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Bullying case studies

The following case studies provide examples of workplace bullying, its impact on an individual’s health and safety and examples of how employers failed to control the risk.

Workplace bullying is repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed at an employee or group of employees that creates a risk to health and safety.

Bullying of one employee

M started his first job as an apprentice plumber at the age of 16. Two years into his apprenticeship, M made a complaint to WorkSafe about his experiences at work, which included:

• his boss calling him gay and using offensive language towards him
• his boss encouraging other employees to call him names, ask inappropriate questions and make crude insinuations about his personal life
• his boss taking his mobile phone and making him believe he had posted inappropriate comments on a female friend's page
• having a live mouse put down the back of his shirt by another employee
• having his work shorts ripped up by his boss
• having liquid nails squirted into his hair and face by fellow employees
• being beaten with plumbing pipes and having hose connectors thrown at him by his boss and fellow employees
• being spat on by employees
• having a rag doused with methylated spirits held over his mouth by his boss

The impact on M's physical and mental health

For a long time, M felt too afraid of losing his job to complain to his boss about the treatment he was subjected to. However, he eventually became distressed to the point that he was afraid to go to work. He began experiencing nightmares, insomnia, difficulty concentrating, getting angry for no reason, tearfulness, depression, anxiety and stress.

M was eventually diagnosed with a psychological disorder which prevented him from being able to return to work with his employer.

Risk to health and safety

The bullying behaviour that M was subjected to at work impacted his health and safety and resulted in both physical and psychological injury. The employer failed to control that risk as it did not have a bullying policy, and did not provide proper supervision, information, instruction and training to its employees on workplace bullying.

Prosecution outcome

The employer in the actual case was found guilty of offences under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, and was convicted and fined $12,500.

Bullying of multiple employees

S, m, l and j's story.

S, M, L and J were part of a group of employees at a commercial bakery where they were required to perform tasks including baking, sandwich preparation, general food preparation, cleaning and delivery of orders to local businesses.

They alleged they had been subjected to verbal, physical and emotional abuse by their employer over a period of two years. The abuse included:

• being called 'pig', 'porky', 'dog' and other derogatory names by their boss
• being sworn at, with their boss using foul and abusive language
• their boss yelling and grunting at them for no apparent reason
• having items such as sticks thrown at them or at their desks
• their boss threatening them with physical harm, including being attacked by dogs and being dissolved in acid
• having trolleys pushed into the backs of their legs
• being labelled as 'useless' and 'a waste of space' by their boss
• being told by their boss to 'go away and die, and make sure you die quietly'

The impact on the victims' physical and mental health

One of the women reported that as a result of the bullying, she had 'lost my friends, my life, my world and my mind'. Others reported that they suffered mental and physical distress, including depression and exacerbation of other psychological conditions. Some went on to suffer relationship breakdowns.

The treatment S, M, L and J and their colleagues were subjected to at work created a risk to their health and safety and resulted in them suffering both physical and psychological injuries. The employer had no systems or procedures in place to regulate that workplace behaviour and no policies or procedures to educate employees in respect of appropriate workplace behaviour and workplace bullying.

The employer in the actual case was found guilty of offences under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, and was convicted and fined $50,000.

Bullying of an employee by a manager

S is a teacher in the private sector and has 20 years of experience at the school. The school was going through a change management process. S made an application to the Fair Work Commission for an Order to Stop Bullying based on allegation which included:

• The principal, M, allocating a business manager to conduct S's annual review despite the fact that the business manager had not conducted any other teacher's review, had no educational experience and had recently had unpleasant exchanges with S.
• M entered a discussion between S and the pay clerk about S's long service leave request and, standing very close to S with clenched fists, said 'I have not signed off on it. You have to wait.' M was not actually dealing with the leave application.
• On S's return from long service leave, S was directed to complete an induction program for new employees and was appointed a mentor with less experience than she had. S was the only employee to have to do the induction on return from leave and the only employee who was not new to be allocated a mentor.

The impact on S's physical and mental health

As a result of the behaviours, S felt isolated, targeted and demeaned in the workplace. S was also insulted, embarrassed and humiliated by being allocated a mentor and having to do the induction training in spite of her 20 years' experience. S felt so distressed because of the personal behaviour of the principal towards her that S saw her doctor and was given time off work.

The treatment S was subjected to at work impacted on her health and safety and resulted in her suffering a psychological injury. The employer could have prevented this from occurring by:

• ensuring the appropriate person conducted the annual review
• training managers in how to interact professionally with employees
• providing appropriate training to employees based on their experience in the job

Bullying of one employee by multiple colleagues

K was a police officer and was successful in being promoted into a new team. K made a common law claim for damages alleging she suffered injuries as a result of her employer's negligence. The behaviours that led to K suffering a mental injury allegedly included:

• being given the worst desk normally reserved for temporary staff
• being told that her supervisor thought she had slept with the boss to get the job
• after announcing she was pregnant, the supervisor asked her if she had slept with the boss to get the job
• the supervisor calling HR in front of her and asking if she could be replaced because she was pregnant
• the supervisor told K that the only way he could get rid of her was if she voluntarily relinquished the job and asked if she was willing to do so
• being called 'the black widow' by the supervisor when she walked into the room.
• being socially ostracised by the team
• having difficulty getting time off to look after her child post maternity leave when other people had no trouble getting time off to play golf
• not being invited on a social club interstate trip
• being shouted at when she questioned being left out of the social club interstate trip

The impact on K's physical and mental health

K went from being a fit and healthy young woman to being unable to work and suffering from depression, high anxiety and panic attacks.

The treatment that K was subjected to at work impacted on her health and safety and resulted in her suffering a psychological injury. The employer could have prevented this from occurring by:

• ensuring that appropriate supervision was provided under Section 21(2)(e) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004
• providing appropriate training to its managers on how to handle maternity leave arrangements and post-maternity leave return to work
• providing appropriate training to all employees about acceptable workplace behaviour

Employer duties

The Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (OHS Act) requires employers to eliminate risks to health and safety, so far as reasonably practicable. If it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate risks, the employer must reduce risks, so far as reasonably practicable.

The best approach to deal with risks to health and safety associated with workplace bullying is to implement appropriate measures in the workplace.

In line with their duty to eliminate and reduce risks to health, including psychological health, employers have a responsibility to identify hazards and assess associated risks that may lead to workplace bullying. As an employer, you must control any associated risks, review and, if necessary, revise risk control measures.

Related pages

This information is from 'Workplace bullying: A guide for employers'. The complete guide is available in two formats.

Website version PDF guide

Related information

Worksafe victoria.

Bullying: A Case Study Revisited

Cruelty and its impact, years later.

Posted April 9, 2015

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Several years ago, a teacher shared a scenario that exemplified how crafty and insidious bullying can be. I blogged about it at the time and reprinted the story here—as well as a followed up with the young victim:

From the outside, the abuse looked innocuous enough—kids around a table in the cafeteria, singing fragments of popular songs and laughing . Nothing to catch the attention of monitors—until another student bade a young teacher to listen carefully to the lyrics. Muse’s popular song was only tweaked, becoming "Far away / you can’t be far enough away / far away from the people who don’t care if you live or die." Instead of Lady Gaga’s lyrics, the kids chanted “you are so ugly / you are a disease. The boys don’t even want what you’re givin’ for free. No one wants your Love / Ew, yuck, ew / you’re such a joke.” Instead of Beyonce’s, “If you like it then you should’ve put a ring on it,” they sang “you’re a f*#% up and loser put a bag on it.” The repertoire was extensive, and new songs were added every week.

By and large, the students were careful to write lyrics that would pass censorship and not attract attention to themselves for profanity. They delighted in their own cleverness, and in their ability to get many uninvolved bystanders to sing a chorus as they waited in the food line. In other words, the humiliation of one girl became a popular bonding experience, and ad-libbing new lyrics was a way to get positive peer attention.

As they saw it, it was all just a joke. Ha Ha. Can’t she take a little joke?

Recently, I tracked down the victim (she is at a top-tier college) and she agreed to reflect on her experiences. I first asked whether she remembered the correct lyrics to those songs, all these years later. My mistake. I assumed the alternate lyrics were seared into her brain. Instead, she told me she had forgotten the revised songs, and would not have recalled the lyrics had I not transcribed them, years ago. When I asked whether she had ever gotten an apology , or if one would change anything now, she didn’t think there was any need.

Gratifying as it was to see her doing well, these were not the responses I anticipated. But as parents and educators think about bullying, it is important to keep in mind that not all incidents—not even all ongoing cruelties that clearly affect a young adult—will scar her for life. And that we may, at times, do a disservice to young people by rushing in to fix what we perceive as threatening, undermining their own abilities to handle it.

Our inability to gauge resilience is complicated by the fact that much cruelty lies in intersubjective nuances that are equally impossible to grasp, let alone gauge. However, much of the capacity for reparation lies in those nuances as well.

To my mind, singing cruelly revised songs (and encouraging others to sing along) was ongoing abuse, one that called for an intervention. However, "loud singing on the bus" was the only concrete issue that was ever addressed. The victim herself refused any involvement of school authorities, and—as she appears to be thriving—it seems this was the "right call" on her part. (Was it that she could not quite define herself as a victim? That she was handling her "victimization" in ways that adults could not see? That the teacher saw to it that ringleaders got in trouble for unrelated offenses? That—appearances to the contrary—she is burdened by insecurity and secret shame ?)

Interviewing this young woman prompted me to track down, and reconsider, something Clive Seale wrote almost two decades ago:

“in the ebb and flow of everyday interactions, as has been conveyed so effectively in the work of [Erving] Goffman, there exist numerous opportunities for small psychic losses, exclusions and humiliations, alternating with moments of repair and optimism . [Thomas] Scheff (1990) has sought to understand this quality of everyday interaction as consisting of cycles of shame and pride as the social bond is alternately damaged and repaired. The experience of loss and repair is, then, a daily event. In this sense “ bereavement ” (and recovery from it) describes the continual daily acknowledgement of the problem of human embodiment.” (1998)

To adults looking on, cruel song lyrics certainly seem a large "ebb" in the flow of this young student’s life—one requiring intervention. Her story, however, reminds us that as we forge ahead, looking for ways to protect our children against bullying, we must simultaneously enable them to negotiate the "ebbs" in life. A first step in this may simply involve helping them identify the "flow." This is not to lessen active response to bullying, or to sweep it under the rug, but to teach our children to challenge the negative self-narratives that form around bullying experiences. And—perhaps more importantly—to teach them that as bystanders, they contribute to the narratives of others (either implicitly or explicitly). At the risk of sounding Pollyannaish, the identification of counter-factual evidence may go far in challenging this negativity. It turns out, this is precisely what this young women was able to—though a group of friends outside the school environment, who not only raised awareness of, but contributed to, her flow.

Laura Martocci, Ph.D . is a Social Psychologist known for her work on bullying and shame. A former faculty member and dean at Wagner College, her current work centers around identity (re)construction and the transformative potential in change.

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Eric Lander – A Workplace Bullying Case Study

Making of a science guru …

Eric Lander was a Brooklyn-born math whiz kid. At 17, he won a science talent search contest. He graduated from Princeton with a BA in Mathematics. Earning a Rhodes scholarship, his PhD from Oxford was in mathematics. While teaching economics at Harvard Business School, he studied neurobiology, microbiology and genetics on the way toward a much different career. That supplementary training drove him to genomic research in 1986 at the origins. He taught at MIT and became one of the leaders of its Broad Institute.

At age 30, he won a MacArthur fellowship, dubbed the “genius award.” Besides early work on the Human Genome Project and CRISPR gene editing techniques, he launched at least two for-profit companies translating genome research findings (for which he holds patents) to patient care, one through cancer-treating drug development. His reported wealth is in excess of $45 million. To his credit, he serves on the Board of the Innocence Project after providing expert testimony on the group’s behalf in a legal case.

Lander is firmly established in the academic pantheon, showered with numerous awards and ratings placing him at #1 or #2 in the world in the genomic reserch field. The accolades led him to remorselessly treat rivals with disdain and rancor. His critics, recipients of his wrath called him “Eric Slander.”

The point of understanding his background is to recognize the source of his confidence in his narcissistic entitlement. In his mind, who could compare? One can wonder if he was a cocky, arrogant teen. But by the time Joe Biden met him, he was most certainly considered “brilliant,” with the caveat that he could be “difficult.” As with all high-profile, politically connected bullies, all that endorsers and supporters choose to hear or see is “brilliance.” The reputation for toxic interpersonal relationships with peers and subordinates is all too easy to disregard.

Road to the White House …

While Lander was at the MIT Broad Institute, Bruce Reed, the once president of the overarching Broad Foundation, shared an orbit with him. Reed is currently serving as deputy chief of staff in the White House. VP Joe Biden in the Obama administration launched a pet project, the Biden Cancer Initiative. Lander was invited to serve on its Board. So, when President Biden took office, he nominated his close friend Lander to direct the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and to serve as his personal science advisor.

The OSTP is a small bureaucracy of 140 staff within the Executive Office of the President (EOP). Remarkably, Biden elevated OSTP directorship the President’s Cabinet, perhaps because of his closeness to Lander. Lander required Senate confirmation. He was confirmed by voice vote but not until he was challenged (by Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth) to apologize for previously discounting the work of two women researchers (who won the Nobel prize for their contributions to CRISPR advances and who engaged in patent disputes with Lander). There was also some questionable contact with Jeffrey Epstein, but most everyone rich and famous intersected with the pedophile.

Please understand that Lander enjoys what we call at WBI “Executive Sponsorship.” That is, if or when bullying is reported, the higher-ups — Reed and Biden — in Lander’s case will find a way to defend or deflect the accusations. Sponsors need not be actual executives. In Lander’s case, a POTUS had his back.

In normal times, complainants about harassment or mistreatment face institutional gaslighting and demeaning. Jennifer Freyd called the process — DARVO. First employers deny the charges. Then, complainants are vilified and demonized. Their characters are assassinated. Then, the most remarkable thing happens — roles are reversed by the accused back by employers. The actual, true victim is portrayed as the offender, making the accused bully the fake victim. This sounds shocking, but the process is followed for all government whistleblowers. DARVO describes the retaliation all complainants suffer. This strange series of predictable events results in the exit of complainants, not people accused of bullying.

DARVO used to be outrageous and shocking. I fear societally, we are normalizing the reversed world where truth and science are treated as opinions, denied by so many of our fellow Americans.

Positive steps taken to block DARVO in the EOP

When Biden swore-in individuals (on a zoom screen) joining his administration on day one, he pledged to “fire on the spot, no ifs, ands, or buts” anyone who treats another person with disrespect. I was certainly excited to hear such a bold proclamation. Here’s the video of his promise. ( https://youtu.be/y-PN1WWVo4g )

Shortly after taking office, the EOP promulgated a “Safe and Respectful Workplace Policy” for the OSTP. It prohibits “repeated behavior that a reasonable individual would find disrespectful, intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive.” It covers bullying and degrading conduct that does not involve discriminatory conduct (e.g., status-based harassment). There is also a provision prohibiting exclusion from “meetings, conversations and assignments,” an anti-ostracism clause. The text of the policy is hiding from google’s tenacles. However, other agencies have policy extensions to include mistreatment above and beyond harassment.

In other words, the EOP, as employer, declared bullying unacceptable behavior. That step alone goes further than nearly every U.S. employer. All that’s left to effect the desired change is to faithfully enforce the policy when violations are confirmed. That second step is also rare.

Landers’ lifelong bullying manifests at OSTP, Surprised?

Into the OSTP with career, non-appointed staff came the wunderkind, Eric Lander, science god. He began work at the start of May 2021. His tenure lasted a mere nine months.

The inside view of Lander as leader comes from the reports of 14 employees who shared illustrations of his cruelty with the author of a Politico article that ran on the morning of February 7, 2022. The accounts of abusive conduct included: – being positive and ebullient with outsiders, changing moods when behind closed doors (Jekyll and Hyde) – laughed or taunted subordinates in front of other colleagues – asked questions that are obviously not in the person’s area of expertise until they admit they don’t know the answer – bullies both men and women, but takes delight in trying to embarrass female colleagues in front of others – retaliated against staff for speaking out – asked questions by calling people names, disparaging them, embarrassing them in front of their peers – asks the same question over and over, getting louder and louder each time – yells, screams, everyone is afraid of him – shunning staff – taking away a person’s duties, replacing them or driving them out of the agency – women have been left in tears, traumatized, and feeling vulnerable and isolated

Lander sometimes feigned contrition: said one staffer, “After repeatedly insulting and humiliating me in front of colleagues, Lander acknowledged his inability to control himself, telling me ‘I hate that I do it’.” But not so much that he stopped.

No one had ever made him stop. He was open and brazen, knowing he had support from the top.

This was his lifelong pattern. Why would anyone be surprised?

Rachel Wallace, successful complainant

Ms. Wallace worked at the OSTP during both Obama and Trump administrations. She was an EOP veteran since the Clinton administration. She served as both general counsel and chief operating officer at OSTP. Bullies tend to identify the go-to expert on-site and launch a focused campaign to destroy and undermine that person. It makes no sense, but bullying is an illogical, unreasonable phenomenon. This might have been what Lander did to Wallace. He demoted her to deputy counsel.

Wallace filed a complaint against Lander and “other OSTP leadership” in September, claiming violations of the “Safe and Respectful Workplace Policy.” The investigation took two months. An investigation followed. I assume it was conducted by internal White House staff because the person who reported the findings was Christian Peele, White House deputy director of management and administration for personnel (a long title for HR).

The finding was not the typical brush-off conclusion of “personality style differences.” To the EOP’s credit, Peele reported in a January briefing that the investigation found “credible evidence of disrespectful interactions with staff by Dr. Lander and OSTP leadership.” His misconduct was not “gender-based discrimination.” Lander was an equal opportunity offender. Several staff provided testimony, often granted anonymity for their safety. There was convergence of perceptions. The picture of Lander as abuser was clear.

“Corrective action” was warranted and ostensibly taken, according to the White House.

The failed institutional response

The White House said “leadership” (whoever that is, did it include President Biden?) met with Lander. The “corrective action” seems to have been left up to Lander to implement. In other words, he was told correct himself because the President expects it. This is a 65 year old man with a long track record of narcissistic behavior. How was he supposed to change? More important, why would he change with no pressure from POTUS to do so?

Delays are part of this story. The two-month investigation was completed in December. That meant it did not begin until one month after the complaint was filed. The holidays passed allowing another month to pass before a January briefing about the investigation’s findings.

Despite a confirmed violation of the policy with “Respectful Workplace” in its title AND despite Biden’s very public pronouncement that disrespectful actors would be fired “on the spot,” Lander remained OSTP director until his self-designated resignation date of Feb. 18. When Biden said termination with no if’s, and’s or but’s would result, he meant but for his revered confidante and buddy Dr. Lander.

Word reached Lander that Politico reporter Alex Thompson was preparing a damning article about the fiasco. We know this because on Friday Feb. 4 before release of the article on Monday Feb. 7, Lander wrote an “apologetic” email to staff regarding his “disrespectful or demeaning way” of speaking to staff.

Rachel Wallace blasted the half-hearted email as “disingenuous. It compounded the deep hurt and damage he has caused by ignoring these other acts of aggression, harassment and retaliation.” To her, this was no apology.

According to the transcript of the White House press briefing on Feb. 7, press secretary Jen Psaki actually said that Lander’s compliance with the unspecified “corrective actions” would be monitored moving forward. She confirmed that Lander had been allowed to outline his personal plan to build a respectful work environment at OSTP. Why was he still working despite the POTUS pledge to terminate? Because he was vetted by the Senate confirmation process. Huh?

Later that day, Lander crafted his letter of resignation, not to take effect until 11 days later. He characterized his actions as pushing colleagues to reach goals, sometimes “challenging and criticizing.” That’s “org speak” for justifying what “leaders” must do. He admitted guilt about the way he said things to people. But, as all bullies profess when caught, “that was never my intention.” His one genuine admission was that “it was my fault and my responsibility.” Yes. That’s true.

[Don’t cry for Lander. He is no victim. He can return to his two positions: professor of biology at MIT and professor of systems biology at Harvard Medical School. Wondering if either of those institutions have policies to shield staff from Lander’s wrath certain to play out there. They better prepare themselves.]

The first step to accountability is when offenders take personal responsibility.

However, the institution of the EOP did not fulfill its leader’s promise in a responsible manner.

Yes, a good policy that extended protections against mistreatment beyond the narrow guidelines for discriminatory misconduct was written — Safe and Respectful Workplace. Yes, an investigation of complaints was done. The EOP did not DARVO Rachel Wallace like Eric Lander did. And finally, the findings reflected the reality of the toxic work environment Lander created for OSTP staff.

However, the EOP gets failing grades for delaying the start of the investigation. Why did it take two months to speak with between nine and 14 staff? Then, why were the findings held for another month after the fact finding ended?

EOP deserves no credit for pushing the complaint out of public view without press scrutiny, treating it as an HR-level concern. Lander’s political experience has been shaped by Reed and Biden. His misdeeds should be their concern and their responsibility to fix. OSTP is probably too small an agency to have its own HR office. That’s why Peele from the White House got involved. But Peele is HR. HR in no organization has the authority to hold an agency director accountable. Lander outranked Peele.

It was up to Reed or Biden to terminate Lander. Oops. They were the bully’s sponsors and enablers. Therein lies the explanation for allowing Lander to self-correct without any adverse consequences, despite being guilty of violating the policy.

Ironically, Lander attended a public presentation after the investigation and after the confirmed violations in which Biden put Lander in charge of his “cancer moonshot” project. I hope Biden was not aware of Lander’s transgressions. HR feels obligated to “protect” executives from negative news. Biden needs to tell Peele and White House counsel he needs to be notified in the future of similar cases. If Biden was aware, did he think the meek self-correction decision was adequate?

My reading between the lines of news accounts is that complaints were made about others in OSTP leadership. Were these colleagues of Landers who followed him into government service? If so, they certainly would be loyal sycophants of his, accustomed to, and approving of, his management “style” that had been deemed unacceptable. If they are not removed also, the toxic work environment at OSTP will likely continue. Stay tuned. Lopping off the leader’s head is rarely sufficient to restore safety and health to a workplace.

In conclusion, EOP’s most tragic failure was to expose 140 people to a tyrannical boss who inflicted stress-related health damage with impunity. As the months passed when EOP dithered over the investigation, reporting the findings and waiting for Lander to self-correct, people suffered. Rachel Wallace knew this. Bullying is not simply about the litany of tactics and shenanigans, it’s about the health-harming destructive consequences of abusive conduct. Before OSTP can move on, healing has to take place.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/07/eric-lander-white-house-investigation-00006077

https://www.npr.org/2022/02/07/1079028828/top-white-house-science-adviser-announces-resignation-after-reports-of-bullying

https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsegal/2022/02/08/resignation-of-biden-aide-brings-new-attention-to-bullying-in-the-workplace

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/08/biden-should-fire-eric-lander-bullying/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2022/02/07/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-jen-psaki-february-7-2022/

https://sports.yahoo.com/white-house-defends-decision-keep-193928143.html

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• Examples of Bullying
• Bullying By Spreading Gossip & Rumors
• Bullying Through Exclusion Or Isolation
• Physical Bullying & Physical Harassment
• Verbal Bullying
• Bullying In Preschool & Kindergarten
• Bullying In Elementary School
• Middle School Bullying (Junior High)
• High School Bullying
• Bullying By Teachers
• Aggressive Bullies
• Queen Bee & Relational Bullies
• Passive Bullies & Sidekicks
• The Bully-Victim: When A Child Is Both Victim and Perpetrator
• Popular Bullies
• Girl Bullies
• The Nature & Psychology Of Bullying
• Causes Of Bullying
• The Psychological & Mental Health Effects of Bullying
• The Academic Consequences of Bullying
• Bullying Suicides: When Kids Are Bullied to Death
• How Bullying Contributes To School Violence
• Bullying & It’s Consequences
• Bullying Prevention: What Works, What Doesn’t
• School Bullying Prevention
• Bullying Prevention Education: Some Basic Rules
• How Parents Can Keep Their Child from Being Bullied
• Teaching Children About Bullying
• Confronting A Bully: What You Should & Shouldn’t Do
• How to Avoid A Bully: Bullying Avoidance Strategies
• Other Ways to Stop Bullies
• Coping Strategies For Bullying
• Helping A Bullied Youth Understand That Things Get Better
• Anti-Bullying Quotes
• Celebrity Bullying Quotes
• Quotes About Bullies
• Quotes To Stop Bullying
• Bullying Statistics
• Internet Cyber-Bullying Facts
• Signs & Symptoms Of Cyberbullying
• Types Of Cyber-Bullying
• Cyberbullying Prevention: How To Protect Your Child From Internet Bullying
• What To Do If You Are Cyberbullied
• How to Stop Cyberbullying
• Fight Back Against Cyberbullies
• Helping Children Cope With Cyber-bullying
• Cyberbullying Statistics
• Stories About Bullying
• Experiences With Bullying
• Bullying Education & Preventions Programs In Schools
• What is Bullying
• Severe Bullying & Extreme Bullying Cases
• Amanda Cummings Bullycide Case
• Jon Carmichael Bullying Case
• Megan Meier Cyber-Bullying Case
• The Phoebe Prince Bullying Case
• Bullying Trends
• Signs and Symptoms of Bullying: Clues For Parents
• How to Report Bullying To A School: Guidelines For Parents
• How to Tell If Your Child Is A Bully
• If You Suspect Your Child Of Bullying
• How To Talk With Kids About Bullying
• How To Respond If A Child Tells You They Are Being Bullied
• If Someone Accuses Your Child Of Bullying
• Bullying Resources
• References & Bibliography
• School Bullying Statistics
• School Violence Facts & Statistics
• Student Survey on School Bullying
• Bullying Prevention Training For Teachers
• Recognizing The Signs & Symptoms Of School Bullying
• Prevent Playground Bullying
• School Bullying Facts
• The Origins Of Sexual Prejudice & The Reasons For Sexual Bullying
• How Sexual Prejudice In Culture & Society Promotes Bullying
• How To Put A Stop To Sexual Bullying
• Sexual Bullying Stories
• Sexual Harassment In Schools
• Bullying Of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual or Transgender Youth
• Victims of Bullying: The Most Vulnerable Youth
• Why Do Kids Bully?
• Where Bullying Takes Place
• Toxic Childhood
• Facts & Statistics About Toxic Chemicals
• The Effects of Chemical Exposure During Pregnancy
• The Effects of Toxic Chemicals On Children
• Neurotoxins & Chemical Effects on the Brain
• Toxic Chemicals & Cancer
• How Harmful Are Everyday Chemicals?
• Why Children Are More Vulnerable To Toxic Chemicals
• Sources of Air Pollution
• Air Pollution & Its Effects on Children
• Air Pollution Statistics
• Facts About Air Pollution
• The Health Effects of Air Pollution
• Types of Air Pollution
• What’s In Our Air?
• Water Pollution In Rivers, Lakes & Streams
• What’s in Our Oceans: Toxic Chemical Pollution In Ocean Water
• Drinking Water Facts & Statistics
• Bottled Water Versus Tap Water
• Cases Of Water Contamination
• Lead In Water
• Safe Drinking Water Tips
• What’s In Our Tap Water?
• Arsenic in Water
• Water Pollution Facts & Statistics
• Sources of Water Pollution & Chemical Contaminatio
• Water Pollution Around the World
• Toxic Schools
• Home Toxins
• Mercury in Fish
• Mercury Levels in Different Types of Seafood
• Chemicals In Household Cleaning Products
• Toxic Chemicals in Cosmetics & Personal Care Products
• Toxic Chemicals in Air Fresheners
• Plastic Chemicals
• Smoking Statistics
• Smoking Around Children: The Dangers of Secondhand & Thirdhand Smoke
• The Effects & Consequences of Smoking Around Children
• Smoking Around Pets
• Fracking Facts & Statistics
• The Safety Risks & Dangers Associated With Fracking
• Fracking Accidents & Mistakes
• Water Contamination from Fracking
• Toxic Air Pollution From Fracking
• Adverse Health Effects from Fracking
• Types of Toxins
• BPA & Its Effects On Children
• BPA Safety & Health Concerns
• BPA Studies & Research
• Lead Poisoning Statistics
• Sources of Lead Pollution
• Lead Poisoning & Its Effects On Children
• Lead in Toys
• Lead Exposure in Children
• Lead Poisoning in Children
• The Effects of Mercury Exposure
• Pesticide Facts & Statistics
• The Danger of Pesticides
• Pesticides In Fruits & Vegetables
• Pesticide Health Effects
• Pesticide Exposure
• Children Exposed To Pesticides
• A List of Other Harmful Chemicals & Toxins
• Anti-Pollution Laws & Legislation
• Toxic Chemical Testing
• Lobbying By The Chemical Industry
• Abuse & Early Childhood: Preschool & Kindergarten
• Abuse of Elementary School Children
• Culture, Perception, & Child Abuse
• Infants & Toddlers Child Abuse
• Memory & Child Abuse
• Scared to Death: The Power of Belief
• Social and Environmental Influences on Child Abuse
• Teens & Child Abuse
• The Effects & Consequences of Dysfunctional Families for Kids
• Types of Family Dysfunction
• Harm, Effects, & Consequences of Physical Abuse
• Children Injured & Killed by Physical Abuse
• Understanding Physical Abuse
• Step 1: Raising Sexually Healthy Children
• Step 2: Healthy Body Awareness
• Step 3: Teaching Children to Trust Their Instincts
• Step 4: All About Touches
• Step 5: Everyday Rules
• Step 6: A Child’s Rights
• Step 7: Empowering Your Children
• Step 8: Coaching & Bribes
• Step 9: Proper People Perceptions
• Step 10: Defeating Secrecy
• Step 11: Asking the Right Questions
• Step 12: Making Your Child A Hard Target
• Sexual Abuse Statistics
• Myths & Facts About Sexual Abuse
• Understanding Child Sexual Abuse
• Harm From Sexual Abuse
• Signs & Symptoms of Sexual Abuse & Child Molestation
• What Is Verbal & Emotional Abuse?
• Types of Verbal & Emotional Abuse
• Prevalence of Verbal & Emotional Abuse
• Direct & Subtle Attacks
• Abusive Forms of Emotional or Psychological Control
• Intimidating Children
• Humiliating Children
• Controlling Behavior Tricks
• Emotional Disregard, Discounting & Trivializing
• Criticizing, Comparing & Blaming Children
• Psychological Abuse
• Effects & Consequences of Verbal & Emotional Abuse
• Neglected Children
• Physical Neglect
• Emotional Neglect
• Inadequate Attachment
• Developmental Neglect
• Neglecting Children’s Physical & Medical Needs
• Parents Who Overmedicate Kids
• Unwanted Children
• Helping Abused & Neglected Kids
• Cases of Shaken Baby Syndrome
• Causes & Prevention of Shaken Baby Syndrome
• Shaken Baby Syndrome Facts & Statistics
• Behavioral Problems In Foster Children
• Mental Health Problems In Foster Kids
• Abuse in Foster Care
• Over-Medicating Foster Kids
• Foster Care Kids As Guinea Pigs
• How Well Does CPS Actually Protect Children?
• Children Killed in Foster Care State Custody
• Child Separations: The Effects & Consequences of Removing Kids From Their Home
• Foster Kids & Health Care
• When CPS Removes Children Who Are Not Actually Abused
• Problems With Child Welfare
• Fixing the Child Welfare System
• Coaching & Manipulation of Children By CPS Workers
• Child Abuse Facts & Statistics
• Smoking During Pregnancy: Maternal Tobacco Use & It’s Effects on the Baby
• Maternal Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy
• Maternal Drug Use & Substance Abuse During Pregnancy
• Babies Born Addicted To Drugs
• Stress Exposure & Depression During Pregnancy: The Effects of Stress on Fetal Development
• Maternal Obesity During Pregnancy & It’s Effects on the Baby
• Premature Birth & it’s Effects on the Baby
• Do teenage girls need a pap smear test?
• Is it normal for an adolescent boy to develop “breasts?”
• Stages of Child Development
• Preschool Development
• Toddler Development
• Adolescent & Teen Development
• Boys Versus Girls:: Gender Differences in Children’s Growth & Development
• Facts & Statistics on Child Development
• Infant Growth & Physical Development
• Weight Gain Among Infants
• Motor Development & Large Motor Skills In Infants
• Your Baby’s Eyesight & Vision Development
• Infant Thinking & Cognitive Development
• Your Baby’s Language Development
• The Social Development of Infants
• School Age Development (Elementary School; Ages 6-12)
• Teen Mental Health Facts & Statistics
• Common Psychological & Behavioral Problems in Children
• How Society is Driving Kids Crazy
• Social Media & Child Mental Health
• The Physical Causes of Mental Illness: How the Body Can Impact the Brain
• Mental Health Resources for Kids
• Choosing A Therapist For Your Child Or The Family
• Cognitive Therapy & Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
• Exposure Therapy For Children & Teens
• Light Therapy For Children & Teens
• Play Therapy for Children
• Psychoanalysis & Psychoanalytic Therapy
• Psychodynamic Therapy For Children & Teens
• Psychological Therapy for Children
• Shock Therapy For Children & Teens
• Stress Debriefing Therapy For Children, Teens, & Families
• The Potential Dangers of Psychological Therapy
• Antidepressants & Suicide Risk In Children & Teens
• Statistics on Psychiatric & Behavioral Medication Use Among Children
• How Effective Are Psychological & Behavioral Medications for Children?
• Antidepressant Use in Children
• Preschool Children On Psychiatric Medication
• Side-Effects & Consequences of Antipsychotic Use Among Children
• Children & Psychiatric Medication
• Pushing Medication on Kids Who Don’t Need It
• Over Medicating Children
• Defining Nornal Versus Abnormal Behavior in Children
• Why Diagnosis Is A Matter Of Interpretation
• Outside Incentives & The Role They Play in Misdiagnosis
• Blaming Children for Poor Environments
• Everyone’s Crazy: The Ever Expanding Definitions of Mental Illness
• Over Diagnosing Children With Mental Health & Behavioral Disorders
• When Childhood Becomes Pathological
• If Your Child Is Diagnosed With A Psychological or Behavioral Disorder
• The Ever-Expanding Definition of Mental Illness
• Child Mental Health Disorders
• Facts & Statistics About Anxiety in Children & Teens
• Panic Attacks
• Types of Anxiety Disorder in Children
• Signs & Symptoms of Social Anxiety
• Diagnosing Social Phobia in Children and Teens
• Causes of Child Anxiety: The Reasons for Anxiety Disorders
• Anxiety Prevention for Kids; Preventing Anxiety in Children
• Helping Kids With Anxiety
• Signs & Symptoms of Separation Anxiety In Children
• What causes separation anxiety in children? Reasons for child separation fears, anxiety
• Signs & Symptoms of Anxiety in Children
• Anxiety Disorders In Children
• Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD)
• Diagnosis of Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD)
• Deprivation/Maltreatment Disorder of Infancy
• Therapy for Children with Attachment Disorders
• Bipolar Disorder in Children
• Borderline Personality Disorder in Children & Teens
• Signs & Symptoms of Callous & Unemotional Behavior in Children
• Signs & Symptoms of Conduct Disorder in Children & Teens
• Diagnosis of Conduct Disorder in Children & Teens
• Why Kids Intentionally Hurt Themselves
• Helping Kids Who Engage In Self-Injury
• Signs of Self-Injury In Children & Dealing With Self Mutilation
• Diagnosing Depression in Children & Teens
• Facts & Statistics About Childhood Depression
• How To Tell If A Child Is Depressed
• Signs & Symptoms of Depression in Children
• Disturbed Children
• Anorexia in Children & Teens
• Binge Eating in Children & Teens
• Boys With Eating Disorders
• Bulimia in Children & Teens
• Facts & Statistics On Eating Disorders In Children & Teens
• Signs & Symptoms of an Eating Disorder in a Child or Teenager
• What is Atypical Anorexia
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in Children & Teens
• Signs & Symptoms of Oppositional Defiant Disorder
• Diagnosis of Oppositional Defiant Disorder in Children
• Runaway Statistics: Children & Teens
• Why Kids Run Away
• Where Runaways Go
• What To Do If Your Child Runs Away
• Harboring A Runaway: What To Do If A Runaway Teen Shows Up At Your Home
• Helping Runaways
• Schizophrenia in Children & Teens
• Suicide & Suicidal Thoughts In Young Children
• Teen Suicide Notes
• How To Intervene To Stop A Youth From Committing Suicide
• Youth Suicide Prevention
• Youth Statistics: Suicide Among Children & Teens
• Talking To Teens About Suicide: Getting Kids To Open Up
• Causes & Contributors To Youth Suicide
• Children At Risk For Suicide
• Helping Suicidal Youth
• How To Talk A Teen Out Of Suicide
• Suicide & Suicidal Problems Among Children & Teens
• Talking To Suicidal Teens
• Warning Signs For Teen Suicides
• What To Say & Do When a Youth Says They’re Considering Suicide
• Why Teens Kill Themselves
• Tics & Tic Disorders
• Tourette’s Syndrome
• Child Abduction Prevention
• Children Out On Their Own or Home Alone
• Stranger Danger for Kids
• Children Snatched From Their Beds At Night: How To Protect From Home Invasion Abduction
• Teaching Children What Do Do If They Are Lost
• Abduction Facts & Statistics
• Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
• Child Accidents in the Home
• Safety Around the House Facts & Statistics
• Fall Hazards in the Home: How to Protect Children From Falls
• Children Injured by Falling Objects
• Preventing Burn Injuries Among Children
• Child Suffocation & Asphyxiation
• Child Strangulation Risks
• The Dangers of Window Cords and Window Blinds
• Child Safety in the Kitchen
• Children Swallowing Dangerous Objects or Eating Things they Shouldn’t
• Knowing What To Do If A Child Goes Missing
• Other Dangerous Things In Your Home
• Child Safety In & Around Cars
• Child Safety Seat & Booster Seat Guidelines
• Encouraging Kids To Wear their Seatbelts
• Common Car Seat Problems
• Car Window Accidents Involving Children
• Children Run Over in Driveway Accidents
• Runaway Car Accidents Involving Children
• Car Accident Facts & Statistics
• DUI & Drunk Driving Statistics
• Causes of Car Accidents
• Q: Which Seat in a Car is the Safest in an Accident?
• Children Left in Hot Cars
• Childproofing Bathrooms
• Childproofing Outdoors & In The Yard
• Childproofing the Kitchen
• Childproofing Your Child’s Room & Playspaces
• Family Home Fire Safety
• Fire Safety Facts & Statistics
• How Fires Start: The Causes of Residential Housefires
• Smoke Detectors & Smoke Alarms
• Teaching Children Fire Safety
• Fire Safety Plans and Preparation
• Children Who Play With Fire
• Escaping A House Fire
• Fire Prevention
• Safely Using Infant Car Seats & Infant Carriers
• Baby Safety for Siblings
• Preparing A Pet for the Arrival of A New Baby
• Baby Safety Tips
• Crib Safety for Baby
• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: the Danger of SIDS
• How Well Can Children Cross the Road?
• Bicycle Safety Helmets for Kids
• Skateboard and Scooter Safety for Kids
• Stroller Safety for Parents
• School Bus Safety
• Restaurant Safety for Parents
• Sunscreen Guidelines for Children
• Face Paint Safety for Kids
• Safe Trick or Treating Rules for Kids
• Halloween Safety for Kids
• Firework Safety
• Family Safety On the Fourth of July
• Child Safety on Thanksgiving Day
• Child Safety Over Christmas & Hanukkah
• Keeping Kids Safe Around the Holidays
• Types of Dangers on the Internet
• Teaching Kids to do Social Networking Safely & Responsibly
• Internet Safety for Parents
• Emotional Identification Exercise
• Internet Safety For Preteens & Little Kids
• Internet Safety for Teens
• Protecting Yourself Online: Basic Internet Protection
• Dangerous Toys
• Shopping for Safe Toys for Children
• Family Dog Training Tips
• The Best Kid Friendly Dogs
• The Easiest Dogs to Train
• Choosing a Family Friendly Puppy for Kids
• Most Dangerous Dog Breeds for Children
• Childproofing Playgrounds: A Playground Safety Checklist
• Fall Safety on Playgrounds
• Family Gun Safety
• Guns That Look Like Toys
• Talking With Kids About Guns
• Camping Safety
• Horse Safety For Children
• Family Hiking Safety & Tips for Hiking with Children
• Tic Bites & Lyme Disease
• Animal & Wildlife Attacks Facts & Statistics
• Lightning Safety
• Common Household Poisons
• The Dangers of Hand Sanitizer
• How Children Are Poisoned
• Child Poisoning Prevention Tips for Parents
• Teaching Children About Poison
• How to Properly Dispose of Medication
• Child Poisoning Facts & Statistics
• Common Child Choking Hazards
• Child Choking Prevention: Reducing Choking Risks in Your Home
• Choking Prevention Safety Rules for Kids
• Food Choking Hazards for Children
• Safety Awareness: Becoming A Safety Conscious Parent
• Common Childhood Risks & Dangers
• Teaching Without Scaring: Children’s Fears of Safety
• Teaching Children About 9-1-1 & Important Information
• Recreation Related Safety Facts & Statistics
• School Safety Facts & Statistics
• Child Murder Facts & Statistics
• Missing The Signs Of Poisonous Snake Bite
• Train Safety for Children
• Trampoline Safety for Kids
• Child Drownings
• Water Safety Facts & Statistics
• The Importance of Swim Lessons
• Pool Safety for Kids
• Boating Safety & Water Recreation
• Hot Tub Safety
• Keeping Kids Safe Around Water: Safety Tips for Parents
• Safe Swimming Rules for Kids
• Water Safety Rules for Kids
• Kids & Life Jackets
• Ski Safety for Kids
• Sledding Safety for Kids
• Safe Driving Tips for Winter
• How To Survive An Avalanche
• Dealing with Attention Seeking Behavior
• How Children Learn Prejudice & Where They Learn It From
• Prejudice in Children
• Bragging In Children
• Talking with Kids about Their Artistic Creations
• Art Therapy through Drawing Exercises
• Interpreting a Child’s Artwork
• Ear Piercing: How to Safely Pierce a Childs Ears
• Claustrophobia In Children
• Fear Of Loud Noises In Children
• Children Afraid of Strangers & Crowds
• Fearful & Anxious Children: Why Kids Become Fearful
• How To Deal With A Child’s Fears
• Are Fears In Children A Sign Of Abuse?
• Helping Children Overcome Their Fears
• Fear Of The Dark In Children
• Fear Of Monsters In Children
• Fear Of Animals In Children
• Fear Of Dogs In Children
• Fear Of Bugs & Insects In Children
• Common Childhood Fears
• Children Afraid Of Food
• Hypochondria & Fear Of Illness In Children
• Fear Of Bees & Wasps In Children
• Germophobia & Fear Of Germs In Children
• Fear Of Heights In Children
• Children Afraid Of Vomiting, Choking, or Swallowing
• Children Who Are Afraid Of Water
• Children Who Fear The Bathtub, Toilet, Or Drains
• Fear Of Flying In Children & Adults
• Arachnophobia & Fear Of Spiders In Children
• Children Who Are Afraid Of People
• Childhood Fear Of Failure
• Children Who Are Afraid Of Amputees & People With Disabilities
• Children Afraid Of People Of Different Races
• Children Who Fear Clowns Or People In Costumes
• Children Who Are Afraid of the Doctor
• Children Who Fear Police & Other People In Uniform
• Children Afraid Of Thunderstorms & Lightning
• Fear Of School In Children
• Does My Child Have Enough Friends?
• Helping Children Cope With Failure
• Is My Child A Perfectionist?
• Treating Perfectionism in Children: How To Help Kids Overcome Perfectionism
• What Causes Perfectionism In Children?
• Children & Racism
• Is Your Child A Racist? A Racism Test for Children
• References & Bibliography – Race & Racism
• Teaching Children About Race
• Teaching Kids About Racism
• When Children Make Public Comments About Race or Appearance
• Childhood Crushes
• How To respond to Children’s Sexual Play or Behavior
• Is It Harmful for Kids to View Pornography?
• Talking to Kids about Porn
• Sexual Behavior In Children
• Sexual Play Among Children
• Erections In Children
• Talking To Kids About Sexting
• Why Kids Sext
• What to do if you suspect your child is sexting
• The Importance of Raising A Sexually Healthy Child
• Masturbation in Children
• Bedtime Routines: Child Sleep Solutions For A Better Bedtime
• Better Naps & Naptimes for Children
• Child Sleep Facts & Statistics
• Children Who Talk In Their Sleep
• Getting Children To Sleep
• Getting Kids To Sleep In Their Own Bed
• Getting Your Baby To Sleep Better
• Getting Your Baby To Sleep Through The Night
• Helping Children Fall Asleep: Some Tricks & Techniques
• Helping Teens Get the Sleep They Need
• How Technology Can Disrupt Sleep
• Insomnia In Children
• Night Terrors In Children
• Nightmares In Children
• Restless Leg Syndrome In Children
• Sleep Disturbances In Children
• Baby Sleep Patterns & Typical Infant Sleep Schedules
• Bed Sharing With Baby: The Benefits & Dangers Of Co-sleeping
• Getting Your Baby To Sleep In A Crib
• Sleep Training For Babies
• Sleep Guidelines & The Recommended Hours of Sleep For Children
• Sleep Paralysis In Children & Nightmare Visits
• Sleep Problems In Children
• Sleep Studies For Children
• Sleep Times & Bed Times For Children
• Sleep Training For Children
• Sleep Walking In Children
• Snoring In Children
• Sleep Deprivation & Its Effects on Children
• Using Melatonin To Help A Child Sleep
• Child Injuries from “Checking” in Youth Hockey
• Facts & Statistics on Youth Sports
• Overuse & Repetitive Strain Injuries in Young Athletes
• Sex & Gender in Youth Sports
• Weight Training & Strength Training Among Children & Teens
• When A Coach Won’t Give Your Kid Enough Playing Time
• Types of Childhood Stress
• What Causes Children Stress?
• Signs & Symptoms of Stress in Children
• Talking to Kids About Death
• Explaining Death to Children
• Death & It’s Effects On Children
• Grief Assessment for Children
• Children & Death
• Death, Grief & Bereavement Resources for Kids
• The Death of A Parent
• Children and Funerals
• Grief Symptoms in Children
• Grief Disorders In Children
• Does it hurt to die?
• When will I feel better? When will the hurt go away?
• Does (the deceased) Miss Me?
• Children’s questions like “Where’s Daddy?” or “When Is Mom Coming Back?”
• What Happens When You Die?
• Grieving Children
• Death of A Pet
• Helping Kids Cope With Grief & Loss
• The Death of A Grandparent
• Divorce Facts
• Divorce Statistics
• Beyond the Fairy Tale: Myths About Kids & Divorce
• Does Divorce Help or Hurt Children?
• What Kids Will Worry About During Divorce
• How Children Experience Divorce
• Child Divorce Symptoms & How Kids React To Divorce
• Divorce & It’s Effects On Girls
• Teens & Divorce
• Toddlers & Divorce
• Preschool Children & Divorce
• Infants & Divorce: How Babies Experience Parental Separation
• How Children Feel About Their Parents’ Divorce
• Elementary School Children & Divorce
• Divorce & It’s Effects On Boys
• Reflecting Upon Divorce: Question to Ask Yourself Before Divorcing
• Alternatives To Divorce: Rethinking the Marriage Arrangement
• What Divorce Is, & What It Isn’t
• Reasons For Divorce
• Making The Decision To Divorce
• Creating A Checklist Of Your Reasons for Divorce
• Divorce & Its Impact & Consequences On Children
• When Kids Grow Up: Adult Children of Divorce
• The Economic Consequences of Divorce
• The Quality Of Parenting After A Divorce
• How Divorce Impacts Parent – Child Relationships
• Divorce-Related Stress & Its Effects On Children
• Divorce Conflict & How It Affects Kids
• Helping Children Cope With Divorce
• Comforting Children Of Divorce
• Helping Kids Deal With Divorce
• Dealing With A Child’s Emotions During Divorce
• Support For Children of Divorce
• How To Cope With Divorce
• How To Deal With Divorce
• Overcoming Feelings Of Hurt In A Divorce
• Why You Should Stop Blaming Your Partner For The Divorce
• Dealing With Feelings Of Loss After A Divorce
• Healing From Divorce: The Recovery Process
• How to Tell Children About Divorce
• Comforts & Reassurances To Offer Children During Divorce
• Explaining Divorce to Children
• Discussing Divorce With Children
• Questions Children May Ask About Divorce
• The Nasty Divorce & Why Parents Should Work To Avoid It
• Parental Dependency On Children After Divorce
• Children As Witnesses To Divorce Conflict
• Carless Statments: Hurtful Things Parents Say During Divorce
• Fighting Through The Kids
• Insulting the Other Parent Amidst A Divorce
• How Parents Brainwash their Children
• The Effects & Consequences of Parental Alienation
• Legal Separation & Divorce
• Grounds for Divorce
• Preparing For Divorce
• Alimony in Divorce
• Steps Of Divorce
• The Cost Of Divorce
• Money Problems Or Financial Issues That Might Arise From Divorce
• Questions About Divorce
• When Others Pick Sides During A Divorce
• Divorce Legal Terms
• Fault Versus No Fault Divorce
• Divorce Arbitration
• A Summary or “Simple” Divorce
• Collaborative Divorce
• Divorce Mediation
• Divorce Court & Litigation (i.e., Traditional Divorce)
• Additional Considerations About the Divorce Proceedings
• The Difference Between Contested and Uncontested Divorce
• Common Child Custody Questions
• Types of child custody
• Child Custody Guidelines & Considerations: What’s Best For Your Kids
• Determining Child Custody: Factors That Play A Role In Custody Decisions
• Special Custody Evaluations
• Determining Child Custody of Non-Biological Children or Stepkids
• Child Custody Advice
• Parenting Plan
• Alternate Or Supplement Child Support
• How Child Support Is Determined
• Common Child Support Questions
• Child Support Deductions & Allowances
• Divorce Advice
• How to Choose A Divorce Lawyer
• Family Types & Family Structure After Divorce
• Rebuilding Your Life After Divorce
• Starting Over After Divorce
• Dating Again After Divorce
• Cohabiting with Kids: What You Should Consider
• Effective Co-Parenting After a Divorce
• Adjusting To Life As A Single Parent
• Spoiling Children After Divorce
• Child Behavior Problems After Divorce
• Making Visitation Routines Easier On Kids
• When Children Cry Or Fuss About Visitation
• Rules and Guidelines for Child Visitation
• Visitation Etiquitte: The Do’s & Don’ts Of Visitation
• Visitation Mistakes Parents Make
• Divorce Coloring Pages for Kids
• The Divorce Story Project
• Dictation Stories About Divorce
• Bedtime Storytelling Sessions
• Does Too Much Turn Children Into Violent Criminals?
• Children Who Witness Domestic Violence
• Domestic Violence & Its Effects on Children
• Children Living In Violent Homes
• Facts & Statistics On Domestic Violence
• Talking To Victims of Domestic Violence
• What To Do To Stop Domestic Violence
• Signs & Symptoms of Drug and/or Alcohol Use in Children & Teens
• Teen Drinking Statistics
• Marijuana Statistics: Children & Teens
• Prescription Drug Statistics: Children & Teens
• Teen Smoking Statistics
• Teen Vaping Statistics
• Drug & Alcohol Use Among Little Kids
• Which Kids Are Most At Risk for Using Drugs & Alcohol
• Why Kids Use Drugs & How They Get Started
• Teens & Prescription Drug Abuse
• How To Talk With Kids About Drugs
• Drug Prevention Education: What Works, What Doesn’
• Kids Smoking & Vaping
• Childhood Poverty
• Military Families
• Telling Children You’re Getting Married
• Stepfamily Statistics
• Stepfamily Problems & Challenges
• Dealing With Stepchildren
• Punishing Stepchildren
• How To Discipline Stepchildren
• Conflict With Stepchildren
• Problems With Stepchildren & Common Stepfamily Problems
• Bad Stepparents
• Bad Stepkids: The Bratty, Misbehaved Stepchild
• Successful Blended Families
• Meeting Your Partner’s Children
• Marrying With Children
• Planning A Honeymoon With Children
• Starting A Stepfamily
• Stepfamily Living Arrangements
• Stepfamily Planning Checklist
• Financial Planning Checklist for Stepfamilies
• Making Your Stepfamily Work
• Stepfamily Relationships
• Dealing With Your Partner’s Ex
• Dealing With Grandparents
• Dealing With Step-Grandkids: A Guide for New Step-Grandparents
• Stepfamily Conflict
• Stepfamily Counseling, Therapy, & Support Groups
• Parenting In Stepfamilies
• Step-Parenting
• Becoming A Stepparent
• Understanding Your Stepchildren
• Avoiding Common Stepparenting Mistakes
• Dealing With Teenage Stepchildren
• Stepparenting Advice
• Step-Parent Rights, Privileges, & Responsibilities
• Stepchild Adoption
• Stepparent Child Custody & Visitation Rights
• Bonding With Stepchildren
• Communicating With Stepchildren
• Talking To Stepkids
• Quotes for & About Grandparents
• Family Time Facts & Statistics
• Family Structure & Dynamics
• The Cost of Raising Children
• Marriage Facts and Statistics
• Marriage and Family Attitudes
• Facts & Statistics About Raising Children
• Work & Family Life: Facts & Statistics
• Statistics on Family Finance & Money Issues
• Low Income Family Statistics
• Tips, Rules & Guidelines for Family Meetings
• What To Discuss During Family Meetings
• To Resolve Disputes Between Siblings Or Other Family Members
• Addressing Discipline Problems At Family Meetings
• Using Family Meetings for Education and Enlightenment
• Activities for Family Meetings
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Bullying Cases & Case Studies

We’ve assembled a collection of some of the more notable case examples in bullying, from high profile suicides to some of the more severe injuries that bullied children have experienced. We hope that these cases further expand your knowledge about the bullying problem.

Extreme Bullying cases So how bad can bullying get? This page outlines some severe cases of bullying taken to the extreme. For anyone who still believes that bullying is a harmless right of passage, these stories will change your mind.

High Profile Bullying Cases / Famous Bullying Cases

The Phoebe Prince Bullying Case Phoebe Prince was a teen girl who immigrated to the United States from Ireland. At age 16, after a year of relentless bullying at her new school, she hung herself at her family’s home. Her case leapt into the public spotlight as her bullies went on to redefine the word “callous” after her death.

The Jon Carmichael Bullying Case Jon Carmichael was another student who hung himself at 13-years-old after years of torment from peers. Jon was small for his age, and the bullying he experienced was more stereotypical of what parents might imagine from the movies, only taken to some harsh extremes.

The Megan Meier Bullying Case Megan Meier’s is the case that really woke up the public’s awareness to the issue of cyberbullying. Megan was just 13-years-old when she hung herself in her closet after a brutal online exchange.

The Amanda Cummings Bullying Case Eerily similar to the Phoebe Prince case, Amanda was bullied to suicide, and then continued to be mocked online even after her death

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• J Child Adolesc Trauma
• v.12(4); 2019 Dec

Treating a 16 Year Old with a History of Severe Bullying: Supplementing Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with EMDR within the Context of a Case Formulation Approach

Alice taylor.

1 Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services, Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Foundation Trust, Peterborough, UK

2 Present Address: School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

Niel H. McLachlan

This article describes the use of a case formulation approach, integrating evidence-based treatment in the context of individual clinical traits. It focuses on the supplementation of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) with eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) in the treatment of a young person, presenting with an initial diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). A case formulation suggested the possibility of a differential diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder, indicating the usefulness of the addition of EMDR sessions to process memories of severe bullying. Previous studies promote the idea of using EMDR in cases that do not meet the threshold for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), in order to reduce the presentation of anxiety. Earlier research suggests that each of these models has specific strengths and attributes in the treatment of mental health difficulties and, whilst based within the context of a well-established case conceptualisation, can be effectively integrated.

Within traditional mental health models, a diagnosis can determine the method of intervention, often targeting the most problematic symptoms and daily functioning difficulties (Johnstone 2018 ). It can be helpful for clinicians across different services to have a standard set of common symptoms to recognise and treat (Stein et al. 2013 ). This can allow for the most effective evidence-based interventions to be identified and applied for an individual’s difficulties. However, these classification systems have been criticised for low reliability and validity (Kendell and Jablensky 2003 ; Slade and Andrews 2001 ). The criteria of the DSM-5 and ICD-10 (APA 2013 ; WHO 2016 ) assume categories of mental health diagnoses, distinct from each other and physical health. This does not account for common symptoms across mental health difficulties, nor the presence of some symptoms in the general population (Hyman 2010 ). The sole use of diagnosis-led treatment can often lead to a misdiagnosis of mental health difficulties, which in turn can negatively affect the treatment plan (Macneil et al. 2012 ; NICE 2013 ).

Within psychology, the use of case formulation has often been suggested to avoid the limitations of a purely diagnostic approach, instead using a holistic approach to identify what treatment components may be best suited for particular individuals (Johnstone 2018 ). Formulation is described as a core clinical skill for psychologists, with the collaboration of therapist and service-user as a key feature of informed intervention (Division of Clinical Psychology 2011 ). The therapist and service-user collate information to form hypotheses about the development and continuation of the service-user’s difficulties (Johnstone 2018 ). Formulation is continuous and is often adapted as new information becomes available, consequently informing interventions (Eidelman et al. 2018 ). As many mental health difficulties are considered to have high co-morbidity with others, the case formulation approach may bypass the difficulty with a medical model of treating only the most acute symptoms and instead focus on the individual as a whole (Persons et al. 2006 ; Esbjørn et al. 2015 ).

In line with the above discussion, the aim of this article is to stress the importance of the formulation process in managing complex symptom presentations. The process of formulation/reformulation allows for the integration and timely introduction of different treatment models and components in therapy.

Trauma in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Many theories suggest an involvement of previous trauma experiences in the development of multiple mental health disorders, including PTSD, depression and OCD (Cromer et al. 2006 ). The distress associated with previous traumatic experiences may motivate a series of behavioural and cognitive responses intended to reduce distress in the short term, however these can have the consequence of preventing cognitive change and therefore maintaining the difficulties (Johnstone and Dallos 2013 ). It has long been recognised that there may be a link between exposure to traumatic events and the development of OCD symptoms, whether due to classical conditioning to avoid distress, adjustment difficulties, or as a reaction to emotional shock (de Silva and Marks 1999 ). Research has described the emergence of obsession-like symptoms initially related to recent distressing events, which can then develop into independent obsessions and compulsions (Fostick et al. 2012 ). Studies suggest a particular link between exposure to traumatic experiences and the development of OCD-like symptoms in individuals who may struggle with avoidant attachment styles, adjustment and alexithymia (Carpenter and Chung 2011 ; Flett et al. 2011 ). Case formulation that includes the assessment of life stressors is essential in making collaborative decisions about the next steps for care.

Interventions

In the treatment of OCD symptoms, CBT interventions emphasise the importance of dealing with discomfort caused by obsessions and the reduction of compulsive rituals (NICE 2014 ). Exposure with response prevention (ERP) is established as one of the main interventions for the treatment of OCD symptoms (NICE 2014 ). This approach gradually exposes individuals to their obsessive thoughts, whilst encouraging them to abstain from the compulsions normally used to reduce the distress (Franklin and Foa 2011 ). The aim is to help the individual to tolerate distress related to the obsessions and reduce their compulsive/ritualistic behaviours (Franklin and Foa 2011 ). Studies have long reported the efficacy of this approach in reducing OCD symptoms and long-term anxiety associated with distressing thoughts (Olatunji et al. 2013 ).

Whilst ERP is the main cognitive behavioural approach for treating OCD, some individuals appear to be resistant to this evidence-based treatment (Pozza et al. 2014 ). Research has suggested that there may be a higher prevalence of past traumatic experiences in individuals diagnosed with treatment-resistant OCD, and that these experiences may reduce the effectiveness of common interventions for OCD (Gershuny et al. 2008 ). Some qualitative evidence links particular OCD obsessions to the context of traumatic events, e.g. feeling ‘unclean’ after sexual assault (Fostick et al. 2012 ; Marsden et al. 2018 ). Despite the link between trauma and development of OCD, and similarities in the treatment of PTSD and OCD, it appears that interventions for OCD do not have an established protocol for addressing the influences of previous trauma (Dykshoorn 2014 ). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR; Shapiro 2001 ), originally used as an intervention for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) could be adapted for treating other mental health difficulties associated with distressing memories. Preliminary and limited research has suggested the effectiveness of EMDR components in reducing symptoms of anxiety, OCD and depression, where stressful life events may have caused the onset of mental health difficulties (Marr 2012 ; Wood and Ricketts 2013 ). Theories which propose the development of such difficulties as a result of unprocessed trauma may advocate the efficacy of EMDR to process the traumatic material and therefore reduce the difficulties associated (Marsden et al. 2018 ; Marr 2012 ).

Comparison of Interventions

Both CBT and EMDR should be regarded as distinct approaches with commonalities and differences (Beer 2014 ). Both methods have seen support for the efficacy of their techniques (de Roos et al. 2011 ; Jaberghaderi et al. 2004 ). Diehle et al. ( 2015 ) found in their randomised controlled trial, that both treatments (EMDR and CBT) were effective in children with post-traumatic stress symptoms. The CBT condition appeared to be more effective in addressing comorbid problems compared to EMDR and although not significant, a slightly shorter treatment course was observed for EMDR. Theories surrounding CBT hypothesise that OCD symptoms may be a consequence of conditioning to a fear-stimuli; the appraisals and expectations of fear-stimuli act to negatively reinforce any behaviour which avoids exposure to distress caused by fear-stimuli. In order to challenge this conditioning, the appraisals and expectations of the fear stimuli must be restructured, by exposing individuals to corrective information (Reddy et al. 2017 ). Theories in support of EMDR however, suggest that mental health difficulties may arise when traumatic memories are not correctly processed and stored, therefore resulting in emotional, cognitive and behavioural dysfunctions (Shapiro 2001 ). Based on the underlying theories for the development of mental health difficulties, CBT and EMDR differ in the focus of their treatments. CBT emphasises interventions based on the current presentation and symptoms, using in vivo exposure to fear stimuli and habituation to the accompanying distress response. On the other hand, EMDR interventions centre on reappraisal and reprocessing of previous traumatic memories, indirectly reducing the current mental health symptoms as distress reduces.

Limited research supports the efficacy of an integrated CBT and EMDR approach within the context of trauma. In their treatment of a 16 year old with acute stress from trauma, Bronner et al. ( 2009 ) combined EMDR with CBT with positive effect. Following a CBT component of treatment, the client continued to experience difficulties including elevated levels of anxiety and sleep problems, which the authors considered as an indication to introduce an EMDR session. At follow up, the client reported a reduction in hyperarousal symptoms and anxiety, as well as improvements in relation to the experiencing of flashbacks and sleep difficulties. Hettiarachchi ( 2007 ) combined CBT and EMDR in her treatment of an adult survivor of the Asian Tsunami of December 2004. The cognitive component of the treatment focused on self-help skills whilst EMDR involved supporting the client to express and process emotional content. Follow-up of the client nine months later, showed subclinical scores on a number of outcome measures.

Commonalities between the two treatment procedures include the use of psycho-education, emotion regulation and coping strategies, exposure, and the processing of emotions and cognitions (Schnyder et al. 2015 ). Jeffries and Davis ( 2013 ) state that a CBT approach for the majority of mental health difficulties consists of elements of exposure, i.e. imaginal, narrative writing or in vivo exposure, combined with cognitive interventions that focus on the meanings attached to the difficulties. Others suggest similar elements of imaginal exposure, guided self-dialogue and cognitive restructuring within the process of EMDR, (Gunter and Bodner 2008 ; Herbert 2002 ). Although many of the procedures and protocols incorporated in EMDR overlap with CBT, one of the distinctive elements of EMDR is dual attention. This involves the client focusing on part of a traumatic memory, whilst concurrently engaged in an external task, i.e. bilateral stimulation in the form of eye movements. Theories suggest that the process may help to reduce the vividness of the traumatic memories (Schubert et al. 2016 ), or facilitate increased interaction between the left and right hemispheres for improved memory processing (Propper and Christman 2008 ).

Although both approaches promote exposure to allow reappraisal of fear; the different types of exposure promoted by CBT and EMDR may be best suited to different people, i.e. verbal or in vivo exposure in CBT may be too overwhelming for some, therefore encouraging the use of the dual attention exposure method in EMDR. It may also be that the use of holistic formulation within CBT is valuable for many aspects of treatment, whereas the specific focus of EMDR on one aspect of a person’s life may highlight the significance of some events over others, i.e. some traumatic material may seem more relevant to the presenting problem, as seen in this case study. Despite the differences in the interventions and underlying theories, similarities between the approaches are essential to allow for integration of procedures without interfering with the integrity of either approach.

It is hypothesised that the commonalities and differences between CBT and EMDR may allow the integration of treatment components in several ways; (1) focus on the multiple and differing aspects of the development and maintenance of mental health difficulties, (2) promote a person-centred and collaborative approach to psychological treatment, based on individual symptoms and (3) allow flexibility within the fidelity of each treatment approach. This article aims to discuss, by means of a case example, how EMDR can be employed to supplement a CBT approach when treating OCD-like symptoms in the context of adjusting to distressing past experiences. Research has highlighted the value of collaboration, emphasis on individual needs and the integration of several components of treatment (Hamilton et al. 2008 ; Triscari et al. 2015 ; Beaumont et al. 2016 ). This case example follows a 16 year old girl with a history of severe bullying and subsequent obsessive-compulsive behaviours. Treatment of her difficulties, based on the case formulation, included the introduction of medication (Sertraline) and EMDR to facilitate the processing of difficult bullying memories. CBT was used to challenge previously held beliefs and ERP targeted unhelpful maintenance behaviours.

Case Example

Enid was first referred in 2014, by the local hospital to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) Duty Team following a medication overdose. The overdose was triggered by her boyfriend breaking up with her. Enid was seen for three sessions employing a problem-solving approach and was discharged. She was re-referred in 2015 after presenting with panic attacks, obsessional behaviours, suicidal ideation, low mood and self-harming. Enid was attending college for the first time, and was worried about becoming the victim of bullying again, falling out within her peer group, and had concerns that her parents may separate. Of note, the patient gave full consent to her clinical data being shared in this publication. The authors have anonymised certain personal information in order to protect the patient’s privacy.

Enid was preliminary diagnosed as having OCD presenting with an inflated sense of responsibility and obsessional thinking regarding appearance. Enid reported that she felt responsible for preventing the separation of her parents, and further held the belief that she always had to look her best in order to be accepted within a social context. In addition, Enid expressed concerns about catching germs and becoming ill, as being physically unwell could result in others not wanting to be around her. As a result, her compulsions included excessive checking and hand-washing, as well as applying her make up in a rigid, time consuming manner. In addition, Enid was scared of offending others and opted to be non-assertive, i.e. not sharing her opinion in social situations in order to prevent conflict and potential rejection.

Enid’s score on the Child Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (CYBOCS; Goodman et al. 1991 ), used to assess symptoms of OCD, was 35 (within the extreme range). The link between her compulsive behaviour, e.g. rigid application of her make-up before leaving the house, and negative past experiences within her peer group resulted in the therapist considering some of Enid’s compulsive behaviour to be linked to negative memories. Based on this initial clinical observation, the proposal of a differential diagnosis was also considered, and Enid was asked to complete The Child Revised Impact of Event Scale −13, used to assess symptoms of PTSD (CRIES; Perrin et al. 2005 ). The application of the CRIES was used as qualitative exercise in order to substantiate initial observations regarding the negative impact of past bullying experiences on Enid, and resulted in a score of 63 (clinical cut off: 30).

Preliminary Formulation

Within the context of self- harm, suicidal ideation and feelings of sadness, the diagnosis of a mood disorder was considered. However, Enid continued college attendance, had a healthy appetite and good sleep pattern in spite of her difficulties. Considering this, it was decided to focus on a diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) instead. Salkovskis ’ model of OCD proposes inflated responsibility during childhood as the primary pathway to the development of OCD related beliefs (Salkovskis and Kirk 1999 ; Collins and Coles 2018 ). Initially, this model was considered to formulate Enid’s difficulties; however, it is not uncommon for young people with a history of traumatic memories to develop concerns about harm to themselves and/or others accompanied by compulsive rituals meant to prevent these negative outcomes (Smith et al. 2010 ; Cromer et al. 2006 ; Kroska et al. 2018 ). Whilst exploring Enid’s obsessions regarding appearance, her history of bullying in secondary school and its impact on her OCD related beliefs became apparent.

As part of the preliminary formulation of a young person’s difficulties, Smith et al. ( 2010 ) emphasise the importance of obtaining a narrative account of distressing events to help identify peri-traumatic misappraisals (Johnstone 2018 ). In her account of the bullying experience, Enid recalled seeing herself walking alone in school, going home alone, and others shouting abuse and laughing at her. As a result, she described herself as “ becoming more and more closed off. ” In addition, Enid shared that she always felt scared and sad. Enid’s appraisal of herself included being unlikeable and disappointed in herself, as in her judgement, she should have been better at standing up for herself. She also viewed herself as weak for feeling sad and lonely as a consequence of her experiences.

Enid also shared that her parents had often argued in the past and that she was worried about them separating whilst growing up. Enid appraised these situations as her responsibility to stop them fighting and to prevent them from separating, i.e. “ I should have stopped it sooner. ” Although Enid acknowledged the importance of these memories in the development of her difficulties, she felt that the incidents of bullying were more central to the maintenance of her worries. It was therefore decided that the memories of her parents’ arguments were not a key area of focus for intervention.

In addition, it is argued that it is important to focus on the young person’s current coping style to identify avoidance and safety seeking behaviours which may maintain the problem (Levy and Radomsky 2016 ; Alonso Tapia et al. 2016 ; Smith et al. 2010 ). Based on her bullying experiences, Enid constantly worried about losing friends and offending others. To compensate for this, she over focused on appearance and rigidly applied her make up as a safety seeking behaviour. She would also frequently check and recheck herself in the mirror to ensure that she looked her best so that others would not find her unacceptable and therefore unlikeable. In order not to offend others, Enid also avoided expressing her own opinions too strongly in peer conversations which in turn confirmed her beliefs of being weak. Additionally, in the context of responsibility for her parents’ situation, i.e. “I should have stopped it sooner ” and in order to prevent further negative outcomes, Enid developed a number of compulsive rituals and safety seeking behaviours in the form of excessive checking, which then became habitual (e.g. checking that she did not cause damage to the house by leaving appliances plugged in).

Due to the severity of Enid’s difficulties and subsequent distress (CYBOCS: 35), Enid was prescribed Sertraline by a CAMHS psychiatrist prior to her starting therapy. Treatment was initially focused on risk management, addressing Enid’s suicidal ideation and reducing self-harm, before attending to the symptoms of OCD, based on the case formulation. It was hypothesised that thoughts of peer rejection resulted in Enid experiencing low mood. When low in mood, Enid resorted to self-harming and compulsive behaviour, e.g. trying not to offend others and excessive checking. A safety plan was agreed with Enid and her parents and she was encouraged to talk to her parents and college counsellor when feeling low in mood and wanting to self-harm between sessions. In addition, Enid had access to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Duty Service (CAMHS) which offered 24/7 support. However, Enid never used this service. Having a better understanding of the mechanisms maintaining her self -harm allowed Enid to discuss her feelings more openly in therapy and she stopped self-harming after three sessions. Upon abstinence from self-harm, and after an explanation of the rationale for treatment (session four), CBT with exposure response prevention was introduced in session five to start treating Enid’s OCD symptoms. As a first step, Enid was asked to gradually reduce the amount of time she spent on her make-up before attending clinic and college. However, no significant progress was made. Enid continued to hang onto unhelpful safety behaviours such as wearing ‘perfect make-up’, and experiencing distress when thinking about interacting with peers at college. She also held strong beliefs about being ‘disgusting and unacceptable’ and therefore feared being rejected.

Expanded Formulation

Based on this presentation, a differential diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder (DSM-V: American Psychiatric Association 2013 ) was considered, as a response to the identified stressor of previous severe and prolonged peer group bullying (see Fig.  1 : Beck 1995 ). Although a diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was considered, Enid did not meet full criteria for such a diagnosis, i.e. exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury or sexual violence.

Longitudinal Formulation (Beck 1995 )

Adjustment Disorder is characterised by an excessive and intense reaction to adverse stressful life events and can result in problems with social or occupational functioning or other mental health difficulties (American Psychiatric Association 2013 ). Adjustment Disorder and poor social adjustment are common co-morbid diagnoses for OCD (Bolton et al. 1995 ; Rosa et al. 2012 ). Although Adjustment Disorder in adults is thought to be relatively short-lived and symptoms may reduce with the removal of the stressor, it can also lead to associated long term difficulties and can increase the risk of suicide (Bentley et al. 2016 ). It is suggested that the treatment of co-morbid anxiety may be more difficult to treat if difficult or traumatic memories are present (Smith et al. 2010 ; van Nierop et al. 2015 ). It appeared that Enid had a preoccupation with the memories of her bullying, making it difficult for her to process her distress and adapt accordingly (Glaesmer et al. 2015 ). Due to Enid’s prolonged isolation, low mood and anxiety leading to a subsequent diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder, it was agreed that a priority of future intervention was the processing of difficult memories.

Treatment Adjusted Based on Expanded Formulation

Guided by elements of narrative focused CBT, treatment focused on the creation of a script and processing of associated emotional and cognitive distress (Smith et al. 2010 ; de Roos et al. 2011 ). Enid was guided to participate in Safe Place Imagery (Shapiro 2001 ; Gilbert 2010 ), in which she identified a local lake and its surroundings as her safe place. Revisiting her Safe Place was employed at the end of reliving sessions to support Enid in de-escalating her levels of physiological arousal. During reliving, Enid shared that the experience made her feel sick, angry and sad. In line with Sydenham et al.’s ( 2017 ) argument regarding unhelpful perfectionism, Enid believed that feeling sad meant that she was weak and left her vulnerable to others taking advantage of her. Cognitive restructuring enabled Enid to accept negative affect and to view her new friendship group at college as caring.

In spite of her progress, Enid continued to experience nightmares related to the past bullying and complained of a reoccurring image of peers laughing at her and throwing food at her in the school cafeteria. According to Lee et al. ( 2001 ), anger, shame, guilt and humiliation are frequently associated with traumatic events. Gilbert ( 1997 ) argues that humiliation arises from experiences where an individual has been in a powerless position and feels ridiculed. Individuals in these situations often ruminate and replay acts of humiliation in their mind. This can also be accompanied by an escalation of anger. Although narrative exposure can be effective for fear, humiliation and anger often require the addition of specific psycho-education and cognitive restructuring components (Lee et al. 2001 ). The therapist introduced psycho-education and cognitive restructuring as part of CBT.

In order to challenge Enid’s beliefs that she had disappointed herself for not being able to stand up for herself, she was encouraged to imagine her 12 year old self experiencing these events, and was guided to being compassionate to herself (Gilbert 2010 ; Kroska et al. 2018 ), i.e.” What would you like to say to 12 year old Enid now? ” This exercise enabled Enid to replace her self-criticism with a refocused self-compassion, i.e. “ Enid you were doing OK to keep going, you were brave and you don’t need to be hard on yourself .” In spite of this initial progress, Enid was frustrated with her inability to shift her feelings of helplessness and humiliation, i.e. “ nothing seems to help ”. Although many of the procedures incorporated in EMDR overlap with CBT, a distinctive element of EMDR is dual attention. According to Herbert ( 2002 ), this allows for the client to simultaneously experience images, cognitions, affect and bodily sensations. It is further argued that bilateral stimulation facilitates attention to the trauma memory without avoidance and allows for input of new trauma related information (Jeffries and Davis 2013 ). Taking Enid’s frustration into account, as well as the fact that the incident in the cafeteria was considered to be a stand-alone memory, it was decided to introduce EMDR to support emotional processing (Herbert 2002 ; de Jongh et al. 2010 ).

Following clarification of the procedure, Enid indicated that she did not want to engage in eye movements, stating that it would not be appropriate for her, “ I don’t like it. ” As Enid expressed that hand tapping by the therapist (one alternative to eye movements) would feel too intrusive, the Butterfly Hug (BH) was introduced as dual attention stimulation (Jarero et al. 2008 ). This involved Enid crossing her arms over her chest and placing her hands just below her collarbone, optionally linking thumbs to create a ‘butterfly’, allowing her hands to lightly tap on her chest (Jarero et al. 2008 ). There is evidence that BH has similar efficacy as eye movement or hand tapping (Artigas and Jarero 2013 ), and it may be deemed especially useful, as it can be self-administered and does not need therapist involvement if the client becomes distressed outside of sessions (Settle 2016 ). Enid was asked to focus on the most distressing image of her memory – people laughing at her in the cafeteria. She identified “ I am weak ” as her negative cognition and her positive belief was “ I am OK now .”

Enid identified the emotion associated with this image as humiliation and she reported feeling this distress foremost in her stomach as a sick feeling. Enid was instructed to recount the event in the cafeteria out loud, from just before the incident took place up to the end of the memory whilst performing the BH. This process lasted for approximately 20 min with Enid reporting people not appreciating how difficult things were for her, to concluding that her brother did come down from university to support her and her father was very understanding. However, Enid continued to express feeling helpless and sick during BH, resulting in the therapist introducing a cognitive interweave; “ Who has the power now? ” before asking Enid to repeat the process (BH) again (approximately 15 min). At the end of two more sets, Enid reported a marked improvement with a subjective level of distress of 0. Thereafter the positive cognition was installed. The session lasted for approximately 90 min in total and Enid reported feeling very tired but relieved.

Following the above intervention, Enid was seen for a further five sessions, employing a CBT approach for OCD (Van Niekerk 2009 ; Katz et al. 2018 ). Enid’s inflated sense of responsibility for negative consequences, i.e. being responsible for becoming ill and starting a house fire, was challenged by focusing on OCD thinking devices and the alternative common sense view (Van Niekerk 2009 ). The thinking device, distrusting your senses, combined with developing a common sense view, were used to challenge Enid’s obsessional thinking and associated rituals (Van Niekerk 2009 ; Guzick et al. 2018 ), e.g. “ Even though I can see the switch is off, I might not have looked carefully enough” changed to “ I could hear the switch go off” “Germs make me ill” changed to “ Not all germs are bad. It is good for the immune system to be exposed to germs.”

Exposure and response prevention, structured in the form of behavioural experiments, was used to address Enid’s concerns about her appearance and to reduce the time she spent applying her make up (Rector et al. 2018 ). Initially these experiments were conducted in clinic, i.e. Enid not wearing make up to clinic as a first step and reflecting on the responses from others in reception and the waiting room area. This was followed by her gradually not wearing make up to college and when out in public. Throughout these experiments, Enid concluded that others did not respond in any negative or rejecting manner towards her, i.e. “ nothing happened, no-one said anything. ”

Although the therapist suggested the inclusion of her parents in therapy on a number of occasions, Enid declined this offer. Based on her age, level of development and functioning, i.e. college attendance and having weekend employment, it was decided to respect Enid’s wishes. The three phases of treatment, i.e. CBT, EMDR and CBT for OCD, involved a total of 16 sessions. Part of the final session focused on relapse prevention and Enid was discharged back into the care of her general practitioner (GP) who also monitored medication (Sertraline).

In order to monitor progress, Enid was encouraged to offer feedback about the usefulness of sessions and improvements she had made. As sessions progressed, Enid reflected on her ability to challenge unhelpful self-beliefs about her being unacceptable within the peer group setting. She was able to form new friendships and also felt more confident going out without having to apply make-up in a compulsive manner. Enid was also able to leave the house without having to check whether appliances were switched off. In addition, Enid denied suicidal ideation as therapy progressed and stopped self-harming within three sessions.

At this stage, end of treatment outcome measures were also completed and comparisons were drawn between pre, mid and post treatment measures. Enid’s pre-treatment score of 63 (cut off: 30+), on the Child Revised Impact of Event Scale −13 Item (CRIES; Perrin et al. 2005 ), reduced to 22 at mid-point and 5 at the end of treatment (below the clinical range). Her score on the Children’s Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (CYBOCS; Goodman et al. 1991 ) reduced from 35 (pre-treatment) to 5 at the end of treatment (sub-clinical range). These outcomes were used as further evidence of progress within therapy.

Enid was reviewed at a one month follow-up where she reported ongoing positive progress, i.e. college attendance. During a telephone consultation, a further 3 weeks later, Enid reported that she had enrolled herself into the second year of her college course, had begun new part-time work and was socialising with peers in college.

The aim of this article was to emphasise the importance of a formulation-based approach in the treatment of complex cases as it allows for the integration of different treatment models, addressing a variety of problem presentations. Case conceptualisation and treatment focused on difficulties related to Adjustment Disorder in this case example as advised by Smith et al. ( 2010 ). CBT with exposure and response prevention was used for the initial treatment of comorbid OCD (Van Niekerk 2009 ; Diehle et al. 2015 ). However, this intervention was not successful as the impact of the past bullying continued to maintain Enid’s negative self-beliefs. Following reformulation, a narrative approach combined with parallel processing addressed and challenged Enid’s beliefs about her being unlikeable and weak, as well as her sense of responsibility. Integrating a Compassionate Focused Technique (Gilbert 2010 ) in this process further supported this change. Despite the effectiveness of CBT in addressing and correcting unhelpful beliefs about likeability and responsibility, Enid continued to experience strong emotions of humiliation and embarrassment associated with the bullying from the past. As mentioned by Herbert ( 2002 ), EMDR allows for a more holistic processing of all the elements associated with the traumatic experience. Based on this view, promoted by Bronner et al. ( 2009 ), it was decided to introduce EMDR as a supplement for the CBT approach employed during the first 10 sessions. This introduction allowed Enid to process her negative affect associated with the memory of her being humiliated. By first addressing her past memories related to the bullying, some of Enid’s beliefs about appearance were partially addressed during the processing of difficult memories. This allowed Enid to be better prepared and motivated for the re-introduction of exposure-based experiments (Van Niekerk 2009 ), consequently resulting in a speedier recovery (only five further sessions).

The purpose of this article was not to unfavourably compare and judge the two models (CBT and EMDR), but rather to focus on the potential integration of two different approaches in the treatment of a complex presentation in a young person. Both methods have specific strengths and attributes in the treatment of trauma related presentations (Diehle et al. 2014 ). In this case, the sessions of CBT (Van Niekerk 2009 ) and additional compassion- focused practices (Gilbert 2010 ) allowed for the reconstruction of previously held beliefs and the simultaneous addressing of comorbidity. The further introduction of EMDR assisted the client in the reprocessing of negative affect associated with a humiliating incident and strengthening the effects of compassion focused principles.

Research has suggested that there are a number of people who do not respond to common interventions such as CBT (Guzick et al. 2018 ), citing the need to understand the individual differences which may impact positive change, and adapt interventions accordingly. Controversy also exists about the generalisability of findings from research participants ‘handpicked’ to fit a diagnosis, to those patients seen in mental health services (Butler et al. 2008 ). This can cause debate within psychologists and mental health professionals about how to best assess research and treat such difficulties. Westbrook and Kirk ( 2005 ) explored the efficacy of interventions in less restrictive, more real-to-life mental health populations, rather than in studies conducted on selective groups of participants. They suggested that treatments for mental health difficulties were somewhat effective, although successful results may not be as high as research trial findings. The idea of ‘flexibility within the fidelity’ of treatment highlights that manualized or generic treatment plans may not be the most effective method for intervention, rather, that a therapist must be flexible with personalised treatment components whilst still adhering to evidence based practice (Kendall and Beidas 2007 ).

To conclude, the aim of the case formulation approach is to develop a framework for the provision of intervention that flexibly meets the unique needs of the young person and to guide the therapist’s decision-making (Kuyken et al. 2008 ). As such, this article promotes the integration of different treatment strategies within the context of a well-established case conceptualisation, using routine outcome measures to support this conclusion.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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19 Cases of Bullying among Real and Overwhelming Youth

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Last Updated on April 13, 2023 by Mike Robinson

We present 19 cases of real bullying and cyberbullying characterized by their fatal outcomes and the lack of training of education professionals.  The cases and stories of bullying in schools and outside them with cyberbullying have multiplied in recent years.

Bullying can cause severe mental distress. The cases of adolescents and minors who take their own lives due to the different types of bullying should be alarming to educational professionals. Schools must implement immediate and decisive actions to curtail this unacceptable behavior trend. 

1-Miriam, eight years old

Miriam is an eight-year-old girl who goes to elementary school. She loves animals, so she always has pictures of them in her books. She even has a backpack shaped like a puppy.

Her companions laugh and make fun of her, comparing her with the animals on the stickers on her backpack because she is overweight. Also, since she is “fat,” they take her money and snacks at recess.

Although she has told the teachers repeatedly, they have not done much to change the situation. To try to improve the situation, Miriam stopped eating and is in the hospital for anorexia.

2-Tania: Fourteen years old.

Tania, a 14-year-old teenager, has tried to commit suicide due to her high school classmates’ continuous threats, robberies, and aggressions. The situation has not changed despite filing 20 complaints against 19 of her classmates.

In January 2014, she was admitted to the hospital for 15 days due to an overdose of Valium pills. Despite her attempted suicide, the threats are still ongoing.

3-Diego: Eleven years old

It is a recent case of school bullying in Spain; Diego, an eleven-year-old boy, was a victim of this practice in a school in Madrid.

His mother remembers that her son told her he did not want to go to school, so his mood was always very sad; once, he lost his voice because of a blow he had suffered at school from his classmates.

The day he committed suicide, his mother went to pick him up at school, and he ran frantically to the car to get out safely. Later that evening, he killed himself.

4-Jokin Z: Fourteen years old

It was one of the first cases of bullying that came to light in Spain. After being bullied for months, he decided to commit suicide. The parents felt helpless. They tried for two years to prevent this tragedy and remove the suffering of their teenage son.

As a result of his suicide, eight students had charges brought against them. The parents were also arrested. However, only one individual was convicted. 

5-Jairo: Sixteen years old

Jairo is a 16-year-old boy from a town in Seville who faced severe bullying because of his physical disability. He has a prosthetic leg due to a wrong operation. His classmates continually make fun of him and his disability.

Not only did they trip him, but they also tried to take it off in the gymnastics class. On the other hand, in the social networks, there were photos of him manipulated with computer programs with bad words that made Jairo not want to go to school.

Due to the suffering caused by this type of behavior, Jairo asked to change schools and is currently at another institute.

6-Yaiza: Seven years old

At seven years old, Yaiza suffered bullying from her classmates. They insulted her continuously, to the point that Yaiza had difficulty convincing herself that what her classmates told her was false.  Not only did they insult her, but they also stole her breakfast and even once threw a table at her.

She was fortunate to have a teacher who was involved in the issue of bullying and helped make changes at the school. The teacher brought attention to bullying to better understand why these practices occur in schools.

7-Alan: Seventeen years old

This seventeen-year-old teenager was bullied by his classmates because he was a transsexual. He took his life on December 30, 2015, after taking pills mixed with alcohol.

It was not the first time he tried since he had been receiving therapy numerous times because he had suffered for years. As in other cases, Alan was no longer in school, but that was not enough.

8-Ryan: Fourteen years old

After years of psychological aggression, in 2003, Ryan, then fourteen years old, decided to commit suicide. He did so because he was supposedly gay. It all started because a friend of his published online that he was homosexual.

Because of this, he did not stop receiving jokes, ridicule, and humiliation from his classmates. This case helped to approve the Harassment Prevention Act in Vermont of the US States months after his death.

9-Arancha: Sixteen years old

This 16-year-old girl decided to throw herself from the sixth floor. The reason was the bullying she suffered from classmates in Madrid.

Arancha suffered from motor and intellectual disabilities, which was more than enough for her class to bully her. Although her parents reported this fact to the police, it was not enough to prevent the fatal outcome.

Minutes before launching herself from the building, she said goodbye to the people closest to her by sending them a message through WhatsApp, saying, “I was tired of living.”

10-Lolita: Fifteen years old

Lolita is currently under medical treatment due to the depression she suffers, which has paralyzed her face. This young woman from Maip, Chile, was bullied by four classmates at her school.

Her classmates mocked and humiliated her in class, which seriously affected her. According to the mother, the school knew about her daughter’s mistreatment and did nothing to prevent it.

11-Rebecca: Fifteen years

The case of Rebecca from the state of Florida is an example of cyberbullying. She decided to take her own life in 2013 due to the continuous threats and humiliations suffered by colleagues on social networks.

She and her mother had informed the teachers at school of this situation. Unfortunately, they did not work to stop the attacks on her. She posted on her profile days before her death, “I’m dead. “I cannot stand it anymore.”

12-Phoebe Prince: Fifteen years old

This 15-year-old Irish immigrant girl was harassed by nine teenagers who had criminal charges brought up in 2010. She was bullied physically and psychologically, and there was cyberbullying through cell phones and the internet.

Phoebe was humiliated and assaulted for three months in high school until she ended up hanging herself. The people who harassed her continued to do so even after her death.

13-Rehtaeh: Fifteen years old

This girl from Halifax, Nova Scotia, decided to hang herself in her bathroom after suffering cyber bullying. Her schoolmates and strangers took part in the bullying. Rehtaeh got drunk at a party, where, apart from raping her, they photographed her while it happened.

This photo began circulating everywhere, so even kids she did not know asked her to sleep with them on social networks. Her classmates also insulted her and made fun of her.

14-Oscar: Thirteen years old

This minor, who is 13 years old and in the first year of secondary school, decided to ingest liquid drain cleaner for pipes for the sole purpose of not going to school. Oscar was harassed not only by his classmates but also by one of his teachers.

Oscar could not contain the urge to go to the bathroom due to a urinary problem. His teacher never let him go, so he once urinated on himself.  From that moment on, he had to deal with the treatment he received from his teacher and his classmates, who made fun of him and insulted him repeatedly.

15-Monica: Sixteen years old

Mónica lived in Ciudad Real (Spain) and was 16 years old when she decided to commit suicide because of the treatment she received at school from her classmates. They would insult her on the bus, threaten her, and publish photos and nasty comments on social networks.

She decided to commit suicide to end all the hell that her classmates made her go through. Even though her father, one day before he took his own life, complained to the head of studies about what was happening to his daughter.

16-María: Eleven years old

This girl from Madrid (Spain) suffered harassment from her classmates at a religious school. Her classmates not only made fun of her but even physically mistreated her.

Teachers disputed these claims and did not defend her or take measures to stop them from happening. Because of this, she tried to overdose on pills without success.

17-Amanda: Fifteen years old

Amanda, a Canadian-born minor, committed suicide after posting a video on social media reporting that she was suffering bullying.

It all started when he sent a topless photo of herself to a stranger on the webcam; from that moment, insults and harassment began on the internet.

This bullying lasted three years. Amanda even changed schools to rebuild her life, but it did not help. The abuse caused anxiety and acute depression that led her to consume drugs.

18-Zaira: Fifteen years old

Here is another victim of bullying from classmates. In the case of Zaira, it all started when they recorded her with a cell phone while she was in the bathroom.  These girls spread the video among all the school’s classmates and others outside her school. 

Because of these recordings, Zaira had to take the continuous teasing of her classmates and even physical abuse. Thanks to a lower-class classmate, she faced bullying, and this story had a happy ending.

19-Marco: Eleven years

This child had spent five years enduring the harassment he suffered from his classmates. They made fun of him because he was supposedly overweight, although, in reality, he was not.

They humiliated him on many occasions, and once, they even took off his clothes in gym class.  A teacher knew what was happening to him and did not take action. Marco is currently in another school after telling him everything that happened to his parents.

Conclusions About Bullying

These 19 cases are only 19 of many in our schools. These examples show the flaws that exist in education systems worldwide. The education system professionals are not doing enough to address these abuses.

Despite all we know about bullying, there still needs to be more information about its prevention and action. The schools are not prepared to face this type of situation, leading them to ignore this behavior in their students and leave the families alone with this problem.

Also Read:  11 Human Body Games for Children

To reduce the number of suicides due to school bullying in children, we must educate everyone involved. By providing adequate training, people will know what guidelines to follow in these situations to prevent adolescent suicide.

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True Stories of Workplace Bullying: Case Examples to Help You Understand Your Rights

Do you think you’re being bullied at work? If so, your workplace bully could be violating California and Federal law due to their harassing behaviors. While bullying itself is not unlawful, there are anti-bullying legislative measures being brought to the forefront all across the country, including the Healthy Workplace Bill. In addition to anti-bullying legislation, the Workplace Bullying Institute is also striving to eradicate bullying on the job by dedicating their efforts to anti-bullying education, research, and consulting for individuals, professionals, employers, and organizations.

Workplace bullying comes in many forms and can be unlawful if this type of harassment is based on an employee’s national origin, age, gender, disability, or other protected characteristics. Bullies also typically engage in these unlawful behaviors more than once rather than in isolated incidents.

In the spirit of the Workplace Bullying Institute’s Freedom from Workplace Bullies Week, we’ve decided to offer some insight into real workplace bullying, retaliation and discrimination cases from around the country that can help you understand your own rights when it comes to employment harassment.

Real Workplace Bullying Case Examples

Microsoft to pay $2 million in workplace bullying case.

AUSTIN, TX –  After seven years, Michael Mercieca finally saw the courts order Microsoft to pay for workplace bullying that almost led him to the breaking point.

The Texas employment labor law case judge, Tim Sulak, found Microsoft guilty of “acting with malice and reckless indifference” in an organized program of office retaliation against Mercieca.

“They (Microsoft Corporation) remain guilty today, tomorrow and in perpetuity over egregious acts against me and racist comments by their executive that led to the retaliation and vendetta resulting in my firing,” said Mercieca.

Previously, a jury, by unanimous agreement, found that Microsoft knowingly created a hostile work environment that led to Mercieca’s constructive dismissal. Mercieca was a highly regarded member of the tech giant’s sales department and had an unblemished record, but found himself trapped in a workplace conspiracy where his supervisors and coworkers undermined his work, falsely accused him of sexual harassment, and expense account fraud, marginalized him, and blocked his promotions. These harassing behaviors began when Mercieca ended a relationship with a woman who then went on to become his boss. Human relations at Microsoft did nothing to stop the bullying, either.

“Rather than do the right thing, the management team went after Michael by getting a female employee to file a sexual harassment complaint and a complaint of retaliation against him,” says Paul T. Morin. “Microsoft could have taken Mercieca’s charges seriously and disciplined the senior manager but instead it engaged in the worst kind of corporate bullying.”

Read the full story

King Soopers to Pay $80,000 to Settle EEOC Disability Discrimination Lawsuit

DENVER, CO –  Dillon Companies, Inc., owners of the King Soopers supermarket chain in Colorado will pay $80,000 for bullying a learning-disabled employee who worked at its Lakewood, Colorado store.

According to the EEOC’s disability discrimination lawsuit, two store supervisors repeatedly subjected Justin Stringer, an employee who worked at King Soopers for a decade, to repeated bullying and taunting in the workplace because of his learning disability. The EEOC alleged that the bullying resulted in Stringer’s termination.

“Employees with disabilities must be treated with the same dignity and respect as all other members of the work force,” said EEOC Regional Attorney Mary Jo O’Neill. “The EEOC will continue to enforce the ADA to protect the rights of disabled employees and applicants.”

DHL Global Forwarding Pays $201,000 to Settle EEOC National Origin Discrimination Suit

DALLAS, TX –  Air Express International, USA, Inc. and Danzas Corporation, doing business as DHL Global Forwarding, will pay $201,000 to nine employees and provide other significant relief to settle a national origin hostile environment lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

The EEOC charged DHL Global with subjecting a class of Hispanic employees to bullying, discrimination, and harassment due to their national origin. According to the suit, Hispanic employees at DHL’s Dallas warehouse were bullied at work by being subjected to taunts and derogatory names such as “wetback,” “beaner,” “stupid Mexican” and “Puerto Rican b-h”. The Hispanic workers, who included persons of Mexican, Salvadoran and Puerto Rican heritage, were often ridiculed by DHL personnel with demeaning slurs which included referring to the Salvadoran worker as a “salvatrucha,” a term referring to a gangster. Other workers were identified with other derogatory stereotypes.

Robert A. Canino, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Dallas District Office, stated, “Bullying Hispanic workers for speaking a language other than English is a distinct form of discrimination, which, when coupled with ethnic slurs, is clearly motivated by prejudice and national origin animus. Sometimes job discrimination isn’t just about hiring, firing or promotion; it’s about an employer promoting disharmony and disrespect through an unhealthy work environment.”

Wal-Mart to Pay $150,000 to Settle EEOC Age and Disability Discrimination Suit

DALLAS, TX –  Wal-Mart Stores of Texas, L.L.C. (Wal-Mart) has agreed to pay $150,000 and provide other significant relief to settle an age and disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC charged in its suit that Wal-Mart discriminated against the manager of the Keller, Texas Walmart store by subjecting him to bullying, harassment, discriminatory treatment, and discharge because of his age.

According to the EEOC, David Moorman was ridiculed with frequent bullying and taunts at work from his direct supervisor, including being called “old man” and “old food guy.” The EEOC also alleged that Wal-Mart fired Moorman because of his age.

“Mr. Moorman was subjected to taunts and bullying from his supervisor that made his working conditions intolerable,” said EEOC Senior Trial Attorney Joel Clark. “The EEOC remains committed to prosecuting the rights of workers through litigation in federal court.”

Under the terms of the two-year consent decree settling the case, Wal-Mart will pay $150,000 in relief to Moorman under the terms of the two-year consent decree. Wal-Mart also agreed to provide training for employees on the ADA and the ADEA, which will include an instruction on the kind of conduct that could constitute unlawful discrimination or harassment.

Everyone deserves to work in a safe, supportive environment and workplace bullies should be dealt with accordingly. If you are being bullied at work, contact our expert California employment lawyers today for your free consultation.

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Western Journal of Emergency Medicine: Integrating Emergency Care with Population Health

A Case Study with an Identified Bully: Policy and Practice Implications

• Huddleston, Lillie B ;
• Varjas, Kris ;
• Meyers, Joel ;
• Cadenhead, Catherine

Objective: Bullying is a serious public health problem that may include verbal or physical injury as well as social isolation or exclusion. As a result, research is needed to establish a database for policies and interventions designed to prevent bullying and its negative effects. This paper presented a case study that contributed to the literature by describing an intervention for bullies that has implications for research, practice and related policies regarding bullying.

Methods: An individualized intervention for an identified bully was implemented using the Participatory Culture-Specific Intervention Model (PCSIM; Nastasi, Moore, & Varjas, 2004) with a seventh-grade middle school student. Ecological and culture-specific perspectives were used to develop and implement the intervention that included psychoeducational sessions with the student and consultation with the parent and school personnel. A mixed methods intervention design was used with the following informants: the target student, the mother of the student, a teacher and the school counselor. Qualitative data included semi-structured interviews with the parent, teacher and student, narrative classroom observations and evaluation/feedback forms filled out by the student and interventionist. Quantitative data included the following quantitative surveys (i.e., Child Posttraumatic Stress Reaction Index [CPTS-RI] and the Behavior Assessment Scale for Children, 2nd Edition). Both qualitative and quantitative data were used to evaluate the acceptability, integrity and efficacy of this intervention.

Results: The process of intervention design, implementation and evaluation are described through an illustrative case study. Qualitative and quantitative findings indicated a decrease in internalizing, externalizing and bullying behaviors as reported by the teacher and the mother, and a high degree of acceptability and treatment integrity as reported by multiple stakeholders.

Conclusion: This case study provided important contributions by describing an intervention that is targeted to specific needs of the bully by designing culture specific interventions and working with the student’s unique environmental contexts. Additional contributions included the use of mixed methods to document acceptability, integrity and efficacy of an intervention with documented positive effects in these areas. In addition, implications for policy and practice related to the treatment of students identified as bullies and future research needs are discussed. [West J Emerg Med 2011; XX(X)XX-XX].

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Indian government initiatives on cyberbullying: A case study on cyberbullying in Indian higher education institutions

• Published: 04 July 2022
• Volume 28 , pages 581–615, ( 2023 )

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• Manpreet Kaur   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7680-3075 1 &
• Munish Saini   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4129-2591 1  

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In the digitally empowered society, increased internet utilization leads to potential harm to the youth through cyberbullying on various social networking platforms. The cyberbullying stats keep on rising each year, leading to detrimental consequences. In response to this online threat, the Indian Government launched different helplines, especially for the children and women who need assistance, various complaint boxes, cyber cells, and made strict legal provisions to curb online offenses. This research evaluates the relevant initiatives. Additionally, a survey is conducted to get insights into cyberbullying in higher education institutions, discussing multiple factors responsible for youth and adolescents being cyberbullied and a few measures to combat it in universities/colleges.

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1 Introduction

Cyberbullying is harassment done to the victim to cause harm via any electronic method, including social media resulting in defamation, public disclosure of private facts, and intentional emotional distress (Watts et al., 2017 ). It can be related to sending and posting cruel texts or images with the help of social media and other digital communication devices to harm a victim (Washington, 2015 ). It is a repeated behavior done by the individual with the help of social media, over the gaming, and messaging platforms that target mainly to lower the victims' self-esteem.

In the past decade, Cyberbullying has been an emerging phenomenon that has a socio-psychological impact on adolescents. With the advancement of digital technology, youth is more attached to social media, resulting in cyberbullying. With the increasing usage of techno-savvy gadgets, social media applications are highly prevalent among the youth, which can be advantageous and disadvantageous. It allows sharing posts, photos, and messages personally and privately among friends, while on the other hand, it involves an increase in cyberbullying by creating fake accounts on the apps (Ansary, 2020 ).

In July 2021, 4,80 billion people worldwide were on social media, that's almost 61% of the world's total population depicting an annual growth of 5.7% as 7 lac new users join per day (Digital Around the World, 2021 ). As the number of users increases, there is a surge in cyberbullying; according to a UNICEF poll, more than 33% of youngsters are reported as victims of online bullying in 30 countries worldwide (UNICEF, 2020 ). Moreover, it is seen that one in five has skipped school due to fear of cyberbullying and violence. According to NCRB, 50,035 cases of cybercrime were reported in India in the year 2020, among which 1614 cases of cyberstalking, 762 cases of cyber blackmailing, 84 cases of defamation, 247 cases of fake profiles, and 838 cases of fake news were investigated. NCRB data Footnote 1 reported that cybercrimes in India increased by 63.48% (27248 cases to 44548 cases) from 2018 to 2019, which upsurged by 12.32% in 2020 (44548 cases to 50035cases).

Multiple cases of cyberbullying were reported across the country. As per news reports, in November 2016, a 23-year-old Ooshmal Ullas, MBBS student of KMCT Medical College in Mukkam, Kerala, committed suicide by jumping due to being cyberbullied over a Facebook post and injured her spine, legs, and head. Footnote 2 One more incident was reported on 9 January 2018 where a 20 years old Hindu woman killed herself after facing harassment on WhatsApp over her friendship with a Muslim man in Karnataka. Footnote 3 Another case was witnessed, a 15-year-old boy connected with the 'Bois locker room', an Instagram group where they share photos of minor girls and exchange lewd comments, was arrested by Delhi police on 4 May 2020. Footnote 4 An incident occurred on 26 June 2014 a 17 years old girl committed suicide after Satish and Deepak, her friends, morphed her photos and posted them on Facebook along with her cell phone number. Footnote 5 Many such cases are reported every year, and this rising number of suicides due to cyberbullying is alarming and worrisome.

The primary cause of cyberbullying is anonymity, in which a bully can easily target anyone over the internet by hiding their original identity. The psychological features play an eminent role in determining whether a person is a victim or a bully. A pure bully has a high level of aggression and needs succorance, whereas the pure victim has high levels of interception, empathy, and nurturance (Watts et al., 2017 ). It has been found that various factors are responsible for becoming a cyberbully. According to Tanrikulu (Tanrikulu & Erdur-Baker, 2021 ), Personality traits are responsible for cyberbullying behavior. The primary cause is online inhibition, in which a person bullies others with the motives of harm, domination, revenge, or entertainment. Other causes are moral disengagement as the findings imply that, regardless of the contemporaneous victimization status, moral disengagement has an equal impact on bullying perpetration for those who are most engaged. Pure bullies have more moral disengagement than those bullies/victims who aren't as active in bullying (Runions et al., 2019 ). The next one is Narcissism , which means individuals consider social status and authority dominant over their human relations. The last is aggression, which refers to overcoming negativities and failures by force, triggering them to do cyberbullying for satisfaction. Similarly, there are some personality traits associated with cyberbullying participants as a study (Ngo et al., 2021 ) examined three groups of online users where the first one is the "Intervene" group which believes in uplifting the morale of victims by responding to cyberbullying acts while others are the "Ignore" group that doesn't involve in reacting to the cyberbullying acts and just ignores the victims or leave the cyberspace and the third one is "Join in" that either promote the bullying or just enjoy watching cyberbullying act without any participation. The adolescents belonging to intervene group may play a critical role in reducing cyberbullying behavior and its consequences.

Social acceptance also plays a vital role in reducing bullying. It has been observed that among students who lack socialization activity, an individual contributes a high incidence rate of bullying that leads to victimization. Yubero carried out a study that depicts individuals feeling more comfortable in online environments that are not accepted by their peers and hence are more exposed to cyberbullying victimization. Apart from this, the relationship between loneliness and cyberbullying is more prevalent because lonely youth devote quality of time to the internet hence facing cyberbullying (Yubero et al., 2017 ). In this situation, students could either defend themselves or rely on cyber bystander intervention. A cyber bystander is one offering assistance to the victim, either individually or socially, and they are more inclined to act if they feel more empathy (Wang, 2021 ). Since interfering publicly may have detrimental consequences, cyber bystanders are more worried about being retaliated against or being the next victim.

Parental support and monitoring also help to escape cyberbullying victimization. It has been observed that parents who employed autonomy-supportive measures, such as understanding the adolescent's viewpoint, providing alternatives, and giving justifications for prohibitions, had youngsters who reported lower cyberbullying than parents who used dominating measures (especially using guilt, shame, and conditional regard) (Legate et al., 2019 ).

Cyberbullying is one of the significant problems that need to be eradicated. Due to cyberbullying, youngsters face many issues related to their health like depression, low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts, and even it leads to low academic performance, etc. Several aspects are considered responsible for cyber victimization like social media, online hours, parental monitoring, awareness, social engagement, etc. The incidences of cyberbullying are elevating day by day even after the strict crime-fighting measures by state and central authorities. But the implementation of specific rules and regulations against cyberbullying crime may alter the future scenario. The Indian Government is quite aware of the issue of cyberbullying faced on social media, and the Government carries out many remedial interventions like women and child helpline numbers. Moreover, the Government provides legal implementations and acts that are trying to curb the issues of cyberbullying.

2 Aim and objective

This study aims to evaluate the initiatives taken by the Indian Government at the forefront of this noble battle to stop cyberbullying incidences and to find out various factors that make youth more vulnerable to cyberbullying. The following objectives were expected to be accomplished:

Enunciating the problem of Cyberbullying in higher education institutions.

Assessing the initiatives of the Indian Government, legal provisions for cyberbullying, and their amendments.

Evaluate the responses of higher education students to cyberbullying questionnaire.

To examine the factors responsible for cyber victimization and a few measures to combat cyberbullying.

This study is divided into two modules, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 , to achieve the aforementioned objectives. The first module focuses on explaining and exploring cyberbullying on various online platforms via digital devices, as well as preventative actions done by our Government and different cyberbullying legislation in India. In the second module, we conducted an online survey to access and examine the responses of University/College students.

Module 1- Outline of Research

Module 2-Case Study

3 Organization of paper

This paper is organized as follows, the Section  4 covers the review of research work on Cyberbullying in higher education institutions. The Section  5 highlights various merits and demerits associated with the internet, social media, and cyberbullying faced. Initiatives taken by the Indian Government in response to cyberbullying are elaborated in Section  6 . The Section  7 provides insight into the survey conducted on students of higher educational institutions. It comprises data collection, data pre-processing, methods, and algorithms employed in conducting and evaluating the responses of the participants. A detailed analysis of the results is mentioned in the "Discussion" section. In the later part of the study, measures to combat cyberbullying, major conclusions, and future recommendations are specified.

4 Related work

In the context of cyberbullying, several studies have been conducted in various countries at college and school levels, examining the different parameters responsible for cyberbullying victimization and the laws against cyberbullying. Different countries have their legal provisions to tackle the situation. A study by (Çevik et al., 2021 ) has discussed factors contributing to cyberbullying and victimization, which are problematic internet usage, school burnout, and parental monitoring. As the long hours of internet usage have resulted in the establishment of fake friendships, low academic profile, aggression, low self-esteem, and loneliness. School burnout includes students lacking interest in studies, exhaustion over studies has resulted in high usage of internet sources, increasing the risk of peer bullying. Parental monitoring plays a crucial role in the lives of adolescents, but a lack of coordination is witnessed between the adolescent and parents, leading to cyberbullying and victimization.

Yubero (Yubero et al., 2017 ) surveyed a sample of 243 Spanish university students in the social science stream, and the results confirmed Only 9.8% of higher education students experienced cyberbullying on the campus, which is much lower than reported by other studies, it may be due to the time frame selection of case study or its definition. Various parameters that may be considered a prime cause of being a victim have been examined. As a result, not much correlation was found between the loneliness of a student and cyberbullying victimization; self-esteem and cyberbullying victimization. But a negative correlation was seen between perceived acceptance by peers and cyberbullying victimization. So, it concludes that emphasis must not only be laid upon preventive measures but also on educating or training peers to help each other and building good relationships with people from whom they can seek advice. Whereas, in Ghana, 878 students took part in this study, where 83% of students have experienced cyberbullying at least once, which is much higher than the previous study result. It seems that cyberbullying is acceptable everyday behavior among Ghanaian youth, even don't feel about reporting it, and not much difference between the personality traits of victims and non-victim seen (Sam et al., 2019 ).

Students can also use a few precautionary measures to reduce cyberbullying by changing their profile settings, as blocking and deleting are considered highly used protective decisions to prevent inappropriate actions over a social networking site like Facebook. Chapin (Chapin, 2016 ), has used the precaution adoption process model to promote precautionary behavior to lower the risk associated with the health due to cyberbullying. According to Chapin, it is seen that many students are aware of the act of bullying but don't take any action.

Cyberbullying has long-term effects, and bullying behavior may continue much longer than expected. In a study, 638 Israeli undergraduate students participated, and various cyberbullying problems were evaluated. The study demonstrated that students experiencing cyberbullying face academic problems, anxiety, career problems, depression, family problems, interpersonal problems, self-esteem, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation. 57.4% of participants reported that cyberbullying among the youth will enter the workplace, which will continue throughout their lifetime (Peled, 2019 ).

In educational institutions, social networking platforms are beneficial, as Alamri et al. (Alamri et al., 2020 ) surveyed 192 students of King Faisal, a Saudi Arabian University. This survey was based on the use of SMA's (Social Media Applications) for education sustainability in the higher education system. In their research, they proposed a Theory acceptance Model used in conjunction with constructivism theory. In this model, they developed 14 hypotheses for the adoption of SMA's in students' learning systems and analyzed positive assessment of students for the adoption of SMA's in their higher education. Al-Rahmi et al. also discussed the use of Social media for Collaborative learning and information sharing among the students of the higher education system, in which a survey was conducted among the 538 university students. Students gave positive outcomes towards using SM (social media) for collaboration and student learning, highlighting the perceived enjoyment and ease. But at the same time, it has been observed that it may be affected due to cyberstalking, cyberbullying, and social media addiction (Al-Rahmi et al., 2020 ).

Ho et al. depicted the relationships between social support, cyberbullying victimization, and depressive symptoms and specialized their results, particularly studying the behavior of Vietnamese students (Ho et al., 2020 ). This research revealed that those students who are cyberbullied develop a higher risk of depressive symptoms. Still, social support, for instance, parental, peer, and special person support, can be considered a significant factor that can protect learners from developing such symptoms of depression. Also, while analyzing the survey results on 606 Vietnamese University students, it was found that social support is negatively correlated with cyberbullying, and social support is the only factor that helped those students come out from depression caused by cyberbullying.

Based on a cohort study performed in Hue city, 648 students were called from different schools. Only 9% of students were reported to be cyberbullied, while 17.6% suffered school bullying (Nguyen et al., 2020 ). Parental support has shown a protective relationship promoting the well-being among youth, more understanding and accepting attitude of parents is associated with reducing the consequences of cyberbullying that are mental issues, self-harm, and suicidal behaviors, including suicidal ideation, suicidal planning, and suicidal attempts in adolescents.

To assess risk factors and their impact in Myanmar, Khine et al. (Khine et al., 2020 ) conducted a cross-sectional study at a Medical university in Myanmar. The survey included 412 students in it, and the survey was based on factors leading to cyberbullying victimization during the last 12 months. The results were analyzed based on multiple logistic regression analyses. During the research, it was found that non-resident students or students studying at university for less than three years had a greater risk of being cyberbullying victims. The work also discussed the antagonistic relation between cyberbullying and academic performance and the positive relationship between cyberbullying and substance abuse, such as smoking and drinking alcohol. The research aimed that counseling services, cyber safety educational programs, and awareness of cyberbullying are urgently needed for university students of Myanmar.

Discussing another social networking platform, Aizenkot and Kashy-Rosenbaum have done a crossectional study to detect cyberbullying victimization in WhatsApp classmate groups in which 4477 students participated to complete the questionnaire. Here they (Aizenkot & Kashy-Rosenbaum, 2020 ) concluded that 56.5% of the students reported being victimized at least once, and 30% experienced it more than twice, while 18% (approx.) were victimized due to verbal violence. Other forms of victimization observed were offensive responses, insults, group violence, selectivity, particularly forced removal, and denied entry to WhatsApp groups. It leads our attention toward social media applications that distress the students.

Even During the covid 19 pandemic, when people were very much relied on online platforms due to social distancing and strict quarantine, they were suffering from depression and behavioral and mental problems. At the same time, especially the residents of Hubei, China, were facing all these problems and excessive cyberbullying, agitation, stigma, and racism peaked due to the first case of covid being reported in the city. This online bullying has severe psychological effects, and people were opting for various coping strategies. So here, the efforts must be taken unitedly by the worldwide online media, the health care workers, and the Government to prevent the secondary disaster of the pandemic in which cyberbullying was one of the major issues of concern for China (Yang, 2021 ).

5 Social media and cyberbullying in higher education institutions

Web 2.0 has initiated social media users, especially youngsters, to inculcate their viewpoints and express their thought processes in a virtual environment. Social media is a crucial platform that has encouraged students to expand interaction and has leveled up their performance. Despite its indispensable assets, liabilities cannot be overlooked in any condition (Sarwar et al., 2019 ). Cyberbullying has expanded with the higher usage of techno-savvy gadgets. The present times have modified common bullying into the involvement of harm, cruel thinking, and blackmailing through networking sites to the victims, especially on college campuses resulting in an increasing number of dropouts and suicides (Washington, 2015 ).

Higher command of mobile phones by adolescents has resulted in easy access to social networking sites without any fear. It has been increasingly contributing to cyberbullying, which has long-term adverse effects. Very few believe that it has a positivity that students become tough and develop a tendency of resilience and self-advocacy. Furthermore, it has been visualized that students do not know whether their institutions have a cyberbullying policy, and most institutions are not even prepared for handling such situations (Luker & Curchack, 2017 ).

Nowadays as the graduates are highly active over the internet for knowledge sharing, collaborative learning, and research activities which is beneficial yet resulted in the high indulgence of youth in cyberbullying, leading to negative impacts like aggressiveness, depression, low self-esteem, and also suicidal thoughts (Rasheed et al., 2020 ). Although there have been a myriad number of profits availed by everyone in the status quo, many people still undergo the undesirable effects that may alter one's privacy, security, and emotional health status. From bygone days, it has been witnessed that Cyberbullying is an urgent issue on the social platform that can turn out either short-range, long-range, temporary, or permanent effects on one's life (Abaido, 2020 ). According to Yoshida (Yoshida, 2021 ), different kinds of online behaviors are shown by university students on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. They form different communities based on their knowledge or depending upon fan following while swinging their interest from one topic to another. They share their viewpoints on these online platforms where different audiences are reading them. Also, they lack sociability skills and have less knowledge about these online communities. Consequently, this incapability may lead to cyber victimization.

Even the young social media users of color have faced a lot of racial discrimination over the online platforms leading to mental health risks resulting in depressive symptoms, anxiety, and illicit drug use (Tao & Fisher, 2022 ).

Online gaming among young adults is prevailing at a high level with time as a good source of entertainment, but it's being observed to be one of the leading causes of bullying. Hence, online games have resulted in more aggression, violence, conflicts, emotional distress, mental torture, and physical arousals where family and community can act as an inevitable source to reduce the addiction to the internet and strengthen their mental health (Huang et al., 2021 ).

Moreover, students being cyberbullied do not share such incidences with their parents because they fear losing internet access. So, parents could not be assumed as their support system. The other approach is complaining, where a shocking dimension has been observed: there are no policies or federal laws dealing with cyberbullying directly; a federal system covers only a few aspects of cyberbullying (Washington, 2015 ). Another study has also concluded that victims are unable to express any kind of violent cybercrime behavior faced them, presuming that it can result in limited access to internet sources and gadgets by their parents. The victims also perceive that adults cannot understand the issues faced by them. Hence, this depicts a huge gap between teachers, parents, and adolescents (Ngo, et al., 2021 ).

Due to Cyberbullying on-campus, students are experiencing various adverse effects, including feelings of sadness, embarrassment, humiliation, desire for vengeance, and physical and mental retaliation (Cassidy et al., 2017 ). Despite strict rules and awareness, students do not come forward to report cyberbullying. They are afraid, feel self-ashamed, cry, become depressed, suffer from anxiety, experience insomnia, or even miss school (Watts et al., 2017 ).

Cyberbullying is considered one of the potential risks of relying on online technologies and has been one of the significant technology abuse examples in the past decade due to its harmful and sometimes deadly impacts. Counseling acts as a tonic and curative approach that may aid the cyberbullying sufferers in overcoming their fears and issues faced by them. Initiating a hotline or a mobile application can also turn into a valuable perspective. To foster counseling, short seminars and discussion sessions must be taken out regularly among the scholars. Bystanders should also take some initiative to eradicate online bullying situations by breaking their silence at the very right time (Abaido, 2020 ).

6 Indian government initiatives and legal provisions

Various laws of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) 1860 and the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act) listed under legal provisions can be used to fight cyberbullies. A National Cybercrime reporting portal has been established for complaints, and a few more government initiatives are discussed.

6.1 Legal provisions

6.1.1 it act, 2000.

IT ACT, 2000 Footnote 6 came into power to provide legal identification regarding the exchange of data electronically. In computer-related offenses, up to 3 to 5 years imprisonment and rupees one lac fine or both can be charged and, in some cases, even more. Under IT Act, sections 66 A, 66 C, 66 D, and 66 E, punishment is given to the person involved in any crime of insulting or fraud or privacy violation, etc., utilizing the internet, social media, and other digital media devices. IT act, section 67, 67A, and section 67 B deal with publishing and transmitting material containing the sexually explicit act, etc., in electronic form. All these sections of IT Acts are explained in Table 8 of the Appendix.

6.1.2 The Indian penal code 1860

The Indian Penal Code (IPC) Footnote 7 is the official criminal code of India that covers all substantive aspects of criminal law, which came into existence in the year 1862 in all British Presidencies. IPC Sections 292A, 354 A, 354 D, 499, 507, and 509 punish people who indulge in blackmailing, harassment, stalking, threatening, intruding, etc. (for details of IPC laws refer to Table 8 of Appendix).

6.1.3 POCSO ACT, 2012

Protection of children from sexual offenses (POCSO) is a complete law for protecting children below 18 years from the heinous acts of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and pornography.

6.2 Government initiatives

6.2.1 the nirbhaya funds scheme.

It is an initiative of the Government of India under the Nirbhaya funds scheme for ensuring the safety of women and children. The ministry of Home affairs generated a single number (112) Footnote 8 which was under the Emergency response support system (ERSS), to cope with any emergencies where immediate assistance from police, fire, and rescue, or any other help is required. https://112.gov.in/

6.2.2 Cybercrime prevention against women and children scheme (CCPWC Scheme)

Under the CCPWA scheme, Footnote 9 for cybercrime prevention and setting up of Cyber forensic training labs grant of INR 87.12 Crore was released to states/UTs. Moreover, INR 6 crores were given to enhance police and prosecutors' training sessions. Under the CCPWA scheme, different units are established that are responsible for reporting online criminal acts and their investigations, analyzing cybercrime reports, and detecting any alarming cybercrime situation. Various components of the CCPWA scheme are given in Table 9 of the Appendix.

6.2.3 Indian cybercrime coordination centre (I4C) scheme

To prevent unnecessary use of social space, I4C acts as an essential tool to fight against cybercrime. Moreover, it is supported by fast pace technological advancements and international agencies to work on several activities. Its objective is to deal with different issues faced on online media, giving special attention to women and children victims and creating awareness among youth. Various components of the I4C scheme are mentioned in Table 10 of the Appendix .

6.3 Cybercrime reporting portals & helplines

6.3.1 national cyber crime reporting portal.

NCCR portal is an initiative of the Government of India that submits online complaints by the victims who have faced criticism, especially women and children. Footnote 10 They provide immediate action on the filed complaints with the help of local police. Since the technology has been overstepping every conventional method, it has also outrun the offline process of filing cybercrime complaints. The cybercrime complaints can be registered on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, which facilitates the nationwide cybercrime complaints and makes it feasible for the victims/complainants to have access to the cybercrime cells and all the information related to cybercrimes at their fingertips. The written complaint can also be filed by registering the crime-faced victim at a nearby cyber crime cell. Cyber Crime Portal State-wise, Nodal cyber cell officers and grievance officers' contact details and e-mail IDs are provided on the website https://cybercrime.gov.in/ . Footnote 11

6.3.2 Portal for women and children

Various helpline numbers and complaint portals for women and children are listed in Table 1 .

6.4 Anti-bullying or cyberbullying laws in India for schools and colleges

With the high increase in bullying in schools, especially in boarding schools in India, the HRD ministry has launched anti-ragging committees to reduce the rate of bullying. These committees work on punishing students who are indulged in the activities along with rustication in case of high involvement in bullying. The University Grants Commission comes forward with anti-ragging rules in universities and colleges with proper UGC regulations on pulling out the rate of ragging in higher institutions. Footnote 12

6.5 Other portals & awareness campaigns

The Ministry of Home Affairs has launched a centralized online cybercrime registration portal that has helped victims to register a complaint online rather than visiting the police station. Along with that Delhi and Indore police has a cyber cell to make people aware regarding filing a complaint online by the following link:

http://www.cybercelldelhi.in/

http://www.indorepolice.org/cyber-crime.php

https://ifflab.org/how-to-file-a-cyber-crime-complaint-in-india/

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal launched the cyber safety awareness campaign in Assam on the occasion of the foundation day of the Assam police, which joined with cyber security and formed a Cyber Peace Foundation (CPF).

Awareness Campaign on Cyber Security By DSEJ

Jammu has made an awareness campaign for up to 2 Lakh stakeholders of the School Education Department on cyber hygiene and security held on 15 January 2021 along with online as well as offline counseling sessions on a large scale covering cyber grooming, cyberbullying, phishing, safeguarding social media accounts, online banking frauds, lottery frauds, remote access scams, social media privacy policy, etc. Many such awareness campaigns are organized nationwide by the respective Governments.

7 A Case study based on a survey

In this section, to investigate the problem of Cyberbullying in higher educational institutions, a survey has been conducted among university/college-going students that provide clear insights into the data analysis and case study outcomes.

7.1 Data analysis methodology

It includes the manual about designing the questionnaire for the survey, the process of collecting data, pre-processing data, techniques used to conduct the survey, and finally, applying algorithms to the collected data for evaluating the outcomes.

7.1.1 Designing the questionnaire

An online survey was conducted to gain insights into the feedback given by students on the cyberbullying faced by students of higher education institutions in India. The survey contains a questionnaire designed to collect information on the cyberbullying experience, various issues faced by students related to cyberbullying, the dependence of cyberbullying victimization on other parameters, institutional support, and feedback from respondents to stop cyberbullying. According to Lesley Andres, while preparing for analysis, we should identify the research problem questions and locate ourselves in the research design and process for designing an effective survey questionnaire (Andres, 2012 ). The quality of data analysis through survey questions depends on various factors like topics covered in the questionnaire, wording, format, and organization (Singh et al., 2021 ), (Williams, 2003 ).

In this study, a total of 72 questions were classified into five sections: the first is about general information and computer knowledge, the second one is related to cyberbullying victimization, the third is for cyberbullying and cyber-bystander, fourth discusses the actions and effects of cyberbullying victimization, and the last one is about institutional support and suggestion. A google form was prepared, and the specific link was shared over the e-mails, and social media platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. The database was collected over three weeks, and due to the length of the questionnaire, 220 responses were received. 80% of respondents belong to the age group of 17 to 24. The general information about the participants, moreover their devices in use, and social networking sites being used most frequently are listed in Table 2 . 60% of our participants are hostellers, where most of the students are doing their bachelor's degrees. WhatsApp is the most popularly used application among the students, being used by 88% of users, and 60% (approx.) of users have observed cyberbullying at their campuses.

7.1.2 Data pre-processing

To remove the anomalies of the database collected in the survey few steps like data cleaning, filtration, removing duplicate responses, and the language translation are done (Maier et al., 2018 ). For statistically evaluating the responses, such as finding the correlation between various parameters, the Likert scale was used to convert responses to equivalent numerical values. Furthermore, the textual answers or the suggestions obtained from users are also pre-processed manually and with the help of algorithmic techniques of R package libraries for grammatical correction, removal of numbers, special characters, misleading information, and using google translator for conversion of regional language to English wherever required.

7.1.3 Outcomes of survey questions

In a survey question, it was asked to give their opinion on which gender is bullied more :

32.3% believe that females are bullied more than males, 10.5% believe that males are bullied more, 47.7% believe that both are bullied equally, and 9.5% prefer not to say. But the actual results of the survey go with the belief of the majority, where we find out that 54% of males are bullied, and approximately 51% of females are bullied. In fact not a significant difference between their bullying percentages.

Definition of cyberbullying: An understanding by respondents

To have an idea, according to the respondents' about what cyberbullying is? According to the responses received, more than 50% of the respondents were clear about it, and the majority believe that threatening someone, taking or sharing someone's embarrassing photographs, and posting something hurtful on social media are major cyberbullying acts. Table 3 depicts the rest of the percentage of the views about Cyberbullying definition.

Views on cyberbullying: Is it a normal part of the online world, and nothing could be done to stop it: Here, the views of male and female respondents do not deviate much. For both of them, it is unacceptable. 70% of the respondents disagree with the view that it is normal we can't stop it, and only 15% of the respondents take it as a normal activity, as shown in Fig. 3 .

Cyberbullying is a normal part of the online world

Actual percentage facing bullying classified under different categories and factors:

In Table 4 , the percentage distribution of bullied and non-bullied participants is mentioned depending on various factors like gender, social media usage hours, computer proficiency, area of residence, parent's talk, and their qualification. According to the number of hours of social media usage, on average, students use it for 4 h, and respondents using it for more than 4 h are bullied more than others. In addition, more than half of the participants have good computer knowledge, but not much dependency is seen between the computer proficiency and the percentage bullied by implementing the Chi-Square test using the Likert scale in Rstudio (Mircioiu & Atkinson, 2017 ). A p-value of 0.135 has been obtained, which is insignificant for showing a relation between computer proficiency and bullying percentage (Rana & Singhal, 2015 ). A weak relation is found between parents' talk and bullying; those whose parents frequently talk about cyberbullying are bullied a little bit less as compared to those whose parents never or very rarely talk about it. No correlation is found between the area of residence, and parental qualification of the students bullied.

When you were bullied, it was related to:

Of the respondents who have been cyberbullied due to multiple reasons, the majority of victims do not know the reason, and the most prevalent reason is their physical appearance and religion. Due to their sexual orientation and race, they have also faced bullying, and disability is also one of the reasons. The percentage of various reasons is given in Fig. 4 .

Reasons for cyberbullying

Questions related to CYBER VICTIMIZATION, CYBERBULLYING, and CYBER BYSTANDER:

Out of total female respondants, 51.30% of females faced bullying, 11.30% were unsure, and 37.39% were not bullied. In the case of males, 55.24% of males faced bullying, 14.24% were unsure, and 30.48% were not bullied at all. Among the persons with disabilities, 83% of males and 75% of females having any type of disability faced cyberbullying.

Out of the total bullies, 64.40% of bullies are male, and 35.60% of bullies are female. 18.26% of all the female participants accepted that they had bullied someone, and approximately twice the women's percentage, i.e., 36.19% of male participants have bullied someone. But in the case of the cyber bystanders, there is not much difference in their percentages. 44.34% of the female participants and 56.19% of male participants were cyber bystanders, respectively. Various questions and their response percentages related to cyber victimization, cyberbullying, and cyber bystanders are listed in Table 5 .

Actions are taken after being Cyberbullied & Effects on victims:

In the survey conducted, more than half of the students (51.8%) are not aware of cyberbullying laws, and 58.2% have no clue where to report or what action should be taken against the bully. It has been seen that among the cyber victims, 65.15% of students know the bully.

Various persons can experience cyberbullying, and according to the responses, among the students bullied, 40.20% of cyberbullying was done by their friends, 9.28% by their relatives or cousins, 31.95% was done by their peer group, 25.77% by any senior, 14.43% by a junior and 53.60% by unknown. As mentioned in Table 6 , most cyberbullying victims feel comfortable discussing the matter with their friends or with nobody, only one-quarter of the percentage discuss it with their parents.

In Table 6 , various questions related to cyberbullying victims, their reaction toward a bully, their parent's reaction, how the cyberbullying affected studies and work, and the victim's feelings are mentioned with percentages. Most of the victims felt angry and depressed, and around half of the victims asked the bully to stop this behavior.

As shown in Fig.  5 , the R studio corrplot function is used to find correlations among various parameters, and it is observed that both the work and health of the cyberbullying victim are greatly affected.

Correlation graph

In further detailed questioning, it is observed that 62% of cyberbullying victims ignore the messages of bullies so that he/they would lose interest, whereas 25% have sent threatening messages to bullies about doing such acts. Approximately 27% seek online advice on being bullied. Due to lack of awareness, only 40% of the victims save the cyberbullying messages or images as evidence. 32.4% of victims changed their contact details like phone number, e-mail address, chat name, or profile information visibility on social networking sites. 79% of the victims have blocked the bully so that he/she could not contact more.

Institutional support

It has been observed that higher education institutions do not provide much support to the students and make them aware of this online behavior, as 68.2% of the colleges and universities are not taking any initiative to make students aware by conducting any awareness tutorial or campaign. Only 42.8% of students who were bullied have taken guidance from university. Furthermore, 68.6% of the students have no idea where to report or to find the anti-bullying policy in their institution. Approximately 69.5% think their institutions are not doing enough to tackle the problem.

7.1.4 Topic modeling to extract relevant topics

For analysis of the feedback given by students to stop cyberbullying in institutions, using the R framework, LDA has been used. To extract the optimum number of topics in the feedback database, we used Griffith's 2004 (Griffiths & Steyvers, 2004 ) and Cau Juan's 2009 (Cao et al., 2009 ) metrics for our study in the R framework. Griffith represents an approach where the number of topics is optimal when the log-likelihood for data becomes maximum, whereas Cau Juan is used for measuring the stability of the topic and the minimum value on the graph represents the optimal number of topics. As from Fig.  6 number of topics lies between 4 to 9; in the upper graph minimum value is to be selected and from the lower one maximum value is to find the range of an optimal number of topics.

Determining the optimal number of topics

The latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) is a statistical model that enables unidentified groups to explain why some sections of the data are related (Blei et al., 2003 ). If observations are words gathered into documents, it is assumed that each document is a mix of a small number of subjects and that each word's occurrence is due to one of the document's themes called topics. The time complexity of LDA is O(mnt  +  t 3 ) and memory requirements of O(mn  +  mt  +  nt) , where m is the number of samples, n is the number of features, and t  =  min (m,n). It is impossible to use LDA when both m and n are big (Cai et al., 2008 ). The working of LDA is shown in the Algorithm . As there does not exist any prior information on the number of topics in our corpus, we used LDAvis, which generates interactive charts where each bubble represents the topic, and topic per word distribution is represented in the bar graph plot, selection of a bubble highlights the words and bars accordingly. The prevalence of topics depends upon the bubble size. For these graphs, the "optimum" value of λ was about 0.6, which resulted in a 70% likelihood of right identification (values of λ around 0 and 1 resulted in estimated proportions of correct replies closer to 53 and 63 percent, respectively). This is evidence that ordering words according to relevance (rather than strictly in decreasing order of probability) can increase subject interpretability (Sievert & Shirley, 2014 ).

LDA has extracted the discussion topics from the set of views database submitted by students to tackle this problem, explore all the main keywords, and highlight areas that need improvement. The findings indicate the formation of five clusters, the most frequent and interdependent keywords with other clusters or topics as depicted in Fig.  7 . The number of clusters lies in the predicted range of optimal number of topics. From the topic modeling analysis, "Awareness" is the most frequent term and critical factor in curbing cyberbullying. The classification of most frequently used words and the keywords grouped according to LDA are given in Table 7 .

LDAvis topic extraction graph

8 Discussion: Analysis of conducted survey

With the advancement of technology, social media has become a vital part of students' lives, either for their studies or entertainment. The major challenge is protecting the students from cyberbullying that can significantly affect their work and studies. Our focus is on examining cyberbullying among college/university students. For this, we divided our research into two modules. In the first one, we analyzed the Indian Government initiatives. While exploring legal provisions, it is found that so many laws, online portals and helplines are available. Strict laws implemented against cyberbullying are covered under IT Act 2000, IT Act Section 66A, IT Act Section 66 B, IT Act Section 66C, IT Act Section 66D, IT Act Section 66E, IT Act Sect. 67, IT Act Section 67A, IT Act Section 67B; under Indian Penal Code 1860, IPC Section 292 A, IPC Section 354A, IPC Section 354D, IPC Section 499, IPC Section 507, and POCSO Act 2012. Under various schemes like the Nirbhaya fund scheme, the Government launches a women and helpline number 112 for emergency response. Under CCPW Scheme, multiple labs and units have been established for cybercrime online reporting, the investigation by professional teams, and research and development. I4C scheme has also established many units for creating awareness, reporting, and inspection. MHA has established National Cybercrime reporting portals both online and offline. Moreover, the Ministry of Women and Child Development has generated a women's helpline number 118 and also a dedicated e-mail address to redress their grievances. Separate Childline 1098, NCW helpline, Mahila bol helpline, and many state government portals are available. Various awareness campaigns are launched at the state as well as international levels. In second module, a case study was performed on cyberbullying in higher education institutions.

Section-wise analyses of the conducted survey

General information: 97% of the higher education institutional students (respondents) have electronic gadgets, except the few either do not have internet connectivity or a personal device. Even in the UNICEF case study, it was found that 99 percent of both urban and rural internet users aged 12 + years used mobile phones to access the internet. Footnote 14 WhatsApp and Instagram are the most widely used social networking sites that make them more vulnerable to experience cyberbullying. The responses of the participants depict that they are not much aware of the cyberbullying term, the legal provisions, and other governmental policies against cyberbullying. At the same time, it is observed that the majority of students reacted strongly to stop this behavior.

Cyberbullying victimization and dependency of Cyberbullying on various demographic parameters: According to the survey results, more than half of the respondents have experienced cyberbullying, which is similar to the percentage obtained in a study by Aizenkot and Kashy-Rosenbaum (Aizenkot & Kashy-Rosenbaum, 2020 ). It is concluded that males are cyberbullied more than females. Moreover, the person with a disability is the most affected as 80% of them face cyberbullying. Higher hours spent on social networking sites also lead to cyberbullying victimization. This case study found that Parental awareness and discussing online issues with youngsters have played a vital role in preventing them from being bullied, which resembles the conclusion of a study conducted in Vietnam by Ho et al. (Ho et al., 2020 ). The majority of the participants are not aware of the reason for being bullied but based on physical appearance and religion, cyberbullying is most prevalent among students. Approximately half of the participants have experienced cyber defaming.

Cyberbullying and Cyber Bystander: 18.26% of the female participants accepted that they had bullied someone, and 36% of males accepted it. The survey results depict that half of the participants are cyber bystanders. The most prevalent type of cyberbullying in this survey is leaving someone without friends by either blocking or eliminating them from social groups, and similar victimization was observed in a study by Aizenkot and Kashy-Rosenbaum (Aizenkot & Kashy-Rosenbaum, 2020 ). Cyber-by-standing is more common in male students, as one-third of the students have witnessed someone posting something wrong on social media to embarrass a classmate or use abusive language. Peer bullying is commonly seen among university students.

Actions taken and the affect of cyberbullying on the victim: Only 42% of the victims report to the police, and 36% of the students get back to the bully either personally or virtually. Cyberbullying has affected both the physical and mental health of the victim, and they experience aggressiveness and depression at most times. It also affects their relationship with friends and family and their work and studies. Also, the participants said that they have stopped using various social networking sites, restricted their privacy settings, and adopted other necessary measures to avoid bullying.

Institutional support and suggestions : Cyberbullying Awareness is the need of the hour, various institutions have cyberbullying policies, but the students are not aware of that. Students need guidance, and awareness sessions and campaigns should be organized at the college/ university level. As per students' suggestive measures, there should be proper counseling sessions, teacher support, guidance to tackle online issues, a complaint portal, strict laws, and concrete action against the bully. Institutions should also teach the ethics of social media usage.

9 How to combat cyberbullying

Cyberbullying can be significantly reduced with effective interpersonal communication among the peer group, and also bystanders can play a vital role in preventing cyberbullying if they intervene immediately on behalf of victims (Rafferty & Vander Ven, 2014 ). From the case study, it has been seen that the majority of students were cyber bystanders; they should come forward and encourage reporting such issues. The students are not much aware of the cyberbulling policies, so as suggested by Watts (Watts et al., 2017 ) anonymous reporting should be introduced, and internet etiquette should be studied.

It has been analyzed that colleges/universities are not doing enough to deal with this problem. In educational institutions, policy development is a pressing need that may be addressed using focus groups to identify effective remedies for cyberbullying. In addition, institutional leaders should consider a cyberbullying policy in terms of circumstances, and aside from that, leaders may improve their workers' knowledge abilities by conducting surveys and investigative sessions on cyberbullying (Luker & Curchack, 2017 ). The study depicted that approximately 70% of the respondents feel that institutions are not doing enough to curb cyberbullying so there is a need for university professionals to effectively analyze and mitigate unfavorable internet interactions on their campuses. All students and faculty members require assistance and counseling (Cassidy et al., 2017 ).

Creating awareness is the primary need as per students' feedback. The government has launched various portals, helplines for helping women and children, cyber cells, and reporting portals for online issues but students are not much aware of these initiatives and legal provisions. There is a need to raise awareness. Insulting someone or defaming or making fun over social media are the most prevalent among educational institutions. The study findings by (Ngo et al., 2021 ) and (Hutson et al., 2018 ) have suggested several measures to curb cyberbullying. To begin, educational campaigns should be conducted to boost awareness and attitudes against cyberbullying across youth, parents, and teachers, inspiring them to become proactive in mediating and combating cyberbullying practices. Knowledge and practices on cyberbullying, communication and internet usage skills, education on digital citizenship, prosocial behaviors, empathy, and coping techniques with cyberbullying should all be included in these programs. From the case study it is observed that 70% victims feel angry, 43% depressed and one-third feel lonely and helpless. So, regular training sessions should be held to assist teenagers in developing the skills and talents necessary to actively cope with cyberbullying, assist other victims, and prevent them from being involved in cyberbullying themselves. Furthermore, institutions, healthcare providers, and leaders should promote parents' participation in suspecting and addressing cyberbullying and its implications among youngsters. This positive parent–child interaction may inspire them to seek help when confronted with adversity. In addition, Parents must exercise restraint and active mediation to raise awareness, as teenagers lack understanding of online threats and the ability to self-regulate their internet activities owing to a lack of experience (Steinfeld, 2021 ).

Also, the student Services at universities should design interventions where they concentrate not just on prophylactic work with techniques to eliminate cyberbullying but also on fostering relationships with individuals from whom victims may seek assistance with their online concerns (Yubero et al., 2017 ). Cyberbullying can be significantly reduced with effective interpersonal communication among the peer group, and also bystanders can play a vital role in preventing cyberbullying if they intervene immediately on behalf of victims (Rafferty & Vander Ven, 2014 ). As observed in cyber victimization questionnaire, cyberbullying faced by the majority is insulting someone, saying something untrue about a person or making fun of others over social media, or excluding others from online groups. Peer assistance initiatives appear to be successful in this regard where with proper training, students assist in educating their peers about using technology responsibly and cyberbullying by relating their experiences and strategies to avoid and address it.

A convenient, user-friendly, and cost-effective conversation bots (chatbots) can be used in anti-bullying programs to raise awareness regarding bullying and help change students' attitudes toward bullying problems (Oh et al., 2020 ). Moreover, to avoid consolidation and limit the impact on victims, all colleges should broaden their harassment policies, including cyberbullying; these protocols must include precise steps to be taken if such episodes are discovered. In the future, therapeutic assistance and victim protection should be included in protocols.

10 Conclusion and recommendation

With the technical advancement, and adoption of blended learning as a new paradigm in higher education, social media users are also increasing day by day, and the most significant impact is seen on the youngsters. Lack of knowledge about the ethics of using social media and the easy availability of the internet lead to cyberbullying. While the social networking sites act as a boon to the students, providing them an environment of collaborative learning even in the pandemics like covid19, at the same time, it may lead to cyberbullying victimization by exposing them to the hate and aggressive behavior on online platforms. Students have misused social media to humiliate or harass other students. So, regardless of the convenience offered by social media, the constant exposure to and communication with online technologies make the users susceptible to certain online interactions that may be beneficial at some point but put their safety and emotional and psychological well-being at risk. Over time, the Indian Government has launched various schemes (Nirbhaya Scheme, CCPW Scheme, I4C Scheme), online reporting portals (National cybercrime reporting portal), helpline numbers for women and children, and amended the required legal provisions of the IT Act and Indian Penal Code 1860 against the cyberbullying. State governments have also launched various awareness campaigns. As per UGC regulation, educational institutions have also stricken their anti-bullying policies. But the success of these initiatives depends upon the responses of the participants of the survey. It has been seen that the students are not much aware of all these laws against cyberbullying. More than half of the participants have faced cyberbullying, and many of them admitted that they had bullied others also. Cyberbullying victimization is dependent upon various factors like parents' guidance, the number of hours of social media usage, etc. Parental advice and lesser usage of social media may prevent the students from being bullied. Peer bullying is the most prevalent among college/university male students, and Cyberbullying has affected the students psychologically as well as physically; moreover, it degraded their performance at work/studies. Anger and depression are the major problems experienced by the victims. Two-thirds of the students are unaware of the cyberbullying policies and laws. After analyzing the results, it is suggested that the institutions and authorities organize seminars and counseling sessions to create awareness. They should follow strict measures to tackle cyberbullying, take appropriate actions, and establish complaint portals at the college/university level. The study covers a lot about the initiatives, provides insights into the current cyberbullying situation at higher education institutions in India, and concludes that more campaigns and seminars should be conducted to make students aware of all these legal provisions. At the same time, the study has a few limitations also: Firstly, based on popularity, only a few government initiatives and legal provisions have been listed, only national-level portals and helplines are mentioned, and State-wise programs and campaigns are not discussed. Secondly, the sample chosen may have many constraints due to the length of the survey; only limited responses are received, and the respondents may belong to the same environment and face similar problems. In the future, we will try to overcome these limitations.

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Kaur, M., Saini, M. Indian government initiatives on cyberbullying: A case study on cyberbullying in Indian higher education institutions. Educ Inf Technol 28 , 581–615 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11168-4

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Bullying and poor workplace cultures: Case studies

These demonstrate that while workplace bullying can come in many different forms, there are a number of common approaches that have been successfully employed to help turn the tide on bullying.

Introduction

Workplace bullying affects the health and wellbeing of staff and the productivity of organisations. It is hard – but not impossible – to tackle.

Organisation A – Be willing to ‘send a strong message’ to your organisation

‘Organisation A’, a Melbourne based organisation with fewer than 100 staff, had its bullying levels peak in 2014. One in five staff reported they had experienced bullying.

Organisation B – ‘Walk the talk’ the importance of leaders living the values

The small organisation with fewer than 100 staff once had very low rates of perceived bullying (11 per cent) – half its sector’s average rate of 22 per cent. However, the rate spiked suddenly.

Organisation C – Making sure ‘every voice has the same volume’

This metropolitan Melbourne entity with fewer than 200 staff, had nearly a quarter of employees experiencing bullying. The problem was coming from the highest levels.

Organisation D – ‘Communication, Communication, Communication’

‘Organisation D’ and its 500 plus mainly Melbourne based staff have been through considerable change and long periods of uncertainty, which affected workplace culture.

Organisation E – Redefining the ‘symbols and rituals’ of organisation culture

Bullying had fluctuated in ‘Organisation E’ for a while but when one in three staff started experiencing bullying, the issue could not be ignored.

Reviewed 2 September 2022

Published 23 June 2022

Bullying in the Workplace – A Case Study

By: Chris Potter

When Susan* began working at her new job, it wasn’t long before she realised that something wasn’t right between her and her manager.

What began as feeling a bit picked on began to become a constant source of stress for her, until she knew it wasn’t in her head anymore. It turns out that Susan was the victim of a growing problem for many – bullying in the workplace. This is her story of how it happened and how she got through it, which she has chosen to share to educate others who might be suffering similar.

(Worry you too are dealing with a workplace bully? Read our guide to workplace bullying to learn more).

*name changed to protect privacy

“i was the victim of a workplace bully”.

“I had been over the moon to finally get offered a job I really wanted, as a PR and communications assistant for an environmental company. But I had only been in my my job for a few months when I realised that my line manager was becoming gradually more hostile towards me.

She started nitpicking every piece of work I did, sometimes requesting that I start large tasks again from scratch. I remember the first time, when I wrote an article and she gave it back with two small mistakes circled and a note ‘check grammar’, but not a jot of other positive or constructive feedback. I thought she must have been rushed that day, but that was generally the way it kept going. I rarely had any support or feedback from her unless she felt I’d made a mistake.

Whenever I tried to raise any ideas of my own, she would treat me in a condescending manner and refuse to take me seriously. I also started to be moved off tasks which fit my skill set to menial jobs which no one else wanted to do. Suddenly I was no longer writing press releases but doing data entry! When I tried to request that there be more time for me to focus on my strengths, I was told that it wasn’t her priority.

It got worse. She repeatedly accused me of not doing what was asked of me or of making mistakes that I hadn’t made. Even when I knew I could prove her wrong, it felt petty to have to go to such lengths to do this. And then she would do things almost as if she wanted to find ways to see me fail. She’d ask me to answer all calls for the entire office right when I was working on an assignment, and when that predictably meant the article wasn’t written by the end of the day, she’d make out I hadn’t been working hard enough!

It all conspired to make me feel really miserable and suddenly the job I had always wanted turned into me dreading going to work every morning.

I felt confused as to why my manager rarely seemed to have any faith in me. Over time I lost all confidence in my ability to do anything properly; she made me feel like I was actually as useless as she was treating me.

“I tried to figure out why my manager was bullying me”

By: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

I think she sometimes saw me as being a bit of a threat. She was particularly hostile towards me whenever I appeared to know more about something than she did. Once, when she was stuck trying to help one of my colleagues with a task, I politely offered a solution. It turned out to be correct, but I didn’t receive any thanks. She looked absolutely furious and wouldn’t speak to me for the rest of the day.

“The bullying began to affect my health and my social life”

As well as dealing with the emotional side of being bullied, there were growing physical symptoms. I was beginning to suffer with tiredness, often feeling so fatigued that I would need to go to bed as soon as I got home from work. I experienced headaches and nausea, sometimes to the point where I would throw up from feeling dizzy. It was a long time before I connected the frequency of these feelings to the things I was experiencing at work.

As for my social life, I stopped wanting to do things I used to enjoy, like going out with my friends and exercising. It was like all my confidence was gone and I was tired, so I just wanted to stay at home. My partner certainly noticed that I wasn’t well. I talked to him a lot, he was really my rock.

The truth is, I felt like I couldn’t tell my friends or family what was happening. I had spent so long trying to build up a career from almost nothing (graduating during the recession meant there were hardly any opportunities for me) and they had been so proud when I got the job, that I felt ashamed to admit that it was going so badly.

My partner began urging me to leave after I had been there for a year but I didn’t think we could afford it. It didn’t help that I started to apply for other jobs and didn’t get anything, so felt even worse. Of course now, looking back, I can see it is just the way the job market was at the time, but back then I was sure there was something wrong with me.

“Eventually I started to think I was going crazy…”

It began to get to the point where I felt like I was going crazy. I knew that my manager had a problem with me but all of her behaviour was subtle enough not to be noticed by other members of staff. We worked in a very small team and (outwardly, at least) everyone seemed to get on very well. I felt under pressure not to ‘rock the boat’ and felt that no one would believe me if I told the truth. I hoped that if I could only keep working as hard as I could, she would stop treating me so badly.

I would get angry, but the anger couldn’t go anywhere, so it just translated into more negative thoughts about myself. I was swinging between feeling like everything was all my fault then feeling furious.

When I went to see a counsellor , it was such a relief. I can’t tell you what a big help it was to have someone listen once a week and provide me with support when I decided to leave.

By: Alan Cleaver

“I had to decide whether to stay or go”

Things didn’t improve and I finally decided my only option was to leave. The final straw came when I accidentally saw some emails between my manager and other members of staff, including the director of the company. I say accidentally, but it was more on a quick instinct. Basically, I was looking in my colleague’s email account for some information for a piece. We had each other’s passwords and often looked in each others account if we needed to see some correspondence. But something in me told me to search for my name.

I felt sick to read emails that contained personal judgements about my behaviour and attitude and gave an entirely negative impression of who I was. My manager had even accused me of lying about a dispute over holiday pay, copying in everyone on staff, can you imagine?! I realised that she had been sending these messages behind my back for some time and that everyone in the office, including some new members of staff, had had their opinions shaped by them.

It was seriously shocking, as for so long I had veered between thinking it was really going on and then thinking maybe it was in my head. But there is was, my proof. I couldn’t really admit to having seen the emails so I snuck off and called my partner for support.

I decided it was too late for me to try and undo the damage so I quit the very next day. I wrote a short letter, printed it off, and bought it the office. My manager was actually surprised. I didn’t bother to tell her why I was leaving, and a part of me thinks she was so much in denial about her behaviour she might have actually been surprised.

“Did I make the right decision?”

It wasn’t fair that I had to leave my job, and I know for many others they seek legal help, but I know that for me, I made the right decision. I guess I also didn’t look into the legal side because really, would I be able to say anything illegal happened? I just worked for a small team that had a not very nice manager who happened to single me out. Maybe because I was the most recent hired and the lowest paid, the last in the pecking order. Or because she needed someone to shift the spotlight away from her own mistakes and I was the most amenable.

What mattered was that I needed to protect my health and to seek a more rewarding job somewhere else. I feel relieved not to be working there anymore and I’m starting to regain my confidence and self-esteem through writing and voluntary work. I don’t regret leaving – unfortunately, the odds were stacked against me. I’m now trying to look forward to a role where my hard work will be valued.

My biggest regret is not that I didn’t tell off my manager when I quit, but that I didn’t know about workplace bullying sooner, and the insidious way it can operate. If I had of known, I would have felt less alone. Maybe I could have even presented my thoughts to my manager and tried to resolve something. That’s why I’m sharing my story, in the hopes others read it and it helps them make a bad workplace situation better.”

Are YOU a victim of bullying in the workplace?

Susan quit her job, but you don’t have to. Learn the signs and symptoms of bullying in the workplace, as well as how you can deal with it before it gets worse, by reading our guide to bullying in the workplace which also includes a list of useful resources. Have you you experienced bullying in the workplace and want to share your story? Or want to comment on something we’ve said? Use the box below, we love hearing your feedback. Want to know when we post more useful content like this? Sign up to our community up above!

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Cyber Bullying: Case Study

• Categories: Cyber Bullying

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Words: 533 |

Published: Mar 20, 2024

Words: 533 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

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Case study: the smith family, impact on the victim, legal and ethical implications.

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