Many of our school memories go hand in hand with good thoughts like buying school supplies, our uniforms and sharing with our friends.
However, many of us also have not so pleasant memories of when, due to various circumstances, we were harassed by one of our classmates and even by teachers.
This phenomenon is now known as bullying, a term that the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language defines as: "Practice exercised in personal relationships consisting of degrading and disqualifying treatment towards a person, in order to psychologically destabilize him".
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The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) issued a report in the year 2021 in which it reflects data obtained from two large surveys carried out in 144 countries of the world.
Among the data provided by the work, it stands out that at least one in three students (32%) was a victim of bullying by their classmates.
Another interesting fact is that the most common type of bullying is physical. In this sense, 36% of those surveyed had a fight with a partner and 32,4% have been physically assaulted.
The exception to the above are Europe and North America, where psychological bullying is more common.
The reasons why they are harassed, explains Statista.com citing the report, it is the physical appearance. 15,3% of those consulted were harassed because of aspects of their body or face, 10,9% because of their race, nationality or skin color, and 4,6% because of their religion.
Venezuela against bullying
In Venezuela, in the year 2022, the Attorney General of the Republic, Tareck Williams Saab, introduced to the National Assembly the Bill to Prevent, Punish and Address School Bullying of Boys, Girls and Adolescents.
The legal instrument, which aims to develop protection programs, was approved in first discussion in April of that year in Parliament.
During 2022, according to figures presented by Saab, in Venezuela there were 371 cases related to bullying with 431 victims. For this scourge, 165 adolescents and 12 convicted were charged.
In Datos UN we wanted to know to what extent Venezuelans are victims of bullying.
That is why we carried out a survey through our social networks and our website latestnews.com.ve, from May 22 to Thursday May 25, in which 455 people participated.
The weighting factor was applied to the data obtained according to the demographic proportions extracted from the 2011 National Population and Housing Census. These are the results:
A fairly common phenomenon
We began by asking our audiecnai if they had ever been a victim of bullying and we obtained as a result that 62,25% responded in the affirmative.
In the case of the difference between men and women, we see that it is the gentlemen who have suffered the most from this scourge. 64,90% said yes, while in the females the affirmative answer reached 58,13%.
When we look at it by age group, we can see that the older the person, the less likely it is that they say they have suffered (or perhaps do not know) bullying.
The younger people are, the affirmative answers increase considerably. Among participants aged 15-30, the number of people who identify as victims of bullying reached 80,95%. In the group from 36 to 45 years the proportion reached 53,23%.
In the population between 46 and 60 years of age, the majority response was negative, with 52,20%. And in the segment of those over 60 years of age it was also 67,48%.
In primary and secondary
We asked those who chose the yes option in the previous question in which educational stage they suffered bullying. The answers here were divided, since 49,55% said that it was in secondary school while 49,35% chose the primary option.
Only 1,11% stated that they had suffered bullying during their time at the university.
Many times per week
We also wanted to know what the frequency of bullying was. 63,91% of those consulted chose the option of several times a week, while 21,93% assured that they were victims several times a month.
For 14,16% of those consulted, the harassment occurred daily.
Haunted by his personality
Like the Unesco survey, we wanted to see what were the reasons why our readers suffered bullying. A resounding 80,82% stated that the main reason was linked to their personality.
The sexual preference was the reason chosen by 10,22% of the participants and the economic position of 6,62%.
It is not observed that racism is a problem of bullying, because only 2,15% chose the option of skin color and 0,20% by nationality, so there is no evidence of xenophobia among schoolmates.
When we go to the difference between the sexes, we see some interesting data. 89% of women said the main reason was because of their personality. In second place was economic position (7,22%) and skin color (3,78%).
None said they were harassed at school because of sexual preference or nationality.
In men, the main reason was also personality (75,97%). But the second place was the sexual preference, chosen by 16,28% of the participants.
6,26% of the gentlemen stated that they were victims of bullying because of their economic position, 1,17% because of their skin color and 0,32% because of their nationality.
What type of harassment did you suffer?
Regarding the types of harassment they suffered, 45,22% chose verbal. In second place, 38,50% of those consulted left for the psychological or emotional harassment option and 13,68% for physical harassment.
Cyberbullying closes the batch, which was only chosen by 2,60%.
Looking at it by sex, women were more prone to psychological or emotional harassment, with 52,17%.
Their second biggest problem was verbal harassment, which affected 29,23%, physical harassment, 11,46%, and the rest suffered bullying via Internet.
In the case of men, we have that the main problem of 54,41% was verbal harassment. Psychological or emotional harassment affected 30,63% of those surveyed and 14,95% suffered physical harassment.
None stated that they had suffered from cyberbullying.
El bullying it is a serious problem
To those who answered negatively if they had been victims of bullying, we asked them if any family member had recently suffered from it. 24,75% said yes.
We also wanted to gauge the opinion of our readers on what the meaning of the bullying as a social problem. For 95,69%, it is a problem for society today.
As we already did with those who suffered bullying, we wanted to know the general opinion of the participants about the most accentuated type of bullying. Verbal harassment was the choice of 53,50% of those surveyed, while 25,77% chose psychological or emotional harassment.
13,40% of the participants preferred the option of physical harassment and 7,33% cyberbullying.
Who has more responsibility?
It was important to know the opinion of our respondents on who bears the main responsibility for mitigating or eradicating bullying. 57,27% stated that it is the parents or representatives who have it.
In second place were the school authorities (31,35%) and teachers and teachers was the choice of 11,37%.
New laws and training
Finally we wonder what should be done to eradicate this scourge. Opinions were again divided on when to prioritize.
28,94% of our respondents answered that new laws should be created on this matter and 28,66% said that parents and representatives should be trained.
The training in school bullying for students was the option of 16,84% and the presence of security agencies in educational institutions was chosen by 10,88%.
Finally, teacher training was in last place, being chosen by 7,83%.
As we can see, bullying is still a problem that is currently affecting the world. It is expected that the different campaigns, together with legal and training actions, can reverse this reality.
