Importance of No Bully Portugal
+ 30% of children are bullied and + 30% of children bully others.
In Portugal, 1 in 3 young people aged 13 to 15 are bullied*, more than in northern Europe, or in our Spanish and Italian neighbors
The impacts of bullying on schools are often painful and costly:
- To targets, it causes problems such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance abuse and suicide;
For bullies, it creates the risk of absenteeism, drug abuse, criminality and extreme violence;
Spends time with school staff resolving conflicts and imposing punishments;
Increases suspensions and expulsions;
Leads parents to change their children's schools:
The achievement and the school environment deteriorate;
It is also associated with the phenomenon:
- Domestic and workplace violence is directly associated with bullying
Decreases self-confidence and empathy essential for professional success
And, the danger of bullying has expanded to digital platforms in what is now known as Cyberbyullying.
Cyberbullying creates an inescapable environment for young people by assuming a behavior of aggression, threat, intimidation or other interaction to cause pain, shame, fear and/or discomfort, resorting to the Internet or other channels to exercise this behavior, affecting young people even out of school. In fact, the Study "Cyberbullying in Portugal during the covid-19 pandemic" (2020) showed that 61.4% of young people (ages between 16 and 34 years old) were victims of cyberbullying, in the three months that the teaching lasted from a distance during the pandemic.
(*) - 2009 questionnaire sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) on attitudes and behaviors of young people related to health ("Health Behavior in School-Aged Children") concluded that the percentage of adolescents in Portugal aged between 11 and 15 years who reported bullying others at school at least once in the previous two months is greater than 30 percent.