Impact of Bullying on Childrens Physical and Mental Health

Despite increasingly aggressive efforts by school districts across the country, about one in five young people in the United States are officially estimated to still become a victim of bullying at their schools each year. As a direct consequence, bullying in the schools represents a major public health issue that has been shown to elevate the risk for victims and bullies -- of suffering from a constellation of negative social, educational, and healthcare outcomes during childhood, adolescence and even adulthood (Armitage, 2021). The implications of bullying clearly involve multiple psychological and medical issues that require timely interventions, making this topic appropriate for further analysis by healthcare practitioners. To this end, the purpose of this paper is to review the relevant literature to provide a working definition of bullying followed by a discussion concerning its adverse effects on childrens physical and mental health throughout their lifespans. Following this review, the paper provides a summary of the literature review and the main findings that emerged in the conclusion.

Definition of Bullying

Although there is no universal legal definition and laws vary state to state, a useful general definition of bullying underscores the wide range of infinite human interactions and relationships that create a bullying situation. For instance, according to one authority, Bullying is generally defined as an intentional act that causes harm to others, and may involve verbal harassment, verbal or non-verbal threats, physical assault, stalking, or other methods of coercion such as manipulation, blackmail, or extortion (Bullying Law and Legal Definition, 2022, para. 3). In other words, bullying involves some form of aggressive behavior which is intentionally used to physically harm or otherwise exact some type of intimidation on another individual (Bullying Law, 2022). More specifically, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a formal definition of bullying that included three main components: 1) unwanted aggressive behavior; 2) observed or perceived power imbalance; and, 3) repetition or high likelihood of repetition of bullying behaviors (Facts about Bullying, 2022).

Because by definition, bullying involves ongoing harm to another person in countless ways, many of these behaviors are criminal in nature when they are applied to adults. Indeed, in far too many cases, bullying is seemingly regarded as...…health (p. 584). It is also important to note that the severity of the mental and physical health of bullies victims is exacerbated in those instances where victims lack access to appropriate social support services or the bullying occurs over a lengthy period of time (Rigby, 2003). This means that nurses at all levels and healthcare settings in general but those assigned to schools should remain vigilant to identify opportunities to reduce bullying as well as the victims and perpetrators of these acts in order to prevent their recurrence (Hockenberry et al., 2022).

Conclusion

People can be mean, and most are from time to time even when they do not mean to be. Nevertheless, the research was consistent in showing that bullying always involves some type of harmful behaviors that can cause long-term mental and physical healthcare problems which can extend into adulthood. Because bullying seems to be ubiquitous in the nations schools and these behaviors are especially intractable to change, it is clear that more needs to be done at every level to break this intergenerational cycle of a mindset that accepts, at least at some level, bullying behaviors…