Predictors of school bullying

Abstract

Bullying is divided into two types: physical and psychological. The first is manifested in blows, beatings, fights with malicious intent. The second is the provision of psychological pressure or emotional violence through verbal abuse, threats, harassment, which negatively affect the child's psyche. Psychological pressure is the most common case in school. It should be noted that bullying is different from other concepts such as "conflict", "aggression", "violence". Scientists emphasize the features of this phenomenon: it is expressed in the inequality of the forces of the aggressor and the victim; the action occurs intentionally; psychological pressure that leads to a decrease in the significance, self-esteem of the victim; the presence of group dynamics; the repeatability of the event. The article is devoted to the study of predictors of the occurrence of bullying in the school life of students. The author considers the degree of study of the research topic, and provides a brief terminological analysis. The author argues for the fallacy of the opinion that the problem of bullying is related only to the victim and the aggressor. It proves that bullying is a group phenomenon that directly negatively affects all participants in school bullying. The author considers in detail each participant, namely "victim", "aggressor", "observers", "followers" and "defenders", the causes and consequences of the process of harassment at the psychological level.