March 29, 2024

Suicidal Ideation And School Bullying Experiences – Samples

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Suicidal Ideation And School Bullying Experiences – Samples

Question:

Discuss about the Suicidal Ideation And School Bullying Experiences.

Answer:

Introduction

Depression and bullying are all related and it is often seen that bullying affects both the victim and the one that is bullying. Depression has a wide variety of serious effects on a person’s life. The link between depression and bullying has different other problems like physical illness, high rates of absence from school, anxiety and low self-esteem (Espelage & Holt, 2013). The case considered for the study stats that bullying among the teenagers leads to depression which later results in committing suicide. Reporter Patrick Abboud has made a special investigation on a 12-year-old girl and her experiences of bullying.

Profile of the main characters

 The vital or the main characters in the study are Tayla who is the victim of bullying in her school. The next character that is mentioned in the report is the Principal of Essendon Keilor College Heather Hawkins. New South Wales mother Melinda Tolhurst is also mentioned in the report (NewsComAu, 2018).

The report

 The report talks about a 12-year-old girl who is a victim of bullying. Tayla has been a major victim of bullying in her school and she has experienced bullying in such a way that she went a depression and wanted to commit suicide in order to end to end the misery. Tayla’s mother asked for help from the school authorities several times but still, Tayla experienced bullying in school (NewsComAu, 2018).

Identification of the mode of the practice to be applied to the given scenario

   There are different types of bullying like the relational bullying, cyberbullying, verbal bullying and physical bullying. However, considering the case of Tayla, it can be concluded that Tayla has been a victim of verbal and relational bullying.

 In verbal bullying, the bullying is not necessarily being harmful or physical. In this type of bullying, the children that are teased are often called by names that lead to serious effects. Verbal bullying is a kind of threat that subjects a child to obscene word or gestures. It is, however, important to note that some children think bullying as normal and some of the adults do not take bullying seriously. The social workers must intervene and educate the adults, parents, and the school officials. They must be educated regarding the fact that verbal bullying is detrimental to the wellbeing of the child. A social worker can help both the adults and the children about the ways of recognising the verbal bullying and also establish a clear consequence for the serious offenders (Siyahhan, Aricak & Cayirdag-Acar, 2012).

Relational bullying, on the other hand, is a less obvious method of bullying. It can be considered as a passive in nature. Social workers can teachers, parents and the children about how to recognise the relational bullying. This can also be helpful in educating the bystanders so that they can respond to the bullying assertively. The social workers can also educate the adults so that they can actively support the victim depending on the seriousness of the situation (Wang & Iannotti, 2012).

Theoretical ideas

Critical social work theory can be referred to the theory and the practice that assumes the social structures, cultural and economic structures act as a privilege for some people while neglecting others. The social work theory explicitly deals with providing the social work service for the people that are underprivileged and the social work service is based on the structures and the positions. The critical theory states that there is a relationship between freedom and the responsibility of the social worker to frame culture. Critical social work theory deals with the social injustices rather than focusing on an individual and the social problems that arise from the various forms of the injustice in the globalised world and also from the different forms of oppression. This theory is similar to the other social work theories (Healy, 2014).

Systems theory- This theory states that behaviours are influenced by a variety of factors and factors that work together as a system. How a person acts and thinks is influenced by that person’s home environment, economic class, school, friends, parents. When a person seeks help, such person can be corrected by correcting the missing parts of the system. In a social theory, a social worker analyses and observes the system that contributes to the individual’s welfare and behaviour and all these work for strengthening the system. Social work also takes the form of a role model when providing the therapy and supportive systems for the individual (Payne, 2015).

Main issues to work on

The different kinds of issues that are needed to work on while addressing bullying among the school children are as follows:

  • Bullying is often confused with conflict or violence, aggression, harassment and schools explicitly need to be clear about the definition and how they sort the behaviour and the exact language they use for the treatment.
  • One of the major issue is that now bullying is now considered as human rights movement and it a part of the school’s duty to care towards the staffs and the student and now it has become a moral imperative of the schools to address the issues of bullying and keep the children safe (Kolstrein & Jofré, 2013).
  • It is important to note that once bullying is developed in school, then there is a big chance that the students that are coming in contact with the each other constantly become an easy target. The schools that do not resolve issues of bullying, there is a chance of road rage, hate crimes, workplace violence, child abuse, domestic violence (Young & Loring, 2013).

Motivation

The motivation is a major part of enthusing children so that they can overcome the major issues of bullying. Bullying not only affects a child mentally and physically but also affects them morally. Children that are the constant victim of bullying often resort to suicide in order to relieve themselves from everyday abuse from the other school goers. Emotionally a bullied victim always faces problems and thus they need to be consoled and motivated in order to bring back into normal life regime. When depression grips in such bullied children often commit suicide. Thus, motivation is the only viable way. The bullied child can be told that do not live by what others think about you, rather have your own rules of living and stick to them. It is always best to consider that everyone around is human and they are bound to make mistakes. The victim can always be directed that they need to be patient and before taking any wrong step, it is always advisable to take help from the parents (Shultz, Heilman & Hart, 2014).

Resources available and required for future interventions

For the purpose of intervention, it is always best to consider what are the resources that will be required and what are the resources that are available. The different types of the resources that will be required are the training materials, toolkits, facts. The other vital resources that will be required include the non-federal and the federal training materials, articles and the evidence-based program directories (Stopbullying.gov, 2018).

Strengths and the potential barriers to wellbeing 

Strengths- the child returns to the normal life and tries to live fullest. Children that often used to stay isolated and solitary now tries to socialise with the friends and families. Previously the bullied child used to complain about going to school but now after the proper intervention regularly attends the school (Bibou-Nakou & Markos, 2013).

 Barriers- the major barrier is the flashbacks of the past moments experienced by the child after he or she tries to recover from the bullying experiences (Wolke & Lereya, 2015).

Challenges and the opportunities to resolving the problems

 Challenges- Schools often include a wide variety of the anti-bullying programs. However, it is important to mention that this requires a persistent approach and can never be considered as a complete approach (Thompson & Smith, 2012).

Opportunities- Children that once were depressed and suicidal can now lead a normal life and can go to school and be attentive in their studies as well.

Possible future directions for the work

Prevention of bullying is one of the major societal issues and is a huge responsibility upon the social workers. The situation is fragile considering the fact that the victim often takes fatal steps that are detrimental both to the family and the individual. Thus, it is important to incorporate an integrative approach to social work that will target the root causes of bullying. Bullying tendencies are harmful both to the bullied and the one who is bullying. Thus, strategies can be developed that includes parents, adults, schools and the children for the effective dissemination of the anti-bullying education (Borgwald & Theixos, 2013).

Conclusion

From the above study, it can be concluded that the bullying is detrimental to the development of a child’s mind as well as physical development. It is, however, important to note that there is a large number of the unsolved that are being faced by the social workers. A social worker tends to play a big role both in individualistic intervention and dissemination of anti-bullying education imparted to the parents, schools and the adults.

Reference

Bibou-Nakou, I., & Markos, A. (2013). Coping strategies of secondary school students experiencing bullying: Frequency, type of bullying and psychosocial difficulties. School bullying. predictive factors, coping strategies and effects on mental health, 69-97.

Borgwald, K., & Theixos, H. (2013). Bullying the bully: Why zero-tolerance policies get a failing grade. Social Influence, 8(2-3), 149-160.

Espelage, D. L., & Holt, M. K. (2013). Suicidal ideation and school bullying experiences after controlling for depression and delinquency. Journal of Adolescent Health, 53(1), S27-S31.

Healy, K. (2014). Social work theories in context: Creating frameworks for practice. Palgrave Macmillan.

Kolstrein, A. M., & Jofré, M. I. T. (2013). Bullying: an analysis from the perspective of human rights, target groups and interventions. The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 21(1), 46-58.

NewsComAu. (2018). No one should utter these words. Retrieved from https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/school-life/bullying-of-teenagers-leads-to-depression-suicide-sbs-reporter-patrick-abboud-special-investigation/news-story/0ea44495dd4e9abd7fd39371b82c877b

Payne, M. (2015). Modern social work theory. Oxford University Press.

Shultz, E., Heilman, R., & Hart, K. J. (2014). Cyber-bullying: An exploration of bystander behavior and motivation. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 8(4).

Siyahhan, S., Aricak, O. T., & Cayirdag-Acar, N. (2012). The relation between bullying, victimization, and adolescents’ level of hopelessness. Journal of adolescence, 35(4), 1053-1059.

Stopbullying.gov. (2018). Resources | StopBullying.gov. Retrieved from https://www.stopbullying.gov/resources

Thompson, F., & Smith, P. K. (2012). Anti-bullying strategies in schools: what is done and what works. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 9(2), 154-173.

Wang, J., & Iannotti, R. J. (2012). Bullying among US adolescents. The Prevention Researcher, 19(3), 3-6.

Wolke, D., & Lereya, S. T. (2015). Long-term effects of bullying. Archives of disease in childhood, 100(9), 879-885.

Young, C., & Loring, M. T. (2013). Bullying behavior: Current issues, research, and interventions. Routledge.

Published at Thu, 07 Jan 2021 16:00:00 +0000

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