How Do You Know When Your Student Or Child Is Being Victimized and How Can You Help

Despite the relative safety of school compared with neighborhoods and homes where adult supervision may be lacking, research suggests that school violence remains a significant problem. For example, in a large school-based investigation,  it was found that as many as 44% of the study participants had been personally victimized by their peers, and more than half of the sample had witnessed their peers being victimized (1). Remarkably, school personnel are either insufficiently aware of or inattentive to the degree to which students are victimized. Our hope is that as adults better recognize and understand the impact of victimization, their commitment towards reducing and, ultimately, eliminating such experiences will increase exponentially.

What Is Victimization

We define victimization as involuntary, direct or indirect, personal exposure to acts of violence that significantly heighten feelings of vulnerability and lower feelings of personal safety. As such, victimization not only includes personal attacks (i.e., direct victimization), but also includes witnessing others being victimized (i.e., indirect victimization). School victimization encompasses a broad array of situations ranging from verbal harassment and threats, social isolation, being the target of rumors, being chased or hit, to being threatened with a knife or gun, getting wounded or raped. The following sections will address the general effects of all forms of victimization in the school setting.

Signs Of Victimization

Parents and school staff must be able to recognize some common signs of victimization, especially considering that many youth feel disrespected by authority figures and may not disclose violent incidents because of feelings of distrust and a lack of confidence that adults can or will do their best to protect them from harm (2).

Students who are personally victimized may experience such symptoms as depression, anxiety, safety concerns, sadness, aggression, academic issues, low self-esteem, deficits in peer relations, and substance use (3).

Adults should also be aware of other possible warning signs of school victimization:

1. Numerous lost belongings
2. Frequent injuries or damage to clothes or property
3. Spends time primarily with younger students (may indicate a problem with peers)
4. Avoids recess (i.e., playground) before, during and/or after school
5. Arrives to school late or just at the starting bell
6. Appears to be alone most of the time at school
7. Obtains an excessive or insufficient amount of sleep
8. Somatic complaints (i.e., headaches, stomachaches, etc.)

Though a few of the aforementioned items only apply to direct victimization (i.e., 1 and 2), the majority of the items also extend to youth who have been indirectly victimized, including those who witness victimization of their peers. For example, students who witness violence may begin to take precautions such as avoiding recess to prevent a personal attack or further exposure. Although witnessing school violence generally gets less attention in the literature, some findings indicate that witnessing violence may be just as damaging for exposed youth. In a large sample of low to middle class 3^rd-12^th grade students, youth who were personally victimized or witnessed violence at a higher rate than their peers experienced more psychological distress (i.e., depression, anxiety, and anger) and low-violent behaviors (i.e., threatening others, physical retaliation, initiating physical fights) (1).