Many child psychologists have studied the phenomenon of schoolyard bullying over the years, and generally agree that it has at least three elements: an intent to harm, threats to further aggression, and an imbalance of power. Bullying is a deliberate act intended to create fear and/or humiliation in the victim.
There are three main types of bullies: physical, verbal, and relational. The most common kind is verbal, accounting for about seventy percent of reported bullying cases. The remainder mostly consists of physical bullies, with a few relational bullies.Physical bullies are perhaps what you would typically think of—generally male, and using action behaviors like punching, kicking, hitting. They tend to be larger than the other children, and exhibit hostile behavior in general.
Verbal bullies use words to abuse and humiliate their victims. Boys and girls are equally likely to be this sort of bully. Though physical harm to the victim is rare, this type of bullying can be just as damaging. The tragic cases of child suicides are often related to this sort of behavior.
Relational bullies use their social powers to exclude others from the group. This may not seem as serious as the other two, but feelings of rejection and isolation can have a big impact on a child. Girls are much more likely to engage in this sort of behavior, since boys tend to play in larger groups with less defined boundaries.Bullies may be popular or unpopular, depending on whether they encounter negative repercussions for their aggressive behavior. If so, they may be rejected by the other children and end up resorting to violence to get attention.
If you spot a bully in your classroom, it may be helpful to try to figure out where they fit into this paradigm. Though it may be your first instinct to isolate the bully, that may actually not be the best course of action. The key is to find out what emotional problems have led to the behavior, answers that perhaps only a counselor would be able to provide. In these cases the school counselor or social worker should be notified so that they can meet with the student and explore what may be the cause of the bullying behavior.
