One common theory that can be used to explore bullying as a social phenomenon is General Strain Theory. According to Patchin and Hinduja (2011), people who have a particular occurrence of stress in their lives have a higher susceptibility to participate in deviant behaviors, one of which is bullying. The theory holds that stressed children who are likely to feel anxiety, frustration, depression, and anger, among other feelings. When this happens, such children are likely to bully as a way of releasing their feelings of stress, anxiety, frustration, and depression. Bullying occurs among many people because of other feelings of strain. Therefore, bullying is a social occurrence that has a greater influence from other forms of deviant behaviors. This study shows that bullying is a social phenomenon related to other types of deviant behaviors.
Bullying is a deviant behavior associated with many social structural elements like class, race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomics, and political aspects. There are many other deviant behaviors, but bullying has a core relationship with almost all of them, in one way or another. For instance, charges of delinquency appear to be common with pupils who bully others unlike those who do not engage in bullying of any kind. Many forms of deviance that are linked to bullying include vandalism, shoplifting, dropping out of school, and truancy (Patchin & Hinduja, 2011).
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The general strain theory holds that bullying comes because of the negative feelings and emotions that find outlets with the existence of the deviant behaviors. For instance, a child who feels the pressure of having to engage in tedious school activities might feel frustrated. From this frustration, such a person might want to relieve such frustration by seeing other children as the source of the frustration. Amidst bullying, others drop out of school and even engaging in drug use. Other deviant behaviors necessitate likely bullying and become even more visible when bullying has occurred.
Reference
Patchin, J. W. & Hinduja, S. (2011). Traditional and nontraditional bullying among youth: A test of general strain theory. Youth and Society, 43 (2) , 727-751.
