Reasons for the Failure of Bullying Victims to Seek External Assistance
Abstract
Existing studies have shown that barriers such as stigma, fear of retaliation, lack of trust in institutions, and limited access to resources often prevent victims from actively seeking or obtaining effective support. This paper mainly focuses on the reasons why victims of bullying fail to seek help from the outside world. In today's society, bullying is increasingly prevalent, and its age range is expanding. It happens from school bullying among students to workplace bullying among adults, showing that bullying has increasingly become a social phenomenon. Some victims of bullying will seek help from the society, such as posting their experiences on the internet to seek comfort or solutions; some will go to seek psychological counseling to console themselves. However, a large number of them cannot receive effective help and cannot help them overcome the psychological consequences of being bullied. Therefore, this paper aims to explore what the reasons are behind this phenomenon, in order to better help the victims of bullying obtain effective help from society.
References
- Guerin, S., & Hennessy, E. (2002). Pupils’ definitions of bullying. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 17(3), 249–261. http: //www.jstor.org/stable/23420422
- Guerra, N. G., Williams, K. R., & Sadek, S. (2011). Understanding bullying and victimization during childhood and adolescence: A mixed methods study. Child Development, 82(1), 295–310. http: //www.jstor.org/stable/29782832
- Oliver, C., & Candappa, M. (2007). Bullying and the politics of “telling.” Oxford Review of Education, 33(1), 71–86. http: //www.jstor.org/stable/4618697
- Rousseau, M. B., Eddleston, K. A., Patel, P. C., & Kellermanns, F. W. (2014). Organizational resources and demands influence on workplace bullying. Journal of Managerial Issues, 26(3), 286–313. http: //www.jstor.org/stable/44113641
- Quine, L. (1999). Workplace bullying in NHS community trust: Staff questionnaire survey. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 318(7178), 228–232. http: //www.jstor.org/stable/25181638
- Sitnik-Warchulska, K., Wajda, Z., Wojciechowski, B., & Izydorczyk, B. (2021). The risk of bullying and probability of help-seeking behaviors in school children: A Bayesian network analysis. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, Article 640927. https: //doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.640927
- Macaulay, P. J. R., Betts, L. R., Stiller, J., & Kellezi, B. (2022). Bystander responses to cyberbullying: The role of perceived severity, publicity, anonymity, type of cyberbullying, and victim response. Computers in Human Behavior, 131, 107238. https: //doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107238
- Huang, Y. (2024). Bullying victims’ perceived social support and psychological health and prosocial behavior: A latent profile analysis. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. https: //doi.org/10.1007/s10964-024-01954-3
- Bjereld, Y., Thornberg, R., & Hong, J. S. (2024). Why don’t all victims tell teachers about being bullied? A mixed-methods study on how direct and indirect bullying and student–teacher relationship quality are linked with bullying disclosure. Teaching and Teacher Education, 148, 104664. https: //doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2024.104664
- Dailey, S. F., & Roche, R. R. (2025). The SHIELD framework: Advancing strength-based resilience strategies to combat bullying and cyberbullying in youth. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 22(1), 66. https: //doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22010066