What is physical bullying, consequences and how to prevent it

Currently, the concept of bullying is used to refer to any act of harassment and bullying produced in educational environments. It is usually carried out by a main aggressor, backed by a greater or lesser group of students who reinforce her aggression. It occurs on a victim or, similarly, a small group of victims on whom all kinds of physical, psychological, verbal, social, etc. abuses are repeatedly carried out.

In this Psychology-Online article we will talk about what is hephysical bullying, consequences and how to prevent it. Find out what causes this type of bullying and what to do to prevent this part of bullying that today constitutes a great scourge for our society.

Index

1. What is physical bullying
2. Causes of physical bullying
3. Consequences of physical bullying
4. How to prevent physical bullying

Physical bullying refers to any type of physical aggression carried out by one or more persons on another individual. This type of bullying includes all kinds of blows, beatings, kicks and any act that involves physical abuse on the victim's body.

The main characteristics of physical bullying are the following:

• It is a physical contact that violates the victim, such as a shove, slap, slap, etc.
• It is done so that the victim cannot defend himself, for example, when she is alone, is handcuffed, etc.)
• They are high-intensity and repeated blows, that is, repeatedly hitting the victim, for example, when she goes to the bathroom or when she goes home.
• He aggressor acts in an aggressive, intimidating and violent manner, that is, it uses its entire body to hit, threaten and scare the victim. An example of bullying bodily conduct might be when someone pushes themselves above or corners another.
• The victim feels physically and psychologically cornered and is unable to react or ask for help.
• The aggressions carried out on the victim never have any justified reason.

The causes that cause physical bullying, and bullying in general, although they are very varied and should be analyzed in a particular way in each case, they do allow us to glimpse predetermining factors that increase the probability of this type of bullying. Next, we see what causes physical bullying:

• The aggressor is usually a person with a high load of aggression and high degrees of maladjustment and antisocial behavior.
• Are manipulative people who make use of this mechanism of aggression and abuse as a way of calming their inner restlessness
• They are people with childhood injuries who resolve the accumulated pain and resentment by becoming aggressors themselves. In this article you will see what are the emotional wounds of childhood and how to heal them.
• The victims are usually weak people on a psychological and emotional level, and even physical, that is, with certain insecurities and emotional wounds, as it happens with the aggressor, which predisposes them to be victims of abuse.
• On many occasions, the victims They can be people who, without presenting any kind of childhood trauma, behave in innocent and kind way, little ironic and that they do not see second intentions coming. That makes them easy targets for school bullies.

In reality, the consequences of physical bullying are practically the same as those that can cause any other type of bullying. The aggressions strongly hit the psychological balance of the person who suffers the abuse. Specifically, the consequences of physical bullying can be the following:

• All kinds of wounds and physical injuries more or less serious
• The victim's body contracts and shrinks as a reaction mechanism to the panic experienced during the attack, and to the fear of possible future abuse.
• The victim can start acting with the apprehended helplessness syndrome, believing that none of this situation is in their hands.
• While this aggressive behavior goes unreported and undetected, the aggressor grows in his belief that the use of violence allows him to have power over others.
• In the same way, those who encourage and silence this fact, strengthen the violent ego of the aggressor.
• He psycho-emotional balance of the victim hangs by a thread, to such an extent that it can lead to suicide. To prevent this situation, we recommend you read this article on Suicidal behavior and its prevention: strategies and therapies.

Given the high percentage of violence and abuse that occurs in school environments, to prevent physical bullying, or of any kind, the social awareness campaigns They have become a vitally important resource for our current societies. These focus on the prevention and intervention of bullying episodes.

Actions to prevent bullying

Some of the specific bullying prevention strategies are the following:

• teach in values above any education of subjects and contents. Unfortunately, although there is very good intention on the part of a large part of the teaching community, higher educational entities continue to prioritize content learning. For now, we will be satisfied with the very well-intentioned interventions and varied and transversal activities that are carried out with the ultimate intention of educating in values.
• Inform parents, teachers and students about the dangerous potential of new technologies, where there are cases of increase and normalization of aggressiveness and violence, use of social networks as a means of harassment and abuse, multiple conduct disorders and addictions that lead to greater aggressiveness and impulsivity, and how its use is contributing to the exponential increase in cases of cyberbullying.
• set clear boundaries about what can and cannot be done with respect to oneself and others. It is necessary that the educational environment be reinforced with the family environment so that, jointly, values ​​are educated and respect is fostered among children. It is important to teach parents that everything can improve if they foster a good relationship with their children.

Actions to intervene bullying

Once the main intervention strategies for physical bullying have been detected, the following actions should be carried out:

• Communicate to the respective families what happened and the intention of the center to implement an intervention program to alleviate the negative effects of the aggression as soon as possible. Request your direct participation.
• Start a therapeutic work with the victim to help you recover your psycho-emotional balance, together with a personal protection program to avoid any future aggression.
• Similarly, undertake psychosocial work with the aggressor and, if necessary, with his family.
• Identify the group that encouraged the attacks and incorporate them into psychoeducational work against bullying.

The use of these and other prevention and intervention strategies will help to change the situation from its origin so that the precipitating factors of abusive situations do not occur again.

This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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