Bullying has been an issue of concern in many sectors including the school setting. The consequences of bullying have also been of significant concern in their relation to suicide. According to Källmén & Hallgren (2021), “Bullying is a form of aggressive behavior that involves an individual intentionally and repeatedly causing discomfort or injury to another”. Bullying can take several forms including physical, cyber, or even emotional bullying. With bullying, the affected individual faces a difficult time understanding the best way to cope and may face severe trauma. Such trauma is what results in the negative consequences of bullying.
To further demonstrate the consequences of bullying, it is important to understand the association between bullying and suicide. Insights by Hertz, Donato, & Wright (2019), there exists an association between suicide-related behaviors and bullying. The effect of bullying has long-lasting and detrimental effects on an individual which can run into months or years. An instance involving youth would demonstrate that bullying has resulted in such persons having diminished self-esteem. This has a negative effect resulting in disorders such as generalized anxiety and panic disorder. The incidence of these mental health disorders has a significant contribution to such people having suicidal ideation. Bullied individuals have further demonstrated higher rates of absenteeism at school, illness as well as poor performance in the activities that they are engaged in.
According to Ross, Horner, & Higbee (2019), bullying prevention can be achieved by teaching social skills, among them friendship and empathy. Individuals and especially the youth who are at high risk of being bullied also need to be taught important skills such as anger management. Such skills will prepare an individual for any eventuality that they may face in their day-to-day interaction with other people. Schools have included policies to prevent bullying in their curricula, evidence-based practice studies have demonstrated some policies constitute misdirection in bullying management, such as zero-tolerance policies, many students who have been bullied choose not to report it because of the threat of expulsion of their bully peers. Conflict resolution and peer mediation could be understood as a bargain negotiation, when the right way is addressed, it is a “must” no permissible attitude (Stopbullying.gov.) Understanding how best to deal with others will ensure an individual does not feel victimized even when they encounter bullies. The significance of bullying prevention is that it would promote important and positive actions in society. Among these actions include kindness, acceptance as well as inclusion. Appropriate bullying prevention is important in improving the mental and emotional well-being of all. Elimination of incidences of bullying is a great way of further ensuring that the suicide cases reported that are associated with bullying are minimized. Understanding and tackling bullying is a great way of achieving a society that has a positive perspective which is in the end a productive society. This is the desire of any society.
