Due to the dramatic increase of rates of bullying occuring in schools, many programs have been put in place to show the necessary and appropriate actions of what you should do if you are being victimized. These programs help spread awareness and can even deter bullying. However, what most programs dont show is what to do when bullying occurs in the comfort of your own home.
With cyber bullying on the rise, this technological based form of harassment can occur at anytime and anywhere. Research performed by Christine Suniti Bhat provides an in depth analysis of the term cyber bullying. Many real life examples are provided to create an understanding of exactly how devastating cyber bullying is. Bhat includes studies recently performed in Australia that describe how one in six school children are bullied by their peers. With over 1 billion daily internet users, its no surprise that cyber bullying has become one of the most common forms of bullying. This problem and the risks it poses (psychological effects, suicide) has escalated to what is now being deemed as a 'moral panic'.
Studies show that over 50% of all cyber bullies participate in this type of activity because of the lack of future consequences. This lack of consequence has led to numerous suicides in the past years. Governmental institutions and communities have come together in the hopes of eliminating this dangerous threat.
The strategies posed by Bhat states that schools and parents should inform the kids on the dangers of cyber bullying as well as be aware of what the kids do on the internet (monitor).
Students should participate in programs such as iSafe, a program which expertly describes cyber bullying and its numerous problems linked to it. Bhat stresses how being educated on the topic is one of the most important aspects to eliminating the threat.
These few strategies could serve crucial in the elimination of cyber bullying. Due to the amount of technology students have access to it is probably that the form of bullying will continue, however being educated and aware of the risks that cyber bullying pose could in fact save lives.
Check out the article: http://www.recoveryonpurpose.com/upload/Cyberbullying%20Overview%20and%20Strategies%20Australia.pdf
Trent S.
Monday, 2 December 2013
Saturday, 30 November 2013
Ten Universal Truths About Bullying!
This article talks, and explains 10 truths behind community violence involving bullying, and outlines how it is vital that the community as a whole needs to be very influential and active in children's lives. Every paragraph discusses one issue and talks about how the truth plays a role in influencing a children.
The ten truths are as follows:
In order to counteract the effects of community violence, the article suggest that we take a psychoanalytical approach model towards cross-culture intervention in schools. In doing so, it will create safer atmospheres for the children in the schools and also it will create better settled schools. Hopefully, this will result in less community violence among children, thus less bullying would occur. If parents and teachers can show children and biologically program students how to better behave, than there will much less bullying and violence our society. This article suggest a way to fix community violence, but you could take this approach and apply it to a much vaster audience. For example, (5) suggest children become targets when adults deny problems. If you take that approach, a child will more likely become antisocial when he/she grows up, because childhood abuse can lead to antisocial personality disorder. Also another outlook of (5) is that when elders/powerful/strong/etc... get angry they tend to take it out on people younger/less powerful/weaker/etc... Thus creating a ying and yang or binary relationship that continues to be passed on through generations in relation to truths (1), (2), (3), (4) and (5).
Every truth can be related to a much larger issue other than just bullying, but the underlying meaning is that it starts with each and every person to do his/her part in order to raise their child(ren) the best the can regardless of their circumstances, thus creating a completely and utterly better environment for the child, which is create a better community resulting in less violence.
Ryan L.
Find out for yourself at:
Wednesday, 27 November 2013
This article by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), it brings a couple of interesting statistics, definitions and prevention ideas regarding the close link with suicide and bullying.
It claims that suicide is the third leading cause of death for young people ages 12-18. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, 2007). It also says that in a typical 12-month period, 14% of American high school students seriously consider suicide, around 11% make plans and 6.3% actually attempt to kill themselves as of results of household problems and bullying at school. (CDC, 2010)
As of bullying itself, 32% of the students ages 12-18 reported being bullied during the years 2008-2009. Of these students, 21% said they were bullied once to twice a month; 10% reported being bullied once or twice a week and 7% reported being bullied daily. Around 9% reported being physically injured as a result of bullying. (Dinkes, Kemp, & Baum, 2009)
The study also explains that victims, perpetrators and those who are bully victims all three have more chances of being more depressive and, therefore, suicidal, as depression is extremely tightly linked with suicidal tendencies or ideas. Those who are more likely to be bullied have certain personal characteristics : internalization problems (withdrawal / anxiety/depression), low self-esteem, low assertiveness and aggressiveness in early childhood (by either peers or relatives & leads to social isolation and possible projection on fellows). Interestingly enough, it also explains that, usually, it is the suicidal kids who have a tendency to be even more bullied, increasing the chances for those to commit suicide. Child maltreatment, domestic violence and parental depression and all causes that pushes kids towards a more depressive state of mind and ideology. Also, as school lack adequate adult supervision (which can be a result of the physical layout of a school), bullies feel like they have more power in certain parts of the school, where they can bully without fear of being caught by an authoritative figure.
It also puts a great importance on the LGBT youth, as they are seen as overly deviant to the other kids, therefore more prone to being bullied. Some statistics included : "A 2005 survey of students ages 13–18 found that 65 percent reported being verbally or physically harassed or physically assaulted over the past year because of “their perceived or actual appearance, gender, sexual orientation, gender expression, race/ethnicity, disability, or religion.” In contrast, 90 percent of LGBT teens reported being verbally or physically harassed or assaulted based on one or more of these characteristics (Harris Interactive & Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, 2005)."
In conclusion, this organism recommends to :
It claims that suicide is the third leading cause of death for young people ages 12-18. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, 2007). It also says that in a typical 12-month period, 14% of American high school students seriously consider suicide, around 11% make plans and 6.3% actually attempt to kill themselves as of results of household problems and bullying at school. (CDC, 2010)
As of bullying itself, 32% of the students ages 12-18 reported being bullied during the years 2008-2009. Of these students, 21% said they were bullied once to twice a month; 10% reported being bullied once or twice a week and 7% reported being bullied daily. Around 9% reported being physically injured as a result of bullying. (Dinkes, Kemp, & Baum, 2009)
The study also explains that victims, perpetrators and those who are bully victims all three have more chances of being more depressive and, therefore, suicidal, as depression is extremely tightly linked with suicidal tendencies or ideas. Those who are more likely to be bullied have certain personal characteristics : internalization problems (withdrawal / anxiety/depression), low self-esteem, low assertiveness and aggressiveness in early childhood (by either peers or relatives & leads to social isolation and possible projection on fellows). Interestingly enough, it also explains that, usually, it is the suicidal kids who have a tendency to be even more bullied, increasing the chances for those to commit suicide. Child maltreatment, domestic violence and parental depression and all causes that pushes kids towards a more depressive state of mind and ideology. Also, as school lack adequate adult supervision (which can be a result of the physical layout of a school), bullies feel like they have more power in certain parts of the school, where they can bully without fear of being caught by an authoritative figure.
It also puts a great importance on the LGBT youth, as they are seen as overly deviant to the other kids, therefore more prone to being bullied. Some statistics included : "A 2005 survey of students ages 13–18 found that 65 percent reported being verbally or physically harassed or physically assaulted over the past year because of “their perceived or actual appearance, gender, sexual orientation, gender expression, race/ethnicity, disability, or religion.” In contrast, 90 percent of LGBT teens reported being verbally or physically harassed or assaulted based on one or more of these characteristics (Harris Interactive & Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, 2005)."
In conclusion, this organism recommends to :
- Start prevention early, so that younger kids have a way to counter bullies and also counter warning signs of suicide, especially when they are evident (when entering adolescence)
- Keep up with technology, which means that we should keep an idea at what happens online and keep in mind that it is a place where bullies can be as powerful as they see fit, therefore contributing to their delusion of grandeur and immunity.
- Keep in mind that LGBT have an habit of being targeted as immediately as they are spotted in society, especially in school. When they do not conform to gender roles and expectations, they have an increased risk towards both bullying victimization and suicidal behaviour, it is important to keep a certain mind on this problem.
- Using a comprehensive approach in order to reduce the risks of bullying and suicide. Therefore, empathy needs to prevail in order to understand what they are going through.
- We need to focus on young people, during the phase where the seeds of bullying are planted.
If you want to read more, you can see or download this document here.
Nicolas Q.
Studies of bullying
This article is an article that has been analysing studies made throughout the years and try to put a defined conclusion and those findings.
This article depicts that there are three types of people affected by bullying in school: the bullies, the victims and the bully victims. While "bully victims" is a term that has been used in some of our previous posts, it is interesting to see it used in a scholarly article, as it is very often something that most people do not take into consideration, the fact that some kids become bullies after having been victims for a long time. It could be seen as social learning from others, even though it is learned the wrong way. In the article, they claim that 10 to 30% of kids are involved in some forms of bullying, but it also admits that this changes from research to research, as backgrounds, school pedagogical help and states/provinces have a lot to do with the amount of bullying that is done in schools.
This article sums up bullying in a pretty neat way : "Bullying has been conceptualized as a distinct type of aggression characterized by a repeated and systematic abuse of power (Olweus, 1999; P.K Smith & Sharp, 1994). In addition to acts of deliberate physical aggression, bullying also includes verbal aggression (e.g. name calling and threats), relational aggression (e.g., social isolation and rumor spreading), and cyber-aggression (e.g.s, text messaging and e-mailing hurtful messages or images), a new venue for inflicting harm in an increasingly electronic youth culture (Williams & Guerra, 2007).". While this is an explanation that is rather thorough, the authors also claim that victims of bullying often suffer long-term psychological problems, which can go from diminishing self-esteem, suicidal ideas, or even attempts, problems with relationships and problems at concentrating at school, or sometimes dropping out, as well.
The article claims that intervention programs that try to prevent or mitigate bullying have not seen much important impact, as "the improvement appears to be in changing children's knowledge and perceptions, not bullying behaviour.". Therefore, it is pretty much comparable to smokers who know that smoking is terrible for yourself, or others, but keep doing it as the behaviour, habits, have not been changed, but only the conscience that it should.
In the end, out of 1622 articles that were found by the authors, only 153 articles were analysed thoroughly with independent sample, therefore unbiased, and represented valid statistics for the authors to make the conclusions that were explained above. One of the most important findings they have made is that bullies usually have worse grades than the victims, which seem to have a tendency at better academic performance. As of bully victims, they have been analysed and the conclusion claims that they are closer to bullies than victims when it comes to academic performance, most likely as they have been "transformed" by years of being bullied, focusing more on the externalization of information, rather than internalization.
If you want to read more, you can do so here.
Nicolas Q.
This article depicts that there are three types of people affected by bullying in school: the bullies, the victims and the bully victims. While "bully victims" is a term that has been used in some of our previous posts, it is interesting to see it used in a scholarly article, as it is very often something that most people do not take into consideration, the fact that some kids become bullies after having been victims for a long time. It could be seen as social learning from others, even though it is learned the wrong way. In the article, they claim that 10 to 30% of kids are involved in some forms of bullying, but it also admits that this changes from research to research, as backgrounds, school pedagogical help and states/provinces have a lot to do with the amount of bullying that is done in schools.
This article sums up bullying in a pretty neat way : "Bullying has been conceptualized as a distinct type of aggression characterized by a repeated and systematic abuse of power (Olweus, 1999; P.K Smith & Sharp, 1994). In addition to acts of deliberate physical aggression, bullying also includes verbal aggression (e.g. name calling and threats), relational aggression (e.g., social isolation and rumor spreading), and cyber-aggression (e.g.s, text messaging and e-mailing hurtful messages or images), a new venue for inflicting harm in an increasingly electronic youth culture (Williams & Guerra, 2007).". While this is an explanation that is rather thorough, the authors also claim that victims of bullying often suffer long-term psychological problems, which can go from diminishing self-esteem, suicidal ideas, or even attempts, problems with relationships and problems at concentrating at school, or sometimes dropping out, as well.
The article claims that intervention programs that try to prevent or mitigate bullying have not seen much important impact, as "the improvement appears to be in changing children's knowledge and perceptions, not bullying behaviour.". Therefore, it is pretty much comparable to smokers who know that smoking is terrible for yourself, or others, but keep doing it as the behaviour, habits, have not been changed, but only the conscience that it should.
In the end, out of 1622 articles that were found by the authors, only 153 articles were analysed thoroughly with independent sample, therefore unbiased, and represented valid statistics for the authors to make the conclusions that were explained above. One of the most important findings they have made is that bullies usually have worse grades than the victims, which seem to have a tendency at better academic performance. As of bully victims, they have been analysed and the conclusion claims that they are closer to bullies than victims when it comes to academic performance, most likely as they have been "transformed" by years of being bullied, focusing more on the externalization of information, rather than internalization.
If you want to read more, you can do so here.
Nicolas Q.
Tuesday, 26 November 2013
Teacher Attitudes Towards Bullying
This article talks about how teacher's have different attitudes with regards to the different types of bullying and how important each type is. The three bullying types that were looked at in this study were, verbal, physical and relational. 405 elementary school teachers were studied to see how each individually, had a different attitude towards the various forms of bullying and concluded that the most looked at and sought out form of bullying was verbal. Teachers were more likely to intervene when the bullying was either physical or verbal. With regards to relational bullying, it is when students are socially excluded from peer groups, and teachers don't intervene as much as they should. Teachers were more empathetic with regards to verbal and physical bullying, than relational, and this could be do to the fact that they bear witness to these forms more often, or maybe just because intervening is easier. Is it a lack of empathy on the teacher's part? Or is it because teachers don't know how to deal with relational bullying? Teachers are seen as the leaders of our schools, and as part of the educational community, they are there to teach us and aid us in life, but how are students suppose to do so when they are being bullied?
Depending on the gender, the results of the findings varied and the most highly repeated intervention action, was a talk with the bully, and informing them on what victimization is and the effects of victimization. But in elementary schools, do kids actually understand what they are doing wrong and understand that it is hurting or damaging another students life? Just how much will students in elementary school trust and listen to the teacher when they talk to them and not take for granted what the teacher said. They are young, and sometimes are unable to know the differences between right and wrong therefore there must be another way other than having a serious talk to a bullying, to explain to them how they are affecting some poor child's life.
The study concluded that, teachers need to be better informed with regards to how to deal with bullying as similarly mentioned in my last post. Teachers feel that they need to have more knowledge on the effects and consequences of bullying, and better practiced in intervention if they wish to make a difference. Trent talks about bullying prevention programs and concluded that the "more time and dedication put into their program, the less bullying occurred. All programs have one specific purpose: to counter bullying. However, not all programs are followed through with. Once they are introduced they tend to be forgotten about."
Thus in order to prevent bullying, teachers need to be better educated in prevention tactics and need to enforce them more. They are the leaders of the educational community for our children, thus the way bullying is going to be solved starts with them!
Ryan L.
Read More:
http://psycnet.apa.org.www.ubishops.ca:2048/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&id=97069EDE-D0E0-D60F-9C2B-BAE79C7E5E3B&resultID=2&page=1&dbTab=all&search=true
Depending on the gender, the results of the findings varied and the most highly repeated intervention action, was a talk with the bully, and informing them on what victimization is and the effects of victimization. But in elementary schools, do kids actually understand what they are doing wrong and understand that it is hurting or damaging another students life? Just how much will students in elementary school trust and listen to the teacher when they talk to them and not take for granted what the teacher said. They are young, and sometimes are unable to know the differences between right and wrong therefore there must be another way other than having a serious talk to a bullying, to explain to them how they are affecting some poor child's life.
The study concluded that, teachers need to be better informed with regards to how to deal with bullying as similarly mentioned in my last post. Teachers feel that they need to have more knowledge on the effects and consequences of bullying, and better practiced in intervention if they wish to make a difference. Trent talks about bullying prevention programs and concluded that the "more time and dedication put into their program, the less bullying occurred. All programs have one specific purpose: to counter bullying. However, not all programs are followed through with. Once they are introduced they tend to be forgotten about."
Thus in order to prevent bullying, teachers need to be better educated in prevention tactics and need to enforce them more. They are the leaders of the educational community for our children, thus the way bullying is going to be solved starts with them!
Ryan L.
Read More:
http://psycnet.apa.org.www.ubishops.ca:2048/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&id=97069EDE-D0E0-D60F-9C2B-BAE79C7E5E3B&resultID=2&page=1&dbTab=all&search=true
Monday, 25 November 2013
Teacher's and Educational Support Professionals
This article talks about how National Education Association performed a study with its members, teachers and educational support professionals, in order to try and figure out what their perceptions of bullying were and what they could do to try and reduce it. Some of its findings included that teachers are more likely to witness bullying at their school, more likely for students to come to them to report the bullying thus making them more likely to notice how much of a problem bullying really is. The study was conducted on 2,163 teachers and 2,901 educational professionals. Among all of these included in the survey, teachers were more active in bulling policies, but yet both teachers and educational support professionals wanted to have more training that involved seeking out and helping students that have been bullied and to become more knowledgeable with regards to cyber-bullying.
There are many different reasons behind bullying that teachers bear witness to, such as bullying do to a stigma, sexual orientation, issues involving gender, racism, and ethnicity. The teachers in this study, realized that they needed to be better informed on how to prevent bullying to actually make any impact what so ever to the bullying phenomenon.
Also, it's hard for the researchers understand the prevalence and significance of bullying in a school, when members of the school, staff, teachers, and professionals, don't all have the same perception of bullying. Some staff members feel that they have effective intervention programs and would intervene if they saw a student being bullied, yet at the same time, students don't always report being bullied to faculty but rather report it to friends or family members, making it even harder for teachers to be effective at all.
In this study, they hypothesis that both teachers and ESP (Educational Support Professionals) would have less training and ability to prevent newer variations of bullying, and would require training in order to familiarize themselves with the technology behind it. Phenomenons such as cyber-bullying and sexting, they would be unfamiliar with, and would need proper training to intervene.
To conclude, this rather lengthy article of a study done on the perceptions of Teachers and ESP's, is basically denoting the fact that our teachers and ESP's need to be better trained and seek more training and advanced training with regards to bullying in its many forms. In order to prevent bullying we must all have a common perception of it, to be truly efficient in our desires to completely remove bullying from our society.
Ryan Lowry
More at!
http://web.ebscohost.com.www.ubishops.ca:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=4278cd24-d125-456e-afbe-7b6bc8852a1c%40sessionmgr10&vid=6&hid=1
There are many different reasons behind bullying that teachers bear witness to, such as bullying do to a stigma, sexual orientation, issues involving gender, racism, and ethnicity. The teachers in this study, realized that they needed to be better informed on how to prevent bullying to actually make any impact what so ever to the bullying phenomenon.
Also, it's hard for the researchers understand the prevalence and significance of bullying in a school, when members of the school, staff, teachers, and professionals, don't all have the same perception of bullying. Some staff members feel that they have effective intervention programs and would intervene if they saw a student being bullied, yet at the same time, students don't always report being bullied to faculty but rather report it to friends or family members, making it even harder for teachers to be effective at all.
In this study, they hypothesis that both teachers and ESP (Educational Support Professionals) would have less training and ability to prevent newer variations of bullying, and would require training in order to familiarize themselves with the technology behind it. Phenomenons such as cyber-bullying and sexting, they would be unfamiliar with, and would need proper training to intervene.
To conclude, this rather lengthy article of a study done on the perceptions of Teachers and ESP's, is basically denoting the fact that our teachers and ESP's need to be better trained and seek more training and advanced training with regards to bullying in its many forms. In order to prevent bullying we must all have a common perception of it, to be truly efficient in our desires to completely remove bullying from our society.
Ryan Lowry
More at!
http://web.ebscohost.com.www.ubishops.ca:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=4278cd24-d125-456e-afbe-7b6bc8852a1c%40sessionmgr10&vid=6&hid=1
Friday, 22 November 2013
Ingredients of Effective Programs
This post will show similarities to my last post 'Evaluation of an Anti-Bullying Program'. Rather than evaluate a program, this article talks about what is needed to create a successful program.
This 25 page article written by the Canadian Society for the Study of Education gives a detailed description of the origins of bullying, how it varies from gender (boys are more aggressive physically, girls are more verbal), as well as the impact it has in schools. Due to the amount of speculation and suicide the media has touched on, bullying has become a moral panic in society. Although not all bullying can be stopped, government and its institutions (primarily schools) have begun to create programs that help counter bullying. But are these programs effective? This article relates to the 'ingredients' that are needed to have an effective program.
A survey was sent to principles of over 90 schools, about 9 pages long and 20-30 minutes in length. This survey's main purpose was to show the different tactics/programs these schools use to combat bullying, along with the characteristics of the school and student body and how prominent bullying was inside the school. Once all surveys were returned, the researchers were able to contrast all the schools and decipher reasons why certain schools performed better than the rest.
This was the basic of the researchers findings:
-The 'Needs' component showed the amount of indirect and direct bullying, the seriousness of it, as well as any changes in the past years. Generally, schools who had higher amounts of bullying had a lower percentage in change in the past years (if any at all).
-The 'Resources' applied by certain schools. Schools who had more anti-bullying programs as well as program funding had a lower amount of bullying that occurred in the school.
-Schools who had regular 'Activities' such as class-based discussions, anti-bullying committee, or peer-led interventions, had a lower amount of bullying.
-These components had an impact on the 'Outputs' and 'Outcome', which groups were targeted, the school atmosphere, and the impact of the programs put in place.
Researchers concluded that the more time and dedication put into their program, the less bullying occurred. All programs have one specific purpose: to counter bullying. However, not all programs are followed through with. Once they are introduced they tend to be forgotten about. One of the key aspects to a bully-free atmosphere is to make sure that the program is apparent across the school. Ways to keep these programs alive are to include activities among the student population. The more students participate-the more aware they are of the consequences of bullying-the less bullying occurs.
Here's the article:
http://www.jstor.org.www.ubishops.ca:2048/stable/pdfplus/4126453.pdf?&acceptTC=true&jpdConfirm=true
Trent S.
This 25 page article written by the Canadian Society for the Study of Education gives a detailed description of the origins of bullying, how it varies from gender (boys are more aggressive physically, girls are more verbal), as well as the impact it has in schools. Due to the amount of speculation and suicide the media has touched on, bullying has become a moral panic in society. Although not all bullying can be stopped, government and its institutions (primarily schools) have begun to create programs that help counter bullying. But are these programs effective? This article relates to the 'ingredients' that are needed to have an effective program.
A survey was sent to principles of over 90 schools, about 9 pages long and 20-30 minutes in length. This survey's main purpose was to show the different tactics/programs these schools use to combat bullying, along with the characteristics of the school and student body and how prominent bullying was inside the school. Once all surveys were returned, the researchers were able to contrast all the schools and decipher reasons why certain schools performed better than the rest.
This was the basic of the researchers findings:
-The 'Needs' component showed the amount of indirect and direct bullying, the seriousness of it, as well as any changes in the past years. Generally, schools who had higher amounts of bullying had a lower percentage in change in the past years (if any at all).
-The 'Resources' applied by certain schools. Schools who had more anti-bullying programs as well as program funding had a lower amount of bullying that occurred in the school.
-Schools who had regular 'Activities' such as class-based discussions, anti-bullying committee, or peer-led interventions, had a lower amount of bullying.
-These components had an impact on the 'Outputs' and 'Outcome', which groups were targeted, the school atmosphere, and the impact of the programs put in place.
Researchers concluded that the more time and dedication put into their program, the less bullying occurred. All programs have one specific purpose: to counter bullying. However, not all programs are followed through with. Once they are introduced they tend to be forgotten about. One of the key aspects to a bully-free atmosphere is to make sure that the program is apparent across the school. Ways to keep these programs alive are to include activities among the student population. The more students participate-the more aware they are of the consequences of bullying-the less bullying occurs.
Here's the article:
http://www.jstor.org.www.ubishops.ca:2048/stable/pdfplus/4126453.pdf?&acceptTC=true&jpdConfirm=true
Trent S.
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