What Is Bullying And What Isn’t

It can be confusing to understand where the line is of bullying. You never want to just pass something off as not being bullying or rush to label it that way either. It’s important to have a conversation and find out the details about the situation.

Knowing the Difference

It’s important to know the difference and for children to understand the difference in what is bullying and what is rude or mean behavior. There are times when someone turns into “the boy that cried wolf” because (although often innocent) they claim an act is bullying when it’s more so rude behavior then when it is actually bullying they aren’t taken seriously.

Rude: Someone inadvertently saying something or doing something that hurts someone

Mean: When someone purposefully says or does something to hurt another person once (sometimes twice)

Bullying: Intentionally aggressive behavior, repeated over time that involves an imbalance of power.

There are 3 elements in bullying:

-An intent to harm

-A power imbalance

-Repeated acts or threats of aggressive behavior

Types of Bullying

Bullying involves doing something intentionally hurtful to others and continuing to do it even with the target of bullying shows or expresses their hurt and tells the aggressor to stop.

Physical Aggression- Examples of this are hitting, pinching, kicking, spitting, pushing, tripping, ect.

Verbal Aggression-Examples include teasing, name-calling, taunting, threatening to cause harm, ect.

Social (Relational) Aggression- Examples include leaving someone out on purpose, telling other kids not to be friends with someone, spreading rumors about someone, embarrassing someone in public, ect.

Cyberbullying- This involves the use of technology in bullying. It could be through email, cell phone, instant messages, websites, ect. It is done by kids deliberately and repeatedly with the intention of harming other kids. This type of bullying is often used because it doesn’t even require the bully to be face to face with their target; in fact they can often stay anonymous.