LEARN, LOVE, LAUGH

BULLYING

 

Bullying is the intentional behaviour by a group or an individual against another group or person, often involving the imbalance of physical, social or psychological power, and can have serious effects on a person's physical and mental health (Olweus, 1993).

 

Girls and boys tend to bully differently. Whilst boys tend to use physical forms of bullying, girls tend to resort to more indirect, covert forms such as verbal, emotional and social bullying (Cross et al., 2009). However, due to the overt behavior of bullying amongst boys, research has found that boys are receiving two-thirds more support for behavioural problems such as bullying compared with girls (Cruddas & Haddock, 2005). It is specifically due to the subtle nature of indirect bullying that girls tend to prefer that often goes unnoticed and has thrived in schools, causing more reason for recognition by parents and teachers. The world-wide bestseller novel by Rosalind Wiseman, “Queen Bees and Wannabes” (see figure 1) was one of the first publications to place a public light into the world of adolescent girls with the movie ‘Mean Girls’ made based on the novel. The novel and movie was the first to draw attention to an issue that desperately needs help with an exceeding number of girls in Australia experiencing some form of covert bullying by the time they reach year 9 (Cross et al., 2009). According to Sharp, Thompson and Arora (2000), this type of covert bullying is seen as more damaging due to the consequences it has on feelings of depression, low self-worth, loneliness, anxiety and severe difficulty with social relationships later on in life.