Below are two discussions reply to both using at least apa in text reference with a minimum of  words each.

Discussion 1 

The act of bullying has seemingly always existed, but in this day and age it appears to be everywhere. Bullying used to just be mean or tough guys in school that took your lunch money. Today, bullying is virtually everywhere. Bullying can be physical abuse, emotional or verbal abuse, or completely online. Cyber bullying has been on the rise over the past twenty years with the inventions of smart phones and social media sites. It is much harder to avoid bullying these days as it can follow you on social media apps, chat forums, and even on games that children play online at home. 

 We often think about the effects of bullying on the victims of bullying, but I have never really thought about the effects of bullying on the perpetrators up until this point. I believe that it is more important to research and treat the perpetrators of bullying and their substance use than the victims. The reason I think this is because if we are able to understand bullying more, we can possibly prevent it from happening in the future. There also seems to be more correlation between substance use of bullies than of victims. According to Livingston et al. of Proximal Associations Among Bullying, Mood, and Substance Use: A Daily Report Study, “bully perpetration and pro-bullying attitudes predicted alcohol and cigarette use among high school students, while victimization did not” (p. 2, 2019). The text also goes on to say that adolescents have underdeveloped emotional regulatory skills which can cause them to have bad coping skills. These mal coping skills can lead to negative peer reactions such as bullying.  

In another study, An Exploration of the Link Between Bullying Perpetration and Substance Use: A Review of the Literature (2021) states that adverse family conditions are associated with a child’s bullying behavior. The bullying perpetrators may have learned these behaviors at home from their parents or guardians. When the child observes violence at home, whether physical or emotional, they may think that this is a normal way of interacting and in time develop low socioemotional skills which can contribute to substance use. It is important to research the causes of bullying behavior so that we can break the cycle of abuse and prevent substance use from developing. Prevention of bullying should seemingly start at home, with how parents interact with each other and their children.  

In the last study that I will discuss, Associations of Bullying and Cyberbullying with Substance Use and Sexual Risk Taking in Young Adults, Kritsotakis et al., studies the correlation of sexual risk taking in young adults that were victims of bullying. They note that victims of bullying are less likely to use condoms, possibly because they do not want to confront the other person due to low self-esteem caused by bullying in the past. They also go on to say that both perpetrators and victims of bullying are more likely to pay for sex. Sex work is the oldest profession, but it has been more normalized and easier to access over the past ten years with the rise of webcam models and Onlyfans. Of course, pornography addiction is a behavioral addiction and not a substance addiction so that is a discussion to be had in a different forum.  

There are clear, evidence-based signs of bullying behavior causing substance use in children and adolescents. People have been trying to prevent bullying in schools for years now. Maybe it is now time to focus on preventing bullying at home. These behaviors are learned behaviors. We must educate parents on how to interact with each other and with their children. I believe once we start raising more emotionally intelligent children, we will see a decrease in bullying behaviors.  

Discussion 2

Bullying is a significant problem in middle and high schools worldwide.  Approximately 20% of US Public School students in 2015 had reported being bullied (Livingston et al., 2018). The General Theory of Crime is that low self-control is a substantial part of a person's personality that starts in childhood. Identifying with others' feelings is responsible for a person's aggressive, impulsive, incentive, and self-centered behaviors. That causes one to seek gratification from bullying others (Filippone et al., 2020). The link between bullying and substance abuse is not only from low self-control; it can also be from low self-esteem and a way for a bully to seek a social status from their peers as being " cool " to others.

Also, there are two meaningful relationships that I feel should be researched to end the cycle of bullying and its effects on future substance abuse. It is to first start with the family. The framework of the family teaches children how to treat others and coping mechanisms to deal with specific issues that cause bullying and substance abuse. Also, to have a close parent relationship with your children means being able to talk openly and honestly with each other. To me, these are two essential resources to research to stop bullying and substance abuse before it starts.

Finally, evidence-based reasons show that substance abuse is a huge concern because of its potential consequences on adolescents' neurological and social development. According to Sharp et al. (2019), research has demonstrated the developmental impact of various types of adolescent use. For example, a study was conducted on the prolonged use of marijuana in adolescents under the age of 18 years old with neuropsychological decline in various levels of functions, including IQ, decline into adulthood. This is just one example of evidence-based research that was conducted.