Bullying hurts the academic performance of the victims since it limits their participation in the school environment. Harassment affects the emotional and social well-being of victimized children. Students who are bullied find it hard to concentrate in the classroom and portray a decreased interest in attending classes. As a result, it is challenging for victims to understand taught content and thus cannot handle academic tests effectively. Bullied students develop fear and anxiety that keep them away from school to avoid further victimization. Harassment in school affects student achievement negatively since it makes it hard for them to concentrate in class and causes intentional absenteeism to prevent additional instances of bullying.
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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.
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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
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