Bullying: Underlying Effects On The Growth And Development Of Children

Bullying can have a very underlying effect on the growth and development of children. The negative effects of bullying doesn’t only affect the victim, but also the bully themself. Bullying has both short and long-term consequences for the victim, including headaches and sleep problems, drug abuse, depression, and even school failure. Many children that are bullied have a higher risk of suicide. A really long-term and sometimes permanent effect is damage to self-esteem. The effects of bullying to the bully is increased risk for substance abuse, academic issues and violence to others later in life. A way a psychologist could research these issues is to gather a group of similar aged children and ask them questions regarding being bullied or bullying. They can get the approximate number and percentage of victims and bullies in a certain age group. After they find out who the bullies are, the victims, and the kids not affected, they can ask questions to find out whether that child goes home with headaches, is depressed or has anxiety, is failing school or uses drugs and alcohol, and whether they have a lowered self-esteem or is thinking about committing suicide.

This way none of the students can lie and will all be acting natural. First, the researchers would have to make an operational definition: what they define bullying as. It could be, at the least, saying a mean word to another student or pushing while walking past them. After they figure out who is being bullied and who is a bully, they can study the children’s behavior to see if they are depressed or often anxious. They can ask if they have headaches or are failing classes and because the people asking are fellow students, they won’t feel the need to