Intimidation refers to aggressive behavior intended to lead to harm or distress, entails a power imbalance between the victim and aggressor, and repeatedly happens as time goes on. To sum it up, bullying has three primary elements: unwanted aggression, perceived imbalance of power, and repetition of the aggressor’s behavior (Gaffney et al., 2019). Bullying takes various forms, including verbal, social, physical, and cyber. Verbal bullying involves threatening, making sexist comments, and teasing. In contrast, social bullying entails isolation, embarrassment, and spreading rumors. Physical bullying may include destroying possessions, assaulting, and aggressive gesturing (Smokowski & Evans, 2019). Ultimately, students aged 12-18 experience bullying by becoming the subject of lies or rumors, being called names or insulted, and being pushed, spit on, tripped, or shoved.
Around nineteen percent of students in grades nine to twelve are victims of bullying. Schoolchildren experience harassment in several places in educational institutions, including classrooms, cafeterias, text or online, locker rooms or bathrooms, stairwells, and hallways. About forty-eight percent of adolescents bullied on school premises notify adults. Among the total number of bullying victims, fifteen percent are bullied by text or online. Internationally, about a third of the world’s youth become bullying victims (Smokowski & Evans, 2019). Low socioeconomic status is the primary factor causing youth bullying in wealthy nations, as immigrant-born youth are bullied more than those who are locally born.
Bullying victims experience an intolerable amount of distress, and thus, they are anxious and insecure and have high depression rates, negative self-image, and low self-esteem. For instance, if an adolescent walks by the hallway and his classmates call him a faggot. During lunchtime, no classmates would talk to him. In the gym, his clothes are stolen, and he is forced to spend the rest of the time wearing gym shorts. These aspects of the environment can have a negative impact on the development of behavioral patterns and psychological well-being of an adolescent (Leve et al., 2012). Therefore, it is unsurprising that bullying victims report high depression rates, withdrawal, and anxiety than bullies and bystanders, decreasing their ability to concentrate in class. Victims face physical and verbal harassment repeatedly and often do not know when they will be attacked again. As a result, bullying victims are always on high alert, constantly waiting for the next mean comment or slap (Smokowski & Evans, 2019). If the victims are students, there is almost zero chance they will concentrate on their studies.
The state of being on a high alert is followed by a trauma experience called hypervigilance, which is a common symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder. When a horrible event like bullying occurs intermittently, it is unpredictable and can happen at any time; the bullying victims are always hyperactive. In addition, the bullying victim’s stress response remains activated, waiting for the next attack. The constant state of high alertness leaves victims on edge, feeling anxious with racy adrenaline. Bullying victims constantly scan the environment, and their thoughts are preoccupied with scenarios of harassment. Failing to know when the following bullying incident will occur to them, bully-victims face a state of stress and vulnerability (Smokowski & Evans, 2019). The restlessness caused by the feeling of uncertainty leads to a lack of concentration in classes, leading to low academic performance among bully-victims.
Harassment leads to chronic stress, which has grave negative emotional and physical consequences. Chronic stress muscles in the body tense, resulting in tension, migraines, and headaches. The human body’s stress response turns off when a stressor is eliminated in normal circumstances. Nevertheless, with chronic stress caused by bullying, the stressor remains constant, and therefore, the body’s stress response stays active, overexposing the human body to stress hormones. As a result, the risk for long-term adverse outcomes such as digestive problems, sleep problems, headaches, depression, and anxiety even in adulthood (Ege et al., 2015). All the negative consequences collectively lead to impaired memory and concentration. Compared to noninvolved youth and bullies, bully-victims and victims report a high likelihood of tension, sleep problems, dizziness, and fatigue. Such symptoms are partly caused by chronic stress resulting from victimization and may result in the development of suicidal tendencies (Sandler et al., 2021; Smokowski & Evans, 2019). Such issues affect the students’ concentration in learning.
Additionally, constant verbal and physical attacks c
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