others in a healthy fashion. Bullying behaviour and its potential impacts on children and young people should be addressed as they arise. 

 

How persistence is viewed by one person - for example daily, weekly or monthly - may be quite different to how it’s viewed by someone else, leading to inequality and inconsistency of practice.   It isn’t helpful to wait and see if a pattern or repetition emerges before taking action.   It is vital to respond to the behaviour that you see and the impact this is having, rather than relying on a rigid definition. 

 

What about the impact bullying has on ?

 

Bullying can affect people in different ways and this should be taken into consideration. If you are unsure if behaviour is bullying, look at the effect it is having on the child or young person.  If they are unable to respond effectively and regain their sense of self and control in the situation, adults need to intervene to help restore it. 

 

What you do about bullying is more important than how you define it. this can move to adulthood if not resolved. Keeping the focus on impact and response reduces the likelihood of getting caught up with issues of persistence and intent. 

 

We should always remember that children will tease each other, fall in and out with each other, have arguments, stop talking to each other and disagree about what they like and don’t like. This is a normal part of growing up and should be distinguished from bullying.  However, in an environment where this behaviour is left unchecked, it can lead to bullying, making those being bullied feel afraid, uncomfortable and unsafe in their environment.

 

 

Labelling

Another core message that underpins the work we do is in our approach to labelling; we don't label children and young people as ‘bullies’ or ‘victims’. Care needs to be taken because labelling is not without its risks.  Labelling a child or young person on the basis of bullying behaviour can result in a confirmed identity as a ‘bully’ or ‘victim’ resulting in ongoing behaviour patterns based on this identity. We have developed approaches to working with bullying which hopefully avoid the labelling dilemma. A core theme in training, policy development and campaigning has been the exploration of the value judgements that lie behind labels.

This is not about diluting behaviour but is to keep the focus of the adult’s responses on the behaviour that is problematic, rather than the assigning characteristics to those involved. This is a solution focussed approach that is designed to help people change the way they behave, rather than attempt to change who they are. We help people change by telling them and naming the behaviour that is unacceptable, being clear that what they are doing is bullying and that it needs to stop.