Profile of an Adolescent Bully Essay

From 2000 to the present time, there confine been well over 600 peer-reviewed blindicles print on boss arounding. When compargond to the less than 190 articles that were published from 1980 to 2009, i has to acknowledge that this bea of search has exploded. Research indicates that between 10% and 30% of children and youth are involved in gooning and that hooliganing alike increases during the middle teach period as children enter adolescence (Cook, Williams, Guerra, Kim & Sadek, 2010, p. 65).Talk to any adolescent in school today and they will charter their own story to the highest degree their experience with swaggering and there is a consistent agreement that it is beseeming more complex to address. This essay is intended to inform the audience of well-nigh of the different manners and characteristics of bullies, the different methods of street fightering, and to explore the possible reasons for origination in put to tending in future prevention and interventio n efforts. Where is the Research? dapple performing inquiry for this paper it became quickly noniceable that studies profiling a punkragrags traits are scarcely performed.The focus of some research is in areas much(prenominal) as the methods of harassment lend oneselfd by bullies (i. e. cyber push around), or the ramifications towards society caused by being bullied i. e. school shootings (Barnett, Miller-Perrin, Perrin, 2011, p. 280). thither is little research focused solely on profiling the bully him/herself. If society is button to make a longstanding change and truly break the turn of harassment between adolescents than the background of the bully should be explored and assessed.While a profile of a potential dupe is offered, it is used to better shade an accurate understanding of the adolescent bully. Definition of a Bully intimidate is commonly defined as a specific display case of battleful behavior intended to distress a vulnerable person and includes engr ossed to cause harm, occurs repeatedly and involves a agency imbalance (Barnett et al. , 2011, p. 160). During childhood, bullies are precludeed, isolated, and dislike by their peers.Social acceptance for the bully changes during adolescence to being well judge and liked by their peers. This could be due to the childrens gradual intonation into adolescence toping in an increased knowledge in social problem solving, or gaining an ability to negotiate a confrontation with others thereby diffusing explosive situations (Cook et al. , 2010, p. 71). Two Types of Bullys Currently, there are two types of bullys that are invading American grade schools, the typical bully and the bully victim.The typical bully.An adolescent described as being loud, assertive, more or less socially and academically challenged, hostile, possesses negative attitudes and beliefs about others, minimal problem-solving skills, and comes from a family surround typically characterized by conflict and poor parent al monitoring (Cook et al. , 2010, pp. 75-76, Batsche & Knoff, 1994, p. 166). The bully victim. An adolescent holding negative attitudes and beliefs about him/herself and others, has minimal social competence, does non fork out adequate social problem-solving skills, has poor academic performance, and s non only rejected and isolated by peers but overly negatively influenced by the peers with whom he or she interacts with (Cook et al. , 2010, p. 76).A possible motive for a bully victim to become aggressive at school is that they may be experiencing their own exploitation due to the unrestrained and psychological personal effects of being a victim at home (Rivers, Poteat, Noret, Ashurst, 2009, p. 212), and are exposed to family models of aggression resulting in violence contributing to violence (Barnett et al. , 2011). Beyond primary Roles There has been a significant change as to how bullying behavior is understood.With the expansion past primary roles such as bully and vic tim, Rivers et al. have defined secondary roles that can categorize all participants of a victimization scenario. The assistant bully plays an active but secondary role to the bully. The reinforcing stimulus is considered to be a pupil that joins in laughing at the victim or encouraged the bully. Outsiders are aware that the bullying is taking lead but will actively remove themselves from the situation. Lastly, the defender is seen as one that directly intervenes or displays help-seeking behavior when involved in bullying situation, and is most times a female (2009, p. 12).Motives The motives of bullies range from satisfying the take aim for power or to be affiliated with a nonher person or sort that is powerful, to a partial or total inability to manage anger. myrmecophilous on their environment at home, they may exert themselves to attain a sense of control in their lives. On closer observation, bullies often record problems with impulsivity, a need to dominate others, and sh ow little sympathy or empathy for their victims. Some bullies even admit that they like being a bully and may have a slightly justified outlook on their social role. Parents of BulliesResearch has shown that parents of bullies prefer authoritarian parenting styles, will sometimes reject their child or show hostility, may show inconsistent parenting magical spell supervising at a minimum, and have poor problem-solving skills (Batsche & Knoff, 1994, p. 166). The parents of adolescent bullies have failed to model positive conflict resolution or how to satisfy their need for attention, therefore the bully will continue with harassing others because it has proven to be an efficacious strategy (Cook et al. , 2010). The bully may also be witnessing interparental violence at home (Barnett et al. , 2011, 161).Rivers et al. have shown that children who witness violence at home on a regular basis are more likely to require counseling to overcome the emotional and relationship difficulties th ey experience (2009). Not addressing negative behavior patterns may result in the behaviors continuing into adulthood, resulting in bullying others at their workplace, and increasing their likelihood of being convicted of a criminal offense during adulthood than their noninvolved peers. They are also at a higher risk for experiencing psychiatric problems, difficulties in sentimentalist relationships and substance abuse problems (Cook et al. 2010, p. 79).Leaving this issue unaddressed also allows for the bully to possibly simulate the kindred environment that was conducive to their becoming a bully bit raising their offspring therefore possibly fashioning bullying intergenerational. Different Modes of Bullying Once seen as mostly strong-arm in nature, bullying has now transformed into a ten-headed monster that spans from corporeal/direct bullying to various forms of substantiating bullying such as turning friends against their peers, threats, and teasing.Bullying has also been made more complex and main(a) with the introduction and ease of accessibility to technology. Now bullies use tools such as text, e-mails, websites and chat rooms to torment their victims (Barnett et al. , 2011, p. 279). Measures of bullying. These measures need to encompass the three broad(a) domains of behaviors that constitute bullying direct physical bullying, direct verbal bullying, and indirect bullying in which the person or group of persons doing the bullying is not necessarily identified (Carbone-Lopez, Esbensen & Brick, 2010, p. 334).Most common types of bullying are verbal, thence physical, then threats. Boys have always gravitated more towards physical bullying while girls tend to verbally bully their victims (Barnett et al. , 2011, p. 280). One of the reasons suggested was that girl verbal skills extend earlier than boys and until recently, it was seen as socially unacceptable and unladylike to physically bully (Strohmeier, Wagner, Spiel & von Eye, 2010, p. 187).The ge neral concept of bullying entails a distinct type of aggression characterized by a repeated and systematic abuse of power. There are many acets to bullying that include but are not limited to physical aggression, verbal aggression (e. g. name calling and threats), comparative aggression (e. g. , social isolation and rumor spreading), and cyber-aggression (e. g. , text messaging and e-mailing bad messages or images), a newfangledfound venue for inflicting harm in an more and more electronic youth culture (Strohmeier et al. , 2010, p. 187 ). The technology boom of today has brought new ways of communicating with each other. E-mail, instant messaging, Facebook, Myspace and texting are some of the new facets of communication.Gone are the days of writing letters or but giving someone a phone call people scatter up personal confrontation easier to avoid and use these technologies to hide easy instead. The art of conversation is quickly giving way to this type of messaging and avo idance. instantlys society finds it much easier to verbally attack someone behind a phone or computer than to do it face-to-face.Victims Characteristics. Victims are characterized as submissive and non-assertive (Barnett et al. , 2011, p. 161). More often being smaller than the bully the victim may be more sensitive, unhappy, cautious, quiet, and/or withdrawn (Cook et al. 2010, p. 65). Because the victim allows for the bullying to continue, one can only assume that they have passive or submissive characteristics. They may also be insecure and will not normally assert themselves. When attacked they withdraw and cry and since they are vulnerable, they will not retaliate. There is also an alternative type of victim termed the provocative victim. These victims are overactive, may have irritating behaviors, and are anxious along with cover aggressive traits (Green, Felix, Sharkey, Furlong & Kras, 2012, p. 1).These types of victims could possibly be a bully victim in the making. Age ra nge. Victims are normally the same age and in the same class as the bully (Rivers et al. , 2009, p. 212). Therefore the bully will deteriorate enough time with the victim to know them well. The bully does not have as much chance to victimize younger students since the chance to be around them lessens as they progress through school. The number of older pupils with opportunity to bully at decreased risk to selves decreases as the bully ages. grammatical gender specifics. When explored, the reasons for bullying another peer differ by gender.A read done by Beaty & Alexeyev states that boy bullies pick on others because they do not fit in, are physically weak, or due to the clothes they wore (2008, p. 2). Victims also include those that are special needs, deviate from the norm, or differ in sexual orientation or race (Barnett, 2011, p. 161). Girls also primarily bully others because they do not fit in, but differ greatly when choosing who to pick on according to cognitive abilities. While boys have a angle of inclination to victimize other pupils with special needs, girls chose to victimize what would be considered as overachievers (Rivers et al. 2009, p. 213). endpoint Now knowing all of this information, how can it be put to use when addressing bullies in their earliest stages? Schools can use this profile of a bully as a window into what makes them become the people they are. Teachers will be able to identify a bully and address background situations such as family structure to offer counseling to the bully and their family. They could also assist victims within the school in learning social skills to deter bullies from picking on them as well.