21st Century Bully Leave Lasting Impact
I attended the Cambridge Forum recently entitled Bullies and Cyber-Bullies: Victims, Victimizers, and Communities. The distinguished panel featured a range of specialists that included Elizabeth Englander – author and Director at the Mass Aggression Reduction Center (MARC). Englander works closely with teachers and policy-makers in Massachusetts to address issues of bullying in schools. Dr Tracy Vaillancourt raised issues about the role that brain chemistry playes in the life-altering effect of bullying.
I learned two important new insights that I want to share with you as well as pass along some helpful resources on 21st century bullying.
Insight # 1
In the US today bullying (behaviors to establish dominance) has become more pervasive than in the past. The bullying behavior itself has become less physically violent but more social/psychological. The use of social media and cell phone communication (calling and texting) has made it easier to “pile-on” and to harass someone anonymously. (40% of 5th-graders now have sell phones!)
According to Dr. Vaillancourt, the shunning behavior that now characterizes a majority of bullying causes “brain pain” or “brain-trauma”. It seems our human need to belong is “hard wired” to help us survive. Our exclusion from the group signals extreme stress to the body’s coping mechanisms that release a barrage of chemicals as a result. And Vaillancourt points out that while we don’t remember physical pain in a sense that we relive it (remember childbirth?) we do re-experience emotional and psychological trauma again and again.
Insight #2
According to Dr Vaillancourt studies show that verbal and emotional abuse by a child’s peers is enough to cause lasting, measurable damage in a child as he or she grows older. She has done research on boys and girls who had bee bullied between the ages of 11-14. Vaillancourt found that they suffer from ill effects in memory and other cognitive abilities, which can hurt their performance at school. She speculates that cortisol (a chemical released in response to stress) may underlie many of the adverse effects. She is now looking at the long-term, cumulative effect of brain-trauma that can lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). http://traumaspeaks.com/?page_id=27&paged=2.
There was a lot of issues raised at the Cambridge Forum. It will be aired on NPR during the month of September. See website details.
Resources
Elizabeth Englander, Understanding Violence
In the thirs edition of Understanding Violence, author Elizabeth Englander draws on contemporary research and theory in varied fields to present a uniquely balance, integrated, and readable summary of what we currently know about the causes and effects of violence, particularly its effects on children. (Cambridge Forum)
Care2: The Education Cause The Neuroscience of Bullying
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