Bullying is one of the more serious problems facing children and teenagers today. It seems like a new child commits suicide because of problems in school every week. Parents and educators need to better understand the different types of bullying to identify the troubles that kids go through.

 

Physical Bullying

When most people think of bullying, they think of physical bullying. This includes any type of physical action that one child takes against another.

Kicking, tripping, slapping and smacking are all types of physical altercations that parents and teachers might see in schools. Many schools now have zero tolerance policies that keep bullied students from acting out against their aggressors out of fear of expulsion.

 

Verbal Bullying

When one child calls another a mean nickname or uses a rude word to describe that child, it’s a type of verbal bullying.

Far too many adults think that verbal bullying isn’t as harmful as physical bullying, but it can still lead to poor self-esteem, trouble concentrating in school and even depression.

Making racist or homophobic slurs and remarks, taunting, and intimidating children through non-physical means are other types of verbal bullying.

 

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying came about as children of all ages grew up surrounded by the Internet. They can now harass each other through emails, attack their social networking pages and even send threatening tweets to others.

Cyberbullying also includes bullying done through online games played on video game consoles, smartphones and tablets and bulling done via text or picture messages.

 

Social Bullying

Emotional and social bullying is a type of bullying done to exclude a specific person or group of people. Some groups deliberately exclude a certain child from that group by making fun of the child’s appearance, clothing and hobbies.

Though some parents and educators don’t think twice about students spreading rumors, rumor spreading is a type of social bullying. Other types of social bullying include lying about a child to others, making rude gestures and playing pranks on a child.

 

Sexual Bullying

Both boys and girls use sexual bullying as a way to intimidate and exclude others. They call other students sexually derogatory names, they make rude gestures, they attempt to touch unwilling participants and they taunt others with pornographic photos and videos.

Students who are sexual bullies are more likely to sexually assault someone later in life. Identifying the signs of bullying helps protect those future victims.

 

Youth bullying is a major issue facing our children and the lack of action by other kids to step in and stop bullying only compounds the situation. But before you write off this inaction as a “Not my problem” mentality, take a look at the six reasons researchers discovered that are the root causes.

Six main reasons kids in particular do not step in to intervene or stop bullying of a peer or reach out for help on their behalf:

1. Assuming someone else, a parent or teacher, will intervene. Kids look up to the adults in their lives as authority figures.

For children who witness bullying, if they do not see an adult intervene, chances are they won’t either.

2. Assuming he or she will draw attention and become the next bullying target. Bullying is scary. It is only natural to worry about becoming the bully’s next victim.

3. Assuming being a friend of a bully means supporting the bully’s actions. Kids’ brains still think in black and white.

They do not naturally draw distinctions in terms of what friendship means and where it begins or ends. A child who calls a bully friend will likely assume friendship includes support, even for actions he or she doesn’t necessarily agree with.

4. Assuming that the lack of a personal friendship between the bully and the observing child means they don’t have to speak up.

In the same way, if the witnessing child does not have some kind of social connection with the bully, that can equate to a feeling of powerlessness and continued silence.

5. Assuming the child who speaks up will have to wrestle with the challenges of doing so all alone. Kids do feel fear, often at a more primal level than adults, who are brain-equipped to distinguish between grades of fear.

If a child feels unsupported to highlight a wrong being done, they likely won’t.

6. Assuming that feelings of helplessness equate to actual helplessness to make bullying stop. Without specific instruction about how to speak up, a child may assume felt helplessness and actual helplessness are one and the same.

Understanding the six main reasons why kids don’t speak out against bullying is one big key to developing effective educational resources to stop bullying and the first step in providing appropriate empowering education to address the problem.