Days after yet another attack on schools, with the death of four children in Blumenau, Santa Catarina, experts heard by Agência Brasil talk about the impacts of bullying among students. This Friday (7), National Day to Combat Bullying and Violence in Schools, the subject is even more in evidence in the country.
"The most frequent type of violence in childhood and early adolescence is bullying ," said Maria Fernanda Tourinho Peres, professor at the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) and coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Studies on Violence and Health (Lieves).
Created in 2016 to raise awareness of the need to prevent bullying and other types of violence in schools, the date recalls the tragedy that occurred in 2011, when a 24-year-old youth invaded a school in Realengo, Rio de Janeiro, and murdered 12 children. .
" Bullying is a persistent type of violence. It is not a situation of violence that happens once and runs out. It is a type of violence that tends to be persistent over time and tends to be recurrent. It is usually that situation in which, for example, a student or a teenager at school is systematically and frequently being the target of this type of violence", emphasized the teacher.
Violence
In order to be considered bullying , there needs to be an imbalance of power between the parties involved. " Bullying is a type of violence that is structured, that arises and that is sustained around an imbalance of power. So there is a pole that is more empowered - or one that symbolically or socially occupies a stronger position of power - and a pole that occupies a more fragile position of power", explained Maria Fernanda.
"The word bullying derives from the English term bully , which has a meaning as a noun that means aggressor and in verbal terms it means to intimidate. Bullying , as derived, is defined as aggressive behavior. In Brazil, the term appeared at the end of the 90s", explained Araceli Albino, president of the Union of Psychoanalysts of the State of Sao Paulo.
According to Zeyne Alves Pires Scherer, associate professor at the School of Nursing of Ribeirao Preto at the University of Sao Paulo (USP), this word is used in several countries around the world "to define aggressive behavior as 'the conscious and deliberate desire to mistreat another person and put it under tension'".
The law that instituted the Program to Combat Systematic Intimidation defines that bullying is every act of physical or psychological violence that occurs intentionally and repeatedly, but without obvious motivation, with the aim of intimidating, assaulting or causing pain or distress in a person. or more people.
Profiles
The main victims of bullying , according to Araceli, are people who are physically, intellectually, socially or financially fragile. According to Zeyne, the person who is the victim of bullying tends to be isolated or excluded from their peers. She also begins to manifest feelings such as anxiety, tension, fear, repressed anger, anguish, sadness, disgust, impotence and rejection, hurt, desire for revenge and even suicidal thoughts.
"Anything that is excessive is a reason to worry: when the subject is too aggressive, or too isolated, when he loses interest in school, in leaving home, or has physical symptoms of illness, it is important for family members, educators and friends to pay attention. attention because something is wrong. The best thing is to pay attention, talk and, in serious cases, look for a specialized professional, be it a psychoanalyst, psychologist, doctor and even a psychiatrist in certain serious cases", explained Araceli.
The profile of the aggressor is usually associated with a person who has more authority. "He needs to assert his power through violent acts, he needs to assert himself through violent actions," she said.
In addition to being a psychosocial phenomenon, Zeyne also points out that bullying also has an epidemiological character and that, therefore, "it needs to be fought like other forms of violence".
characteristics of bullying
Bullying is characterized by various forms of aggression or disrespect, whether verbal or physical.
"This bullying can be verbal, like using nicknames that are hurtful or that a teenager doesn't like; it could be physical bullying; it can be sexual; it can be the one that socially excludes an adolescent from games and encounters; and it can also be heritage, when you take cases and notebooks or tear objects [of others]", highlighted Maria Fernanda.
"Bullying is manifested by numerous actions such as offending, mocking, teasing, humiliating, intimidating, embarrassing, discriminating, terrorizing, frightening, tyrannizing, excluding, isolating, ignoring, persecuting, blackmailing, harassing, threatening, defaming, insinuating, assaulting, hitting , kicking, dropping, injuring, hiding, breaking, stealing and stealing belongings. The main difference from other forms of violence is the potential of bullying to cause irreparable trauma to the psyche of the victims, compromising their physical and mental health and their socio-educational development", explained Zeyne.
A survey conducted by Maria Fernanda with 2,700 teenagers in the ninth grade of elementary school in 119 public and private schools in the city of Sao Paulo found that three out of ten students had already experienced bullying in schools.
Data indicated that psychological or verbal bullying ("offenses, teasing and laughter") was more frequent (17.5%) than that involving physical aggression (3.7%). Of the total number of adolescents, 6% said they had suffered bullying with a sexual connotation. In addition, 15% of young people admitted to having practiced bullying with peers, while 19% said they had practiced some type of physical aggression.
The fight against bullying
The fight against bullying must begin with the understanding that it is not a joke, but a form of violence. " Bullying is a problem, it is not a joke. The existence of bullying for me means the existence of violence in the relationship between teenagers", pointed out Maria Fernanda.
According to the teacher, because it is a violent demonstration, it needs to be fought jointly by society.
"Any violence prevention strategy in schools calls for awareness, mobilization and participation of the entire school community, not just those involved. And it is not so effective that the interventions are separated from the general dynamics of the school", said Maria Fernanda.
The teacher also points out that the issue of violence will not be resolved only with the school. For her, it is "unfair to demand or expect the school to deal with such a complex problem alone".
"School gains relevance because teenagers and children spend most of their days in schools. But that does not mean - and it is not effective to think - that only the school is responsible for preventing these issues or interfering in these situations", he declared. "When we talk about violence prevention - and bullying is a type of violence - we recognize and recommend building actions that are intersectoral. It is necessary to have the participation of the school, the health sector, social assistance and guardianship councils", he added.
For the president of the union of psychoanalysts, the subject causes suffering to the victim and also demonstrates a psychic illness of the aggressor, "which can even commit irreparable acts to the victims and to himself".
" Bullying is not a phase or a normal part of life, it is not healthy behavior nor is it socially accepted. It's not a school problem that teachers have to solve: it's a family issue - and they need to face the problem head on", said Araceli.
In Maria Fernanda's evaluation, the fight against bullying also involves deepening the diagnosis and knowledge. This information will serve as a basis for public media.
"We need to qualify information from school censuses, reports of bullying and violence and from different sectors that make up the system that guarantees the rights of children and adolescents and make this information available so that knowledge is produced. With this knowledge, we can generate effective policies and programs that will be implemented in schools, in partnership with health units and with training from the tutelary council", he said.
For Araceli, coping with this type of violence must also involve affection. "Combating bullying and any other type of violence is fundamental to the humanization process. We need to be responsible for the civilizing process: and this can only happen with knowledge, culture and love. It is necessary and urgent to have political and social maturity so that people can reconnect with good affections and distance themselves from violence. Only good feelings and knowledge can allow us to deal with frustrations and inevitable pain, without getting sick", he added.
Text translated using artificial intelligence.