Published October 6, 2023
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network on Bullying
Why must educators confront bullying?
While school personnel are charged with supporting the educational attainment of children and adolescents, we know that, in order for educators to accomplish their primary mission, children must feel safe, supported and ready to learn.
The United States National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) has identified bullying as one of numerous types of trauma experienced by children.
Bullying, like other traumatic experiences, undermines safety, support and readiness to learn.
How prevalent is bullying?
Per NCTSN, one in five high school students – 8.2 million are bullied every year (no statistics for elementary students were found in this resource).
How can we remediate the problem of bullying in schools?
Educators can:
- Educate themselves
- Educate their students
- Educate their students’ parents
What do we need to know and teach?
Trauma is defined by:
- the child’s intense feeling of being threatened
- NOT by any measure of severity that others might use to classify the event
Bullying is behavior that can be:
- Prevented
Interrupted
- Changed
Bullying is not:
- A set of static roles
- Assigning or wearing labels
- Labeling someone a “bully” may perpetuate the behavior
- Labeling someone a “victim” may disregard the ability to recover from having been bullied
- Labeling may later influence uninvolved people
- Labeling disregards ability to change
- Labeling disregards context of behavior
Bullying begets bullying:
Youth who have been bullied are more likely to bully others
The trauma of being bullied can be detrimental to:
- Self-image
- Social interactions
- School performance
- Mental health
Long- and short-term effects of being bullied can include:
- Stress, anxiety and depression
- Anger or frustration
- Loneliness and isolation
- Feelings of rejection
- Poor self-esteem
- Changes in
- Eating patterns
- Sleeping patterns
- Health complaints
- Avoidance of school
- Poor academic performance
- Separation anxiety
- Self-injury
- Eating disorders
- Suicidal or homicidal ideas or actions
Youthful bystanders may also:
- Feel guilty for failure to stop the bullying
- Feel unsafe at school
Be at increased risk for
- Depression and anxiety
- Substance use
- Absenteeism
Bullying at school may impact:
Other students
Adults on campus
Social-emotional skills and wellness strategies are needed by
- All students
All school staff
The NCTSN was created by Congress in 2000 as part of the Children’s Health Act. According to the NCTSN website: “Our mission is to raise the standard of care and improve access to services for traumatized children, their families and communities throughout the United States.”
Other resourced from NCTSN are:
To visit the NCTSN website, click here.