One of the main reasons for children to resort to emotional and physical abuse is parental irresponsibility and neglect in upbringing. Therefore, bullies are those young people who did not receive enough attention and education in childhood and may have been victims of the abuse. Moreover, children who bully others are characterized by the presence of psychopathies and character accentuations. This is all due to the fact that their parents, not knowing how to deal with teenagers, resort to using excessive power, control or manipulation. By these actions, the guardians can suppress the child’s personality and unknowingly turn them into a bully.
Another factor that affects the unformed consciousness of adolescents is the peer pressure, which is especially high at this age. In adolescence, people are motivated by the desire to establish a particular respectable and strong position in society. Additionally, many young people resort to suppressing and infringing the unprotected and weak people to build such a position among their peers..
The first theory that can be applied to this problem is the theory of social action. This concept assumes that people change their actions in accordance with social contexts. Moreover, the theory considers how such context will affect other people. It can be effectively applied to the problem of bullying among adolescents under study, as it makes an attempt to understand human actions by considering motives, previous experience and social context. Thus, in order to understand why a child resorts to cruelty towards others, it is necessary to look at their environment, especially the relationships within family.
The moral understanding stage theory can also be a useful tool when considering the problem of bullying. It examines how young people develop morality and moral reasoning (Sengsavang & Krettenauer, 2019). The theory implies three levels of this process and connects the formation of morality with cognitive development. In relation to bullying, this theory can be applied as a tool to change the behavior of the adolescent. It will help analyze how children develop standards of right and wrong behavior in their society and follow social and cultural norms. Hence, the study of the cognitive component of the formation of adolescent consciousness and the idea of morality is an essential tool for combating bullying.
Therefore, the problem of bullying is often found among the younger generation. In most cases, it arises because of a protest against society and intense emotional experiences. Moreover, the appearance of this negative behavior is influenced by the atmosphere in the family and a possibly traumatic experience. The theory of social action and the moral understanding stage theory can be applied to solve the problem. They will help to understand better how social factors affect the development of adolescents and find a more effective solution to the problem of bullying.
Lisdahl, K. M., Sher, K. J., Conway, K. P., Gonzalez, R., Ewing, S. W. F., Nixon, S. J., Tapertg, S., Bartschh, H., Goldsteini, R. Z., & Heitzeg, M. (2018). Adolescent brain cognitive development (ABCD) study: Overview of substance use assessment methods. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 32, 80-96. Web.
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