
Bullying is currently one of the most pressing issues in Lithuania, especially in school. According to the World Health Organization, Lithuania has the highest prevalence of bullying among pupils comparing to other 43 European countries.
School must be a safety island for a child. Unfortunately, reality differs. Aggression in schools is a problem in many countries around the world. Bullying is a relationship problem in which power and aggression are used to cause distress to a vulnerable person. The World Health Organization`s survey shows that in Lithuania 11 years old children are the most bullied and 15 years old children are the ones who bully the most. Also a higher percentage of boys (36%) reported being bullied than girls (32%) and higher percentage of boys (40%) than girls (28%) report that they have bullied others.
The bullying in schools can manifest in many different ways, for example:
- Beating, bad gesturing.
- Verbal attacks, intimidation.
- The destruction of personal belongings,
- Sexual harassment.
- Ignorance, isolation from group.
- Child`s personal trait (temperament, traumatic experience)
- Child`s family trait (strict education or no education in family, aggressive behaviour in family, violence, etc.)
- School`s psychological surroundings (competition, depersonalization, focusing on results instead of relationships).
- Bad education systems.
- Violence in television and internet.