Name-Calling Has Negative Effects on Children Most people underestimate the stress and anguish that teasing and name-calling cause children. Teasing and name-calling are types of social interactions and when children use them in a playful manner enhance interaction and communication between children. However, when name-calling is used in a hurtful way, the self-confidence of many children will be eroded and they may be discouraged to attend school. Children who like teasing and name-calling other children typically view their comments as mild but the perceptions of their victims may differ. Name-Calling and teasing is very common among young children who like teasing others and saying silly comments and names. However, those children having older siblings at home may be exposed to name-calling at an earlier age than children without siblings. In most cases children may not know the effects of name-calling and hurting others in the process may not be deliberate. Name-calling may cause irreparable psychological harm causing depression, low-self-confidence, violence, and difficulty in maintaining relationships. Name-calling and teasing may cause depression in a child. Post-traumatic stress is an anxiety disorder that can occur after a child have been exposed to a frightening ordeal or event. Some children are not that tough to deal with the name-calling situation and they may feel that they that they are worthless than the other children. Their psychological health mat deteriorate especially because of such factors like insomnia, depression, and anxiety. When they are among other children they may feel inferior and they may not even participate in games, sports, or any other event with other children for fear of being harassed. Additionally, depression may occur because victims may feel helpless and lack control over their feelings and actions. Ultimately the victims may become withdrawn due to fear of being called humiliating names and this in turn can lead to anti-social behavior (Ashford and Craig 347). In most cases the victims of name-calling may grow up thinking that power and control is in the hands of bullies who call them names and in the process they may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. The children will continue feeling degraded and may be in no position to make major decisions in their life because of the lack of self-worth. Name-calling can have devastating effects as far as self-confidence is concerned. For example, when a child labels another as a “jerk,” the victim may end up believing that he is a jerk for the rest of his or her life. Growing with such a label in mind among a peer group can be very degrading. In most cases, name-calling lowers the self-esteem of the child and this can have detrimental effects in the overall life of the child and this may even affect future career progression. Name-calling often leads the victims to take on the names as reality. As a result of that they begin doing an internal criticism where they criticize themselves instead(Watchler 43). Even when they make a mistake they may attribute it to the name. For example, when a child is constantly called a “loser” by the other children, and then he or she makes a mistake, their internal voice will learn to call them a loser as well. The main problem with this internal voice is that it lowers the child’s self-esteem and self-confidence and it is very difficult to switch off. The voice is not objective and may make the child to despair in life and lose interest in the most important events in life. In some cases, some children may act on their anger and lash out in a physical way after they have been called a name. In fact many hate crimes that happen among children begin with name-calling. It is a very dangerous thing for a parent or a teacher to ignore name-calling especially if the child is not happy about it and is constantly complaining. This is because the victim may end up being a bully because this is the only way he or she believes can deal with the humiliating name-calling ordeals. When children call others names, they ensure that they do it in front of the other children and this is done to encourage the others to view the victim as the word associated with the name (Watchler 42). As a result of this, some children may feel a lot of anger and rage and the only way they may decide to end the humiliating ordeal is through acts of violence. If this continues for a while, the victim child may feel in control may decide to bully others in order to prove to the others that he or she is not what the others are trying to call him. Growing up being a bully may eventually lead the growing child to engage in other serious crimes. Name-calling can easily break strong relationships among children. A good example of this is in a family situation where siblings call each other names. This may end up causing sibling rivalry leading to dysfunctional relationships in the family. In fact, this may continue to cause strong enmity among the siblings even after they become adults. Envy is among the reasons as to why children call others names. When a parent or a teacher shows favoritism of one child, the others may feel jealous or not loved and hence this may spur hatred among children. This can serve to break relationships among best friends, classmates, and siblings. In this case name-calling will be sued by some children as a form of a defense mechanism whenever they meet with other children. Such victim children may find it difficult to trust other people and therefore may resolve issues using improper methods such as violence or becoming withdrawn. With such poor integration and socializing skills, such children may end up being anti-social individuals (Vitaliand Adam 7). If they had friends they break off the relationship because they feel that they are not worth anything. Such anti-social behavior may affect the child even in future life, making the child unable to maintain any meaningful relationships. In conclusion, name-calling especially when used in a hurtful way may lead to devastating effects on the victims. Those children who call others names may not know that they are causing others harm and therefore it is upon the caregivers to warn children on the effects of teasing and calling others names. There are various negative effects of name-calling including depression, dysfunctional relationships, low self-confidence, and violence. Some of the effects may become long-term to some children making them unable to deal or cope with certain situations even in the future. Psychological harm is a very dangerous thing as it is very difficult to treat. Children growing up knowing that they are unworthy may have problems interacting with other people making them feel depressed, unable to maintain relationships, while others may resolve to using violence to solve even minor problems. Works Cited