Types of Bullying

There’s a great deal of information available regarding bullying, but much of it is generalized. While some principles hold true no matter where the bullying takes place, some strategies and facts are dependent on age group and situation. The strategy that helps tenth graders understand what bullying behavior looks like is not likely to help preschoolers – in fact, bullying looks entirely different in preschool than it does in tenth grade.

Bullying doesn’t stop at the playground gates, either. It can rear its ugly head in any situation where there are differences in power and people who choose to use that power to hurt others. From graffiti scrawled on a locker at the gym to the boss who constantly belittles subordinates to the sister who gives her little brother a smack to make him do what she wants, bullies are everywhere.

Statistics about bullying outside of school are just as damning as those that indict school hallways, and it is no less important to intervene and stop bullying no matter where it happens. While the basics may be the same, there are characteristics of bullying – and strategies that work to stop bullies from bullying – that are specific to particular venues. It may be far easier, for example, to keep a group of children from bullying in a youth group that meets once a week than it would be to keep that same group from those behaviors in a week-long stay at summer camp. The fact is, however, that dealing with bullying in ONE area of a child’s life can turn everything around for them.

Not all bullying is kid stuff, though. As research has shown, children who bully often grow up to be adults who bully. He is the driver nearly forcing you off the road, the salesman who steps into your space and pushes you into a sale you didn’t want, the husband who threatens his wife. Statistics tell us that 6 out of 10 children who are identified as bullies in middle school are involved in at least one violent crime by age 24.¹ By age 30, 40% of children identified as bullies had been convicted of three or more crimes. Sexual harassment, racial harassment and religious and gender-based discrimination and harassment are all so remarkably like school-based bullying that they are included in bullying prevention strategies by schools. Domestic abusers are grownup bullies. Bullies are behind the wheels of cars, sitting behind the desk at the office, talking on the radio airwaves and walking the streets.

Whether you are being bullied, witnessing bullying or recognize bullying behaviors in yourself, there are ways to put a stop to it. In the sections that follow, we’ll point out specific problems, statistics and strategies that may be especially effective in particular situations where you find bullying. Here: is an effective bully solution.