In high schools, bullying occurs where teens engage in repetitive aggressive behaviors and intentionally harming other teens in a systematic abuse of power. According to Wolke and Lereya (2015), an aggressive act is considered to be bullying when it is perpetrated with the intention of causing harm to an inferior party, when it is exerted repeatedly, and when there is a perceived or actual imbalance of power between the perpetrator of the aggressive behavior and the victim. There are two modes of bullying in high school: direct and indirect bullying. Direct bullying occurs in a one-on-one interaction between the bully and the victim. Indirect bullying involves where the bully employs other proxies and communication such as spreading rumors about a person. Other than the modes, bullying can also be perpetrated through four types which are damage to the victim’s property, relational harm, verbal bullying, and physical abuse. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has found that 20 percent of all 9th to 12th grade students (high school level) have experienced at least one type of bullying “Facts about Bullying”, (2018). Considering that the number of high school students in the country is 50 million (National Center for Education Statistics, 2018), then about 10 million high school students are victims of bullying. Bullying not only affects the behaviors and cognition of the victim due to altered hormones and biological functions and psychological relationships.
Bullying is a complex phenomenon such that it leaves its victims with somatic and psychological symptoms. According to Sansone and Sansone (2008), bullying is related with both behavioral and cognitive issues. Among the cognitive issues include depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and multiple mental disorders. Behavioral issues include social difficulties, internalizing symptoms, internalizing symptoms, suicidal attempts, and eating disorders. Apart from these issues, the victims might also experience somatic symptoms such as poor appetite, headaches, sore throats and colds, sleep disturbances, and dizziness. The combination of these factors significantly affect the social and academic life of the high school students negatively.
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"The Impact of High School Bullying on the Mental Health Teens".
The behavioral and cognitive impacts of bullying are based on the post-bullying psychosocial theories. According to Rivara (2016), a symptom driven pathway develops in young victims of bullying. The symptom driven pathway is a process through which depressive symptoms in the victims predict victimization by peers at later date. The symptom driven pathway may predispose the victim in the future through three approaches. The first approach is through the portrayal of a behavioral style among the victims that might be perceived by the peers as alienated. The second approach through which the pathway predisposes the victim is through selecting maladaptive relationship due to their treat-sensitive natures. The third approach is through the portrayal of social deficits which makes the victims fail to fit in among the peers in future. The treat-sensitive natures or notions dictate that the victims of bullying select environmental and social information which is consistent with their perceived negative self-opinions. This theory indicates that the victim of bullying end up being sensitive to social and environmental cues. As such, the victims adapt hostile interpretation of ambiguous social information, especially that which relate to their perceived self-opinions. However, the interpretation of social behaviors and social information processing varies with the age of the teens (Rivara, 2016). High school students might result to hypersensitivity which leads to severe behavioral and cognitive symptoms. From a psychological point of view, being bullied has a mutually reinforcing relationship with externalizing and internalizing problems. Increasing bullying causes this relationship to sink in a harmful cycle of instabilities predisposing the victim to further bullying and further behavioral and cognitive symptoms.
Bullying impacts various biological processes in the brain and the entire body. According to Wolke and Lereya (2015), the act of bullying alters the response of the body to stress, affect the epigenome, and interacts with various genetic vulnerabilities in the victim. Most importantly, bulling alters the cortisol responses and the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis which expose the victim to mental health problems. According to Rivara (2016), the role HPA in the body is to promote the adaptation and survival. When HPA and other hormones are elevated, they trigger stress-related problems. Since stress has a ubiquitous relationship with the brain, the alteration of the brain’s architecture alters the response of many other hormones which then affect the behavior of the victim. For instance, bullying victims have been shown to have altered levels of cortisol, a stress hormone. Cortisol is only elevated in the body of an adult when prolonged stress lead to trauma. However, in high school age teens, the levels of cortisol might be elevated through repeated cases of bullying. Specifically, Rivara (2016) argues that cortisol hormone rises from pre-task to post-task after repeated bullying. The author also states that short-term bullying only increases cortisol levels but does not affect the response. However, repeated bullying causes blunted cortisol response causing the hormone to become hypofunctional. This means that the cortisol hormone is no longer elevated in response to other stressors. This causes the stress system to shut down in response to a negative feedback. This causes variation in most biological functions related to the cortisol hormone. The prolonged stress to the dysfunction of the stress-cortisol cycle leads to circadian. Altered circadian rhythm causes the victim to experience sleeplessness, depression, withdrawal, and suicidal ideas.
- Facts about bullying. (2018). Retrieved 29 Oct, 2018, from https://www.stopbullying.gov/
- National Center for Education Statistics (2018). Back to school statistics.
- Rivara, F. (2016). Preventing Bullying Through Science, Policy, and Practice (1st ed.). Washington, D. C.: National Academy Press.
- Sansone, R. A., & Sansone, L. A. (2008). Bully victims: psychological and somatic aftermaths. Psychiatry (Edgmont (Pa. : Township)), 5(6), 62-4.
- Wolke, D., & Lereya, S. T. (2015). Long-term effects of bullying. Archives of disease in childhood, 100(9), 879-85.
