Bullying is a phenomenon that has existed even before it became documented. Because of its prior history, many forms, and different perceptions of what bullying is, there is a great extent of definitions that constitute as bullying behavior. Beginning in the late 1990’s, bullying behavior became a hot spot for researchers as school shootings increased because of the negative experiences that victims of bullying had encountered particularly in 1996 (Parkay, Hass & Anctil, 2010). Increasing school violence called for the attention of school- based bullying and its different forms. Bullying takes place in two different forms that is, traditional bullying and cyber & indirect bullying. Traditional bullying refers to physical and overt forms of bullying such as name-calling, hitting, shoving, and stealing (Arnold & Rockinson- …show more content…
Traditional bullying is easier to notice and is what comes to mind when thinking about bullying. Cyber bullying occurs electronically and involves negative remarks over text or messaging systems, rumors over the Internet, spreading embarrassing pictures, and any other form of humiliation or threat targeted to a child by another child (Arnold & Rockinson- Szapkiw, 2012; Kowaski & Limber, 2007; Slonje & Smith, 2008). Cyber bullying tends to be less overt as it is usually done privately through social media or some digital device. Similarly, indirect bullying is also less obvious because it’s rather discreet and includes spreading rumors behind ones back, withholding friendship, lying, and making someone feel guilty (Arnold & Rockinson- Szapkiw, 2012). All these different kinds of bullying behavior make it difficult to define bullying behavior and prevent it. Even so, it is important to bring awareness to schools and researchers about the issue of bullying so that proper procedures can be investigated on how to best prevent school-