Bullying At School: Part III

It is important to understand the different forms of bullying. Direct bullying includes actions such as physical violence, teasing, taunting, and threatening. Indirect bullying happens when bullies intentionally socially isolate others. Bullying falls into three main categories according to Stacy DeBroff:

1. Physical Bullying: The easiest to identify, this category includes blatant physical attacks such as kicking, punching, hair pulling, and pinching, as well as more violent actions.

2. Verbal Bullying: Verbal attacks include name-calling, gossiping, sexist remarks, sexually suggestive comments, racist or ethnic slurs, unwanted phone calls, and threats (anonymous or otherwise).

3. Emotional Intimidation: This form of abuse diminishes a person's sense of self through isolation and exclusion. Much more common with girls, this type of bullying includes subtle gestures like facial expressions, body language, note writing, whispering, and snickering. Emotional intimidation goes into full swing during the middle school years as children begin to experience the emotional and physical changes of adolescence.

Bullies use an imbalance of power to dominate a victim. This imbalance can involve differences in age, physical size, strength, or popularity. In some instances, many children may band together to target a single child.