Does your child seem sad while going to school and after coming back home?
Similarly, does your child locks him/her alone in the room for long period of time?
You might notice significant change in your child’s attitude, but they refuse to talk about it.
These changes can occur for many different reasons, but more often, it’s because they have started getting bullied by another child at school.
According to Canadian Institutes of Health Research, 47% of Canadian parents report having a child who is a victim of bullying!
That’s almost half the child population. Researchers have been studying bullying for years now.
What they have discovered is that that there is much more to bullying than meets the eye.
For instance, people think it as physical harassment, but there’s more to bullying.
In fact, there are different types of bullying, including everything from excluding and gossiping about people.
What’s more, not all bullies are same. There are different tactics to intimidate and control the victim.
Therefore, as a parent you need to know what type your child is suffering from and ways to control it.
In this article, we bring you different types of bullies you should know about as a parent so that you can save your child from getting bullied.
Physical Bullying
Physical bullying is the most obvious form of domineering anyone would notice.
Most often, it occurs when kids use physical actions to gain power and control over their targets.
Hence, physical bullies seems to be bigger, stronger, and more aggressive than their peers.
For instance, a group leader targets another child because he/she is weak or have certain history with the group.
Then the leader starts physical domineering by kicking, hitting, punching, slapping, or doing other physical acts.
Unlike other forms, physical bulling is the easiest to identify.
Additionally, it has historically received more attention from schools than other types of domineering.
Therefore, if your child refuses to talk about it and as a parent if you ignore it, this can play with your child’s sentiments.
Verbal Bullying
Unlike physical bullying, verbal bullying is common yet not easily noticeable until and unless you talk about it.
Perpetrates of verbal domineering use words, statements, and name-calling to gain power and control over the target.
Typically, verbal bullies will use different tactics to insult and hurt another person.
They choose their targets based on the way they look, act, or behave.
Also, it’s common for verbal bullies to target kids with special needs and people who are week to reply back.
It is very difficult to identify because attacks almost always occur when adults aren’t around.
As a result, the victim cannot go against the bullies and fight with it.
Additionally, many kids do not speak about it with their parents and even if they do parents tell them to ignore it.
However, every parents should take action to verbal domineering because if they don’t, it can leave deep emotional scars to the children.
Relational Aggression
Relational aggression is a sneaky and insidious type of bullying that often goes unnoticed by many.
Often referred as emotional bullying, relational aggression is a type of social manipulation.
These type of domineering occurs teens when the bullies try to hurt their peers or sabotage their social standing.
Relational bullies often play with the victims feelings.
Similarly, they ostracize others from a group, spread rumors, manipulate situations, and break confidences.
The goal behind this domineering type is to increase their own social standing by controlling others.
In general, teenage girls tend to get relationally bullied by their friends or boyfriends.
Cyber Bullying
Cyberbullying is undoubtedly the most dangerous and popping domineering these days.
A person uses the Internet, a smartphone, or other technology to harass, threaten, and embarrass the victim.
It is most commonly seen with teenage girls getting harassed with sexual images.
The bullies often do so because they want to take revenge with the victim or want their work to be done.
After all, it is all part of blackmailing the victim for a particular reason.
Because teens are always “plugged in,” it is a growing issue among young generation.
Cyberbullies often say things that they do not have the courage to say face-to-face.
Hence, in order not to get insulted among friends and family members, the victims try to resolve it on their own.
However, the more victims try to hide it and fulfill the demand of the bullies, the more they target.
Sexual Bullying
Sexual bullying consists of repeated, harmful, and humiliating actions that target a person sexually.
Again, it occurs mostly with the teenagers especially with girls.
Victims have to deal with sexual name-calling, crude comments, and vulgar gestures, uninvited touching.
For instance, a bully might make a cruel comment about appearance, attractiveness, sexual development, or sexual activity.
In extreme cases, it opens the door to sexual assault.
Similarly, sexting also can lead to sexual domineering. For instance, a girl may send a photo of herself to a boyfriend.
After the breakup, the guy might share that photos with his friends or entire school.
Then the girl becomes the target of sexual bulling because people start to make fun or her body.
Most victims do not share the problems with their parents with the fear of being insulted or beaten.
Prejudicial Bullying
It is based on prejudices teens have towards people of different races, religions, or sexual orientation.
This type of domineering can encompass all the other types.
Hence, in prejudicial domineering kids target others who are different from them and singling them out.
Oftentimes, this type is severe and can open the door to hate crimes.
Therefore, any time a child is bullied for sexual orientation, race, gender, religion, or color must be immediately reported.
