Bullying victimisation and cybervictimisation can have negative consequences across different domains of children’s lives (Casper & Card, 2017; Gini et al., 2018; Gini & Pozzoli, 2013; Reijntjes et al., 2010) Examples include:

In sum, being bullied increases the likelihood of poor psychosocial adjustment, both in the short term (when bullying is occurring) and in the long term (later in life). As we have seen in the initial story “Danny often goes back home sad and anxious, he frequently suffers from headaches and stomach aches, and lately he has no interest in going out and having fun”.

Like Danny, other children may consider escaping bullying by withdrawing from social interactions, changing school or dropping out and, in extreme cases, enacting self-harming behaviours or attempting suicide.

According to Flavia, a victim of bullying and cyberbullying: “Too much suffering, too much pain, one attached to the other like the carriages of a train. In that period I began to loose lucidity and in moments of maximum despair, to doubt myself, my ideals and my worth… The enemy was invisible, hidden behind cell phone keyboards, in the corridors of the school or in the streets in my neighbourhood. Cruel teasing… was on the agenda…and then I thought that isolation was the only possible solution.”