I recently did a post on bullying in secondary school and how there is a cost to the schools, not only to the individual being affected. As many of us know, secondary schools aren't the only place for concern about bullying. Primary schools are also prime zones for bullies to push people around.
In my own life, I recall bullies in primary school as well as in high school. A hostile environment is not something anyone wants to be a part of, let alone a child growing up and learning about their own and other psyches, and the complexity of human life. As mentioned in the previous post, 10% of absent students attribute their missing school days to an avoidance of a negative environment brought on by bullying.
As with secondary school students, primary school students have to deal with bullies, meaning kids are going to be missing school here too. Some new research shows that 33% of boys and 25% of girls aged 8-9 years old have to deal with bullying on a weekly basis, and that is affecting their academic performance in a negative way.
The data was taken from a survey of 965 primary school children in Australia, but we can easily recognize how bullying will affect academic performance -- at least from missing school, let alone other factors of intimidation and mistreatment while in school that can affect concentration and learning. It's not just physical with hitting and pushing people around, but also verbal with teases and threats.
The largest negative effects on academic performance came from physical bullying, where children who suffer under such victimization are 6-9 months behind in academic performance compared to their peers.
Boys tend to get the most of the physical bullying, but both genders are affected by the verbal kind, like teasing and name calling.
People underestimate the negative impact of bullying on children, and even in later adult life. Bullying creates suffering for others where it's completely unnecessary. Only a psyche that is troubled and suffering will desire to be a bully and create pointless suffering for others. They want attention, or they want to cause suffering because they suffer, or they want to avoid being a victim by being an abuser, or they want to have power over others, etc. Whatever the reason, the bully needs to be stopped. Until that happens, they will keep dong what they do.
The consequences of bullying can affect mental and physical health or well-being. Being in a threatening and hostile environment and made into a victim has unpleasant results. When we lose control of our ability to affect our way of life, such as the ability to be free from harm, that can develop into mental health issues -- which much of the world population has as a result of being coerced and extorted by authoritarianism and statism. Depression and anxiety mount when things are wrong with our way of life.
Many people -- children or adult -- turn to self-harm such as cutting, or even suicide in order to escape the negative circumstances of their life where they can't gain control to set things right. This is why parental and community help in stopping bullies is important. Parents, schools and everyone needs to take a stand against bullying. The effects can last throughout life. Academic performance can affect our choices and opportunities in the future.
Bullying may only last for a certain time, but during that time our lives can be greatly affected. And even after the bullying stops, the psychological imprint and trauma is done, which can reverberate in later life. Some of us need more help to heal and overcome the wrongs others have done against us.