National Day of Action
National Day of Action Against Bullying
Bullying, harassment, discrimination and violence are all interpersonal behaviours that can create or contribute to negative social environments. It is very important that our school community has clear and shared definitions for bullying, harassment, discrimination and violence.
The national definition of bullying for Australian schools says: Bullying is an ongoing misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that causes physical and/or psychological harm. It can involve an individual or a group misusing their power over one or more persons. Bullying can happen in person or online, and it can be obvious (overt) or hidden (covert).
Bullying of any form or for any reason can have long-term effects on those involved, including bystanders.
Single incidents and conflict or fights between equals, whether in person or online, are not defined as bullying.
Behaviours that do not constitute bullying include:
• mutual arguments and disagreements (where there is no power imbalance)
• not liking someone or a single act of social rejection
• one-off acts of meanness or spite
• isolated incidents of aggression, intimidation or violence.
However, these conflicts still need to be addressed and resolved. Likewise not all online issues are bullying. (Online bullying is sometimes referred to as cyberbullying and refers to bullying that is carried out through information and communication technologies.)
Harassment is behaviour that targets an individual or group due to their:
• identity, race, culture or ethnic origin
• religion
• physical characteristics
• gender
• sexual orientation
• marital, parenting or economic status
• age
• ability or disability.
It offends, humiliates, intimidates or creates a hostile environment. It may be:
• an ongoing pattern of behaviour or a single act
• directed randomly or towards the same person(s)
• intentional or unintentional.
Discrimination occurs when people are treated less favourably than others because
of their:
• identity, race, culture or ethnic origin
• religion
• physical characteristics
• gender
• sexual orientation
• marital, parenting or economic status
• age
• ability or disability.
Violence is the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual,
against another person(s) that results in psychological harm, injury or in some cases
death. It may involve provoked or unprovoked acts and can be a single incident, a
random act or can occur over time.
These definitions outline key characteristics and have been taken from Student
Wellbeing Hub https://studentwellbeinghub.edu.au
Types of Bullying
Bullying is usually described by the types of behaviours involved, so we talk about verbal, social and physical bullying.
Bullying is sometimes also labelled by where it occurs or by what type of harm is done. These words can be used alone or in combination. It can be confusing! The most common ways that bullying is described are outlined below.
There are three types of bullying behaviour:
Verbal bullying which includes name calling or insulting someone about physical characteristics such as their weight or height, or other attributes including race, sexuality, culture, or religion
Physical bullying which includes hitting or otherwise hurting someone, shoving or intimidating another person, or damaging or stealing their belongings
Social bullying which includes consistently excluding another person or sharing information or images that will have a harmful effect on the other person.
If any of these behaviours occur only once, or are part of a conflict between equals (no matter how inappropriate) they are not bullying.
Verbal, physical and social bullying can occur in person or online, directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly.
Bullying can happen in person or online settings. Online bullying is sometimes called cyberbullying. Verbal, physical and social bullying can happen in person. Verbal and social bullying can happen online, as can threats of physical bullying.
Specific features of online settings create additional concern for students, parents and carers, and teachers. For example, bullying someone online can potentially have an enormous audience. Research shows that children who are bullied online are often also bullied in person. This means that effectively dealing with online bullying means looking at other situations as well.
Direct bullying occurs between the people involved, whereas indirect actions involve others, for example passing on insults or spreading rumours. Indirect bullying mostly inflicts harm by damaging another's social reputation, peer relationships and self-esteem.
Bullying can be easy to see, called overt, or hidden from those not directly involved, called covert. Overt bullying involves physical actions such as punching or kicking or observable verbal actions such as name-calling and insulting. Overt, direct, physical bullying is a common depiction of bullying. (This is sometimes called 'traditional bullying').
But overt physical bullying may not be the most common type of bullying. Covert bullying can be almost impossible for people outside the interpersonal interaction to identify. Covert bullying can include repeatedly using hand gestures and weird or threatening looks whispering, excluding or turning your back on a person, restricting where a person can sit and who they can talk with. Covert social or verbal bullying can be subtle and even sometimes denied by a person who claims they were joking or 'just having fun'.
Some bullying is covert and indirect, usually intentionally hidden, and very hard for others to see. This type of bullying can include spreading rumours threatening, blackmailing, stealing friends breaking secrets, gossiping, criticising clothes and personalities. Indirect covert bullying mostly inflicts harm by damaging another's social reputation, peer relationships and self-esteem, that is, through psychological harm rather than physical harm.
Bullying has the potential to cause harm (although not all unwanted actions necessarily cause harm). The physical harm caused by some types of bullying is well recognised.
More recently, research has confirmed that short and long term psychological harm can result from bullying. This includes the harm to a person's social standing or reducing a person's willingness to socialise through bullying (particularly covert social bullying).
In fact, just the fear of bullying happening can create distress and harm. The ongoing nature of bullying can lead to the person being bullied feeling powerless and unable to stop it from happening. The effects of bullying, particularly on the mental health and wellbeing of those involved, including bystanders, can continue even after the situation is resolved.
Sometimes the term 'psychological bullying' is used to describe making threats and creating ongoing fear, but it is more accurate to describe the type of behaviour as 'verbal or social bullying' and the impact on the person being bullied as 'psychological harm'.
Bullying can happen anywhere. It can happen at home, at work or at school. It can happen to anyone.
Bullying can occur between students, staff and parents/carers. Bullying. No Way! focuses on bullying between students.
For further information visit::
https://bullyingnoway.gov.au/