Different types of bullying explained

BULLYING the different types of bullying explained - Kate S.

Bullying frequently happens among teenagers all over the world. It mostly occurs to tease a person’s weakness, personality, race, or gender, and can simply be caused by jealousy towards a person. Sometimes, bullying can also happen for “fun”. No matter what the reason is, bullying can never be justified. There are many types of bullying, not only physical, but also verbal, cyber, social, and sexual. Bullying can cause depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, trauma, self-harm, or even suicide so it is important to know the different types of bullying, be able notice them, and prevent their spread. There are five main types of bullying:

PHYSICAL Bullying

Physical bullying is a repeated action of hurting someone’s body. This is the most well-known and clearly visible kind of bullying and it actually occurs a lot among young people. It includes hitting, kicking, slapping, spitting, tripping, stealing, or even making gestures to embarrass a peer. According to parents.com, 37% of LGBTQ students were physically bullied by others.

Verbal Bullying

Verbal bullying is hurting someone with words or making fun of them and it is the most frequently happening bullying around the world, as it can happen easily. Verbal bullying includes teasing, name-calling, taunting, or threats. Although it can appear to be less harmful than physical bullying, verbal bullying can also powerfully damage a person just as much. According to Dosomething.org, The most commonly reported type of bullying was verbal harassment which was 79% of all reported incidents of harassment.

Social/relational Bullying

Social bullying, also known as relational bullying, is an action or a movement to hurt someone’s reputation or relationships for the purpose of ostracizing them. This includes excluding someone on purpose, telling others not to be friends with someone, spreading rumors, and embarrassing someone. In the process of social bullying, all the types of bullying shown above can occur. Dosomething.org has reported that socialharassmentt was the second commonly reported type of bullying, with its figure of 50%.

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying occurs frequently through social media such as Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp, and Snapchat, which are commonly used applications between teenagers. Sending demeaning or harmful text messages, spreading rumors, sharing embarrassing pictures or videos (which can even be fake or edited), and making online threats all constitute acts of cyberbullying. According to the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, about “ 15.7% of high school students were estimated to be electronically bullied in the 12 months prior to the survey in 2019 ”.

Sexual Bullying

Sexual bullying is any bullying behavior that is based on a person’s sexuality or gender. It could be both physical and non-physical that results in the others feeling uncomfortable and hatred. Using sexual words to put someone down is one of the most well-known as non-physical bullying. Inappropriate touching, sexual assault, and even rape is regarded as physical sexual bullying. An online survey from Stop Street Harassment found out that “81% of women and 43% of men have experienced some form of sexual harassment during their lifetime”.

Of course, these different types of bullying often go hand in hand, and that is when their effects can be the most powerful and destructive. That is why it is so important to detect harassment early on to then be able to put an end to it as fast as possible.