Effects of Being Bullying as a Child on a Person’s Life as an Adult

Effects of Being Bullying as a Child on a Person’s Life as an Adult

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Adulthood behavior is majorly determined by the environment of a person in his or her childhood. As such many people suffer emotionally in circumstances that can be blamed on bullying. Mehta et al. (2013) discussed that bulling is one of the major problems that children face in the current world, both at home and in school. It can be defined as an act whereby a person is hurt by words or actions intentionally by another person (Bowes et al, (2015). The most common type of bullying is the cyber bullying whereby a child is frustrated by some computer criminals and sometimes may lead to them doing something unthinkable. It is estimated that only in the United States of America, 20 to 28 percent of school going children have experienced some kinds of bullying while more than 30 percent of these kids admitting that they are bullies (Bowes et al., 2015). The main objective is to discuss the effects of being bullied as a child on adult life.

The government initiative to try and cub down this menace has bored very little fruits because the same kids are told to reduce frequent reporting about the issue. The use of phrases such as “act like a man” or “kids will just be kids” are the reasons why there have been reduced reporting of bullying cases. These phrases surprisingly are used even by parents without knowing that bullying could ruin their kids’ lives in future (Bowes et al., 2015). Bullying can have very serious implications on the life of a person because the psychological emotion is being tempered with.

First of all, adults who were bullied when they were young experience some anxiety and depression problems. According to Bowes et al, (2015), in their research it showed that a lot of adulthood depression cases developed due to constant bullying when they were young or at an adolescence period. When a child is bullied when young or at the age when they are in their adolescence, they start behaving differently due to the fear of a possible harassment from the bully. They will try as much as possible to avoid places where other kids are but will look anxious and with a lot of fear in them. This situation will translate to adulthood whereby they continue with their antisocial nature and have difficulty working, or even expressing their grievances. Some psychological research studies have concluded that bullying can also lead to a condition called “acute stress” which in most cases could lead to madness when a person gets older (Mehta et al., 2013). Normal stress could be good but when it goes beyond the ceiling, then it could have serious effects on the child’s adulthood if they do not get proper guidance from older people.

Those kids that are bullied ends up performing poorly at school due to lack of concentration in class. They will be thinking about the people who bully them in most of their time. This condition will make them fail to join the best universities and colleges and in the long run, ending up having bad future (Mehta et al., 2013). Bullying also leads to a condition whereby a kid starts bedwetting. This will lead to lowering of their self-esteem and may end up not marrying in future because they think that they will keep on wetting beds.

In some situation, some kids who are bullied will develop self defense mechanisms whereby the act of bullying will make them rude or even violent at some point. They will see as if there is nothing worst that bullying that can be done to them (Chester et al, 2015). This rudeness if not controlled in early stages may lead to them being disrespectful to older people like their teachers and parents. This condition will be seen in their adult life whereby they will be harsh and disrespectful to everyone without conscience. Most of these people end up losing their jobs because employers do not understand this situation.

Furthermore, Holt et al, (2015) argue that bullied kids may lose meaning for life. They end up thinking that life is all about suffering and may at some time think about committing suicide. There have been a lot of cases of attempted suicide by kids under the age of 18 that is related to bullying. This condition can also be seen in adulthood mostly among those people that were bullied at their childhood. These people have poor capacity of handling harassment and when bullied at work, they may end up killing themselves.

In conclusion, Benedict et al. (2015) argue that bullying is a serious behavior that has dangerous impacts on the victim of the action, yet it can be controlled. It is a high time for the government and the general public start tackling it as a major problem (Chester et al, 2015). Campaigns could be held by the general public to try and inform about the problem while the government takes action of making policies to handle the situation. By combining these efforts, this menace could be reduced to the lowest level possible.

References

Bowes, L., Joinson, C., Wolke, D., & Lewis, G. (2015). Peer victimization during adolescence and its impact on depression in early adulthood: prospective cohort study in the United Kingdom. bmj, 350, h2469.

Holt, M. K., Vivolo-Kantor, A. M., Polanin, J. R., Holland, K. M., DeGue, S., Matjasko, J. L., … & Reid, G. (2015). Bullying and suicidal ideation and behaviors: A meta-analysis. Pediatrics, 135(2), e496-e509.

Chester, K. L., Callaghan, M., Cosma, A., Donnelly, P., Craig, W., Walsh, S., & Molcho, M. (2015). Cross-national time trends in bullying victimization in 33 countries among children aged 11, 13 and 15 from 2002 to 2010. The European Journal of Public Health, 25(suppl_2), 61-64.

Mehta, S. B., Cornell, D., Fan, X., & Gregory, A. (2013). Bullying climate and school engagement in ninth‐grade students. Journal of school health, 83(1), 45-52.

Turcotte Benedict, F., Vivier, P. M., & Gjelsvik, A. (2015). Mental health and bullying in the United States among children aged 6 to 17 years. Journal of interpersonal violence, 30(5), 782-795.