Chapter 14:
School Violence and Bullying
Bullying basics
Bullying can have many negative long-term adjustment problems affecting physical and mental health (for bullies and victims).
Relationship aggression is another form - manipulating relationships in a way to purposely hurt someone else.
No statistical relationship between bullying behavior and degree of trauma experienced.
Bullying behaviors
physical attacks
indirect or subtle bullying - social ostracism or friendship interference
verbal
Types of bullying participants
Bullying status can change over time.
bully-victims or provocative victims -
students who experience harassment and
pick on others
passive victims - victims only
aggressive bullies - bully only
Prevalence research varies by definitions and research methods.
According to a 2001 study by Nansel and colleagues,
13% of U.S. students identified as aggressive bullies,
11% as passive victims, and another 6% as bully-victims.
Bullying peaks during the middle-school years.
Bullying is "the purposeful infliction of psychological
or physical pain on one individual by another
or by a group.
Perpetrators are physically or psychologically
more powerful than victims.
Bullying and violence
Educators must have cross-cultural knowledge
and understand families in school community.
This can help in promoting inclusive
school-parent partnerships.
Families can also contribute to this.
Permissiveness for sibling attacks
Parenting in a cold or overly hostile manner
Tolerating or encouraging domestic violence
Failure to solve or intervene with low-level
interpersonal violence at schools can increase
risk for serious problems.
Bullying in school increases risk for more
serious forms on violence.
School Violence
Factors predictive of rates of school violence
Easy availability of weapons
Gang membership
Drug and alcohol abuse
Discipline problems: bullying and harassment
Dropping out: literally and symbolically
Students may be up to 10 times safer
in school than anywhere else in our society.
Solutions to bullying
Advice to educators
Use of one of the many widespread bullying prevention and treatment programs available.
Teach media analysis lessons and critical thinking regarding technology use.
Important to help establish parent training and support models.
Believe and support parents of bullied children.
View this information from a strengths-based perspective.
Need to be aware of the child-rearing patterns of the student's caregivers.
Understand that students' role in bullying oftgen related to overall tone of parent-child interactions.
Olweus Bullying Prevention Program
Individual level
Intensive social skils instruction
Friendship-making and assertive skills training for those at risk to be victims
Anger management for bullies
Counseling
Classroom level
Social skills instruction including role playing, classroom meetings, and instructive readings.
Authoritative discipline works best.
Instruction on classroom rules and expectations.
Classroom rules against bullying very clear.
School level
School mediation program
Large-scale assemblies about anti-bullying.
Increased supervision during lunch, hallway, and recess.
Collect data on school climate.
Family interaction patterns that affect bullying and victimization of children
Other factors for role in bullying include: individual temperament, results of first experiments with bullying, and resilience.
All the roles can come from any of these parental styles.
Parental coercion
Their children learn to approach relationships aggressively.
Coercion includes "direct verbal attacks, bossiness, sarcasm, and power-assertive discipline."
Heated physical and verbal violence in the home.
Most often predicts bullying behavior.
Parental overcontrol
Children of these parents lose confidence in the validity of their emotions.
Children's feelings are invalidated.
Intrusive-overprotective parenting
Children of these parents often don't get to learn conflict-resolution, negoationa and other social skills.
Receive so much protection at home that cannot tolerate other children's rough behaviors.
Generally associated with victimization status.
Cyberbullying
Participating in online media a big part of life now; more markeing to young children and parents regarding technology, too.
New frontier with regards to court cases protecting Internet users.
Online etiquette is not firmly set into society yet,
making this a hard problem to tackle.
Parents need to be aware of the terminology and uses of the Internet and other technology.
Families should contracts with children to specify expectations for use of electronic communication media.
Caregivers need to teach expectations for online behavior and safety.
Risk factors for cyberbullying
Females experience cyberbullying more frequently
Combination with face-to-face conflicts
Posting or sending personal information
manipulating one's identity
Lack of parental supervision
The more time spent online
Depersonalization of electronic media - lack of inhibition for agression that might be present if face-face situation.
Faking - lying about one's age
Bullies often use masquerading - pretend to be someone else
Cyberbullying is repeated harassment of individuals
using indirect or electronic means.
Sexting - peers distribute photos or videos of people
participating in sexual acts.
Occurs mostly with text messaging, chat rooms, email, and websites.
