by: Michael Ryan The emergence of the internet, and associated technologies like email and instant messaging, present problems for today’s parents that were unimaginable just twenty years ago. Children use computers for homework, surf the web at their leisure and socialize through instant messaging – all activities that are often outside direct parental control and [...]
Bullying Environmental Factors
Bullying exists within an environment of other forms of violence and aggression by and toward youth: The U.S. child homicide rate (2.6 per 100,000 for children younger than 15 years) is five times higher than the rate of 25 other industrialized countries combined, according to the CDC. Suicide is the third leading cause of death [...]
Bullying and Violence
A groundbreaking report published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine in 2003ref found that bullying at home or at school may lead to more aggressive behavior as the child gets older. The report analyzed information from a 1998 survey of more than 15,000 students in grades 6-10 in public and private schools across [...]
The Consequences of Bullying
Research on bullying is still in the embryonic stages in this country. However, available figures indicate that school bullying can have major social, educational, health, and other consequences for the children who bully, the children who are bullied, the witnesses of violence, and their communities: Youth who are bullied have higher rates of suicide, depression, [...]
Bullying can increase the “fear factor” in school environments
Adults have a responsibility to understand-and intervene-when antisocial behavior crosses the line and becomes bullying used to gain control or power over another individual. Intervention also means empowering children, particularly the victims and those who are witnesses to bullying, to be part of the solution. Recognizing bullying for what it is shouldn’t lead to the [...]
Bullying is An Underreported Problem
How serious is the problem? Many students fail to report bullying to teachers and other adults, making bullying an underreported problem. As researchers probe more deeply into what goes on among school-aged children, however, alarming statistics are surfacing: According to the results of a nationwide survey funded by the National Institute of Child Health and [...]
Bullying is Not Just Child’s Play
The image of the class bully lording over weaker students goes back as far as the one-room schoolhouse. The class bully hasn’t disappeared from our schools’ classrooms, playgrounds, hallways, bathrooms, cafeterias, stairways, and school buses. In fact, children today have to put up with not only physical and verbal threats and intimidations, but also new [...]
MORE BASIC QUESTIONS TO START CONVERSATIONS ABOUT BULLYING
Questions: What was the best thing that happened to you today? What do you love about school/work? What does success mean to you? What makes you scared? What do you remember about your first day at school/work? What three things make a person popular in your school/at work? What makes you laugh? Why do you [...]
Questions to start conversations about bullying and how to prevent it
Listen – Learn – Respect These questions are to be used to start conversations about bullying and bullying prevention. Feel free to adapt the questions to your own conversational styles. The questions are designed to generate open and honest discussions. Please be careful to respect any concerns or sensitive issues raised by the answers. Again, [...]