Bullying is a topic of attention today. This is what a significant portion of contemporary adolescents face at some point of their lives at the school, in the street and even on the web. However, what wasn’t known before that bullying damages perpetrators just as much as the victims, if we consider long-term health consequences, including a person’s psychological health.

Perpetrators of bullying suffer psychological consequences as well as victims

Teasing, beating and hair-pulling by classmates are only a few forms of physical violence that can cause a psychological trauma, which is rather rare. But other types of bullying could be much more subtle and leave no visible marks, the damage is done on the inside, and not only for the victims. Perpetrators, too, are deeply affected and face psychological consequences of this type of violence for the rest of their lives, and the effects are not dissimilar to what victims experience, a recent study discovered.

Perpetrators often tend to have an alcohol or tobacco addiction, problems with their psychosomatic state.

Psychology of bullying

The study has been conducted by a research team of Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) led by Matthias Donat and Anett Wolgast, educational psychology experts.

The purpose was to investigate how different cultures and countries are in dealing with bullying events.

Particularly, the researchers made an attempt to find out whether boys and girls were treated differently when it comes to this kind of psychological pressure.

The study was based on analysis of statistics made available by WHO (the World Health Organization).

Over the years, this reputable international body had been conducting a poll involving about 3,000 school students from a number of countries asking them about bullying events they faced in their lives. Along with that, questions about smoking, alcohol consumption and psychosomatic deviations were delved into.

Researchers made an attempt to find out whether boys and girls were treated differently when it comes to this kind of psychological pressure.

Study of students from the USA, Greece, Germany

This was a comprehensive study as it covered 3 countries, namely the USA, Germany and Greece, over the period of several years. The sample data belonged to different time stretches. The reason why these countries were selected is that they showed somewhat different types of society: highly individualistic in America, collectivistic in Greece and something in between in Germany.

Another aspect the researchers investigated was what factors can affect the bullying rate in a society.

In this respect, academics focused on such risky behavior factors as smoking and alcohol consumption. The related possibility of getting health problems by adolescents, such as headaches, depression etc., was another major point of interest.

How bullying victims and their perpetrators were behaving in their social environment was taken into consideration, too.

Upon this vast amount of data collection and analysis, the MLU researchers have come to the conclusion that the behavior of adolescents is much the same in all the three involved countries, that is in any type of the society.

It was found out that up to 10% of school students, boys and girls alike, used to suffer from psychological and physical attacks, which could be categorized as bullying.

No practical solution to stop bullying

According to Dr. Wolgast, none of the countries under discussion was able to propose a practical solution to tackle the problem.

This type of uniformity certainly should cause concern. While no clear correlation between being a bullying victim and consuming alcohol or tobacco was revealed, the situation with health problems is somewhat different.

This fact is of particular importance when it comes to girls as those tend to conceal bullying events and survive them on their own, which results in getting headaches or stomach aches more often.

What the researchers were astounded with, perpetrators reported the same health concerns with a similar occurrence, as victims.

Given the transboundary nature of this phenomenon, the study authors propose educational and medical professionals to join their efforts internationally to come up with a sustainable solution applicable in any country.

Apart from the torture that a bullied individual suffers from, this vicious activity distorts social behavior patterns acquired by the young generation.

This said, the major approach to consider would be the drive to improve communication in the communities of young people. This is where schools should play a leading role. Potentially successful tools include providing support, creating a friendly classroom atmosphere and asking young people to follow fair-conduct practices.

Read also:

• Decriminalization of domestic violence in Russia: 600 thousand women become victims of family violence every year
• Lust and love are not the same, scientists say
• Feminism in Russia: “it’s for men-haters, lesbians, and ugly spinsters”
• Do you like a modest girl — and what does modesty mean for you?