Bullying – Advice for Parents and Guardians
Posted on September 1, 2016
With the new school year starting, it’s important that you and your child prepare for the potential of bullying. Through education and awareness, we can all find ways to stop bullying and maybe prevent it!
What is bullying?
Bullying is unwanted, unfriendly behavior among people that may be repeated over time. Bullying includes making threats, spreading rumors, physical or verbal attacks, and/or excluding someone from a group on purpose.
What is cyber bullying?
Bullying can also happen online. Cyber bullying includes mean text messages or emails, rumors sent by email or posted on social media sites, and embarrassing pictures, videos, websites or fake profiles.
Cyber bullying can be even more troubling because it can happen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and can be sent anonymously and shared quickly to a very wide audience.
Who is at risk?
Bullying can happen anywhere and to anyone, but some children may be targeted because they have a disability, are socially isolated, or identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT).
If you suspect that your child is being bullied at school or is at greater risk, talk to his or her teacher and school officials so you can work together on a plan.
Before bullying begins
As a parent or guardian, you want to protect your children and make sure they feel safe when they go to school or out to play. The best thing to do is to learn how to help in case your child gets put into a bad situation.
Tips to help your child build inner strength
As part of a study, Dr. Charisse Nixon and Stan Davis conducted surveys of more than 13,000 youth in 31 schools (through the Youth Voice Project). They found that these positive actions can help children build inner strength so they can weather the stresses of childhood:
- Spend family time together.
- Encourage positive relationships with adults outside the immediate family.
- Encourage hobbies and interests.
- Encourage helping others and show them that they have made a difference by helping.
- Teach them to understand that some people may say or do mean things to others.
- Help them learn how to solve problems.
- Ask for help.
- Help them make friends and connect with others outside school through activities and groups.
If bullying happens
Every child has the right to feel safe in their school. It is important for schools and communities to create and maintain safety for all. Make sure your child knows that it’s safe for him or her to talk to you about anything. This is key to finding out about issues related to bullying.
Five ways to help a child who is bullied
According to NurseWise, a national multilingual nurse triage and health education provider that cares for millions of children each year, there are five ways to help a child being bullied:
- Stop the bullying immediately – this sends a signal that bullying will not be tolerated.
- Be on your best behavior – lead by example when dealing with a bullying situation.
- Seek medical attention or help from the police – this is not overreacting and should be done when appropriate.
- Educate the school staff and kids – make sure to involve the school so the situation can be watched.
- Communicate and follow up – make it clear that it’s safe to talk to you or a teacher at any time. Work to rebuild your child’s self-esteem.
For more information about these five tips, visit http://www.nursewise.com/2015/08/11/five-ways-help-child-whos-bullied/.
Long-term impact of bullying
As you talk with your child about bullying, think about what has happened. How serious was it? How unhappy and/or scared is your child?
If the behavior toward your child, and your child’s reaction to it, have a negative effect on sleeping, eating, learning and other daily activities, talk to school staff if this is a school-based problem. If the problems are happening outside of school, you should talk with the people who supervise the setting in which they are happening. Depending on the behavior and on relevant state law, you may also want to make a police report.
Bullying can have long-term health effects on young people. Bullied children are five times more likely to become depressed. If you see signs of trouble with daily activities or of rage or depression, you may want to have a mental health professional assess your child.
Health New England offers behavioral health coverage with no outpatient visit limits with in-plan providers. For more information about your behavioral health benefits, please call Member Services at (800) 786-9999.
Comments are currently closed.