Livingour lives in the 20th century, social issues such as bullying isstill a major problem occurring in our society. Not all people experienced thesituation of being bullied, but the unfortunate one may not be able to forgetthis kind of predicament. Statistics shows that more than one out of every five(20.8%) students report being bullied (National Centre for Educational Statistics,2016). One might wonder, what are the factors that cause bullying? Some of thereasons are due to problematic family, taking revenge and jealousy towardsvictim.
Oneof the factors that causes bullying is problematic family. “Children who bullyare more likely to come from family environments characterised by lesscohesion, expressiveness, organisation, control and social orientation (Bowers,Smith, & Binney, 1994; Stevens, Bourdeaudhuij, & Ost, 2002). The quoteexplains that a child who are not getting the attention and love that theydeserve are prone to bullying others. Myriad of problems inside a household canbe the reason for bullying such as a busy parent or a divorce parents. Parentswho are busy at work never have the time to spend with their children. Sincethey could not get the attention they want from their parents, they seek itfrom the teachers, and even among the peers by victimizing others. They mightbe thinking that they can attract their parent’s attention towards them bythrowing tantrums among their peers. There is also a possibility of the childimitating their parent’s violent actions which they observe in their own house.
A suitable example to be given is during family fights, between their motherand father. The father could have hit the mother, causing their own child tospectate and influencing the child to try it too on others. In conclusion, anon-functioning family affects the child mentally, causing them to vent it onothers, by bullying. Next,some people bully others as a way of taking revenge.
Usually, the bully is oncea victim themselves, getting bullied by the others. By holding onto the popularphrase, “the table have turned” they victimize someone who looks physicallyweaker, and mentally shaky to spout their anger. (Mark & Ratliffe, 2011).
Apparently, no solid reason is needed for the bully to pick on their victims,leaving the clueless victims to ponder why they were chosen at the first place.While there are people with physical strength, those who have a vast knowledgein cyber world have their own ways of revenge. They do not have to waste theirenergy walking around, instead they cause trouble to their victims by hackinginto their social media, using gadjet like laptops, computers, or evensmartphone.
They spread false, negative rumours which could affect the victim’ssocial life. (Hoff & Mitchell, 2009). This type of bully is called cyberbullying, which is widely used for those who do not have the courage to bullyothers physically. In a nutshell, bullying happens both in physical and in thecyber world, with feeling of revenge. Thethird cause of bullying is the feeling of jealousy towards the victim.According to Meyer-Adams & Conner (2008) “some of the things that makepeople different are generally neutral characteristics, but some, like beingsmart, focused, or creative often representing attributes that the bully wishesthey shared with their victims”. Hence, this so called “wishes” develop intofeeling of envy, resulting the victim to be bullied physically and mentally. There is also a probability of the bully sharing thecharacteristic for which they are bullying on the victim such as knowledge oreven sports.
By seeking to downgrade certain skills that is lacking in theirown victims, bullies try to create a more level playing field for their ownbenefits. For instance, the victim was bullied due to the bullies’ failure tocompete in a fair and square way. As conclusion, the bullies might be targetingthe victims for any traits that they do or do not possess, due to jealousy. Toconclude, dysfunctional family, feeling of revenge and envious toward victimare three reasons on why bullying occurs.
It happens anywhere, everywhere,without some of us realizing it. Proactive steps and solutions should be takenby now to lessen the threat of this social issue. And that is the reason whyMahatma Gandhi once said, “be the change you want to see”.
