WHA

Mental Health Kids/Teens

Published: October 1, 2024

Helping Parents Prevent Bullying

We’ve all seen (and probably felt) bullying in a number of ways. With the help of Optum, our mental health support partner, below are practical tips and resource links to help you and your family understand and help prevent bullying. 

Types of bullying

Bullying can take many forms, including:

  • Verbal – name-calling, taunting, mocking or insulting someone
  • Social – purposely excluding someone, spreading unkind rumors about them, or forcing them into humiliating and/or dangerous situations
  • Physical – shoving, pinching, hitting or kicking someone, as well as stealing or ruining their things
  • Sexual – making obscene gestures or comments about a person’s gender, body or actions
  • Cyberbullying – using email, text or social media to purposely embarrass or hurt another person

Bullies tend to target those they perceive to be different or weaker than them, such as physically, culturally, mentally or socially.

Ways to help prevent bullying

It’s important to foster self-esteem in your child, give them stress management tools and help them build resilience. These all begin with eating nutritious foods, being physically active, getting enough sleep, taking time to relax and making social connections.

If your child is different in some way from many of their peers, encourage them to meet and spend time with others who share their values and experiences. Having social connections gives people a support network, a sense of belonging and a confidence boost.

At the same time, it’s crucial to teach youth from an early age to respect others, including those who are different from them. Find opportunities to broaden their perspectives and gain experiences with diversity. For example, encourage them to talk to peers from different backgrounds, read books, watch movies, visit places like museums and try new foods.

Few youths report it when they are bullied. They may fear adults won’t help them or can’t help them. They may fear the bully will grow angrier and become even meaner. They also may doubt themselves. Encourage your child to speak up if they are being bullied or if someone else is being bullied.

Help your child understand the potential pitfalls of online communications, even with those they believe they can trust. Make sure they know messages, videos and posts on any digital platform can all be easily copied, saved and shared.

Consider how your own actions may influence your child. Do your best to role model kindness, compassion and respect toward others, including in everyday interactions.

Encourage your child's school, care facilities and extracurricular activity programs to establish clear anti-bullying policies and consequences. This helps create safe and welcoming environments for all youth.

For more resources, WHA’s mental health partner is Optum Behavioral Health. Visit mywha.org/bh for ways to get care if you/family needs support (or specifically, for kids/teen issues related to depression). Optum also provided a list a resources specific to bullying in support of October as Bullying Prevention Month: