Effects Bullying Has on Children

Jessica Carlisle

UNV-104

December 3, 2017

Jesse Prather

Effects bullying has on children

        “Suicide is the third leading cause of death of people age 15-24 in the USA” (Shireen et al., 2014, p. 206).  The surviving friends and family of the victim have to live their lives with the emotional devastation of losing a loved one.  Bullying affects children in many different ways and one of those ways is mental health.  Studies have shown that there is a relationship between bullying and suicide. Bullying causes children to experience some mental health issues, poor academic performance, and low social-emotional skills.

Mental Health Issues

According to Gloppen et al. (2017), bullying is happening in many schools and is associated with poor mental health among adolescents (Gloppen, McMorris, Gower, and Eisenberg, 2017).  Bulling causes children to have mental health issues such as hopelessness, depression and anxiety.  These mental health issues can lead to suicidal thought and even suicidal attempts.  According to Shireen et al. (2014), there are studies that have found a relationship between victims of bullying and suicide thoughts and children who have committed suicide.  Students who are both the victim and the bully have experienced levels of suicide ideation and suicide attempt (Shireen, Farhat, Janapana, Rehmatullah, Temuri, and Azim, 2014).  Students who are victims of bullying have mental health issues such as depression.  This can also include suicidal thoughts and even suicidal attempts. “A recent study in Pakistan revealed the effects of sleep patterns in bullied victims which leads them towards serious considerations of attempting suicide” (Shireen, Janapana, Rehmatullah. Temuri and Azim, 2014, p. 208).  

Poor Academic Performance

According to Espelage et al. (2013), children who are victims of bullying and children who are rejected are likely to have lower grades than children who are not (Espelage, Hong, Rao, Low, 2013).  According to Espelage et al. (2013), there are strong relations to peer reaction, peer victimization, and lower academic performance.  Victimized children are likely to receive lower grades and will do poorly on standardized tests.  Victimized children often blame themselves which leads to negative thoughts about themselves.  Blaming themselves also causes the victims to have trouble concentrating on their school work.  The most common mental illness that is related with poor academic performance is depression.  A study on children found evidence of self-perceived harassment highly predicted depression, loneliness, and self-worth in the students.  This study also found that the grade point averages and the student’s attendance decreased.  In a study conducted by Schwartz et al. (2005), findings were reported that frequent peer victimization was correlated with lower grade point averages as well as lower test scores (Espelage, Hong, Rao, Low, 2013).  

Social Skills

        According to Hussein (2013), studies have found that there is a relationship between poorer social skills and being a victim of bullying.  Students who have higher social skills or are the popular kids at school, rarely are the victims of bullying.  A study by Boulton in 1995, found that victims do not usually participate in rule-based games because they do not have the emotional problem-solving skills that are used to prevent and resolve conflict in their interactions with other students.  Once students are victims of bullying they also lack the ability to cope emotionally to effectively ease their stress and ease their negative emotions about themselves.  This leads to many mental health issues that victims can get as a result of being bullied.  Studies have found that children who are bullied a lot, are usually not able to cope with their stress correctly.  Victims that have this deficit in emotional regulation, tend to have mental health problems as well. Not being able to correctly cope with stress and the negative emotions of bullying can cause mental health issues and even suicide.  Stress management is something that everyone needs especially children who are victims of bullying (Hussien, M, H., 2013).  According to Jenkins et al., (2017) research has found that there is a negative relationship between many different social skills.  Some of these social skills include; cooperation, assertion, empathy, and self-control are some social skills that are significantly related to children who are victims of bullying.  In another study, it has also been discovered that effective functioning and emotional difficulties are also related to victims who have been bullied (Jenkins, L. N., Demaray, M. K., & Tennant, J., 2017).