Bullying how does it start

This article was originally published at. Reprinted with permission from the author. Sign in. Join YourTango Experts. Expert Blog. Jon Pease. Parents and Educators have asked me this question again and again, "Where does bullying start?

Subscribe to our newsletter. In addition to these childhood experiences outside the classroom, bullying may also originate within the early childhood setting as young children observe or interact with other children who are engaged in bullying-related behaviors. In early childhood classrooms, aggression and bullying-related behaviors emerge and develop in relatively well-defined ways.

Young children ages 2—4 may begin using aggressive or early bullying behaviors to defend their possessions, territory, and friendships. Older children ages 4—6 begin to use aggressive and bullying-related behaviors to threaten or intimidate other children. These aggressive and early bullying behaviors develop systematically depending on the response of the target.

For example, if a targeted child cries, submits, and yields the toy, the aggressive child is likely to select and target the same child again, and the bullying behaviors will continue. Sometimes, the submission of the targeted child may become rewarding in and of itself, and the aggressive child may smile and take pleasure in hurting another child on purpose.

Allowed to continue, these behaviors may lead to full-blown bullying—hurtful behavior that is done repeatedly and deliberately to a selected, less powerful, and vulnerable peer. If these early forms of direct bullying are allowed to continue over several months, power hierarchies may form, with groups of dominant children regularly bullying others who give in to their demands by crying and yielding.

As bullying further develops, it can take more varied and sophisticated forms. In their efforts to stop and prevent the development of bullying, early childhood educators need to be aware that both girls and boys engage in a wide variety of bullying-related behaviors. They often do not understand the feelings of the person they bully.

Those who persistently bully often do so in order to dominate others and improve their own social status. Bullying often comes from a belief that it's okay to act that way.

Sometimes they don't even know that what they are doing is bullying behaviour, or they don't understand how much hurt and anxiety they cause. While bullying can happen to any student, it is know that some are more likely than others to be bullied. Vulnerable groups include students with disabilities or special educational needs, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex LGBTI students and those perceived to be LGBTI, and students of a culture, race or religion that differs from the main culture, race or religion at the school.

Bullying sometimes involves students commenting on and judging other student's personal attributes and how they are different. These negative comments can relate to:. This type of bullying is linked to prejudices that students learn from their family group and their wider social community about the value of diversity in the community.

There are social norms within groups of students and also the whole school.