A Public Health Approach To Bullying Prevention

"The book will serve as a practical, sustainable, cost-efficient strategy to tackle bullying. More importantly, it may be the best approach to providing legitimate and sustainable hope to our children at a time when bullying is becoming increasingly more difficult to tackle.

A Public Health Approach to Bullying Prevention will serve as a practical, sustainable, cost-efficient strategy to tackle bullying. More importantly, it may be the best approach to providing legitimate and sustainable hope to our children at a time when bullying is becoming increasingly more difficult to tackle. This book presents a public health approach to bullying prevention in a comprehensive and deliberate manner. Formal public health strategies have been used to combat infectious disease epidemics, tobacco use, and motor vehicle injuries. When applied to bullying, public health strategies provide a scientific approach to community planning, the use of evidence-based programs, coalition development, and the ability to change the culture in a school and community to one that is positive and strong. This text will serve as invaluable resource to parents and professionals looking for advice on specific facets of school-based bullying.

Bullying has long been tolerated as a rite of passage among children and adolescents. There is an implication that individuals who are bullied must have "asked for" this type of treatment, or deserved it. Sometimes, even the child who is bullied begins to internalize this idea. For many years, there has been a general acceptance and collective shrug when it comes to a child or adolescent with greater social capital or power pushing around a child perceived as subordinate. But bullying is not developmentally appropriate; it should not be considered a normal part of the typical social grouping that occurs throughout a child's life. Although bullying behavior endures through generations, the milieu is changing. Historically, bulling has occurred at school, the physical setting in which most of childhood is centered and the primary source for peer group formation. In recent years, however, the physical setting is not the only place bullying is occurring. Technology allows for an entirely new type of digital electronic aggression, cyberbullying, which takes place through chat rooms, instant messaging, social media, and other forms of digital electronic communication. Composition of peer groups, shifting demographics, changing societal norms, and modern technology are contextual factors that must be considered to understand and effectively react to bullying in the United States. Youth are embedded in multiple contexts and each of these contexts interacts with individual characteristics of youth in ways that either exacerbate or attenuate the association between these individual characteristics and bullying perpetration or victimization. Recognizing that bullying behavior is a major public health problem that demands the concerted and coordinated time and attention of parents, educators and school administrators, health care providers, policy makers, families, and others concerned with the care of children, this report evaluates the state of the science on biological and psychosocial consequences of peer victimization and the risk and protective factors that either increase or decrease peer victimization behavior and consequences.

Bullying amongst young people is a serious and pervasive problem, and recent rapid advances in electronic communication technologies have provided even more tools for bullies to exploit. School Bullying and Mental Health collates current research evidence and theoretical perspectives about school bullying in one comprehensive volume, identifying the nature and extent of bullying and cyberbullying at school, as well as its impact on children and young people’s emotional health and well-being. There are many negative consequences of bullying, and children and young people who have been victimised often suffer long-term psychological problems, such as increased levels of anxiety, depressive symptoms, social isolation, loneliness and suicidal ideation. Perpetrators of bullying also have a heightened risk of experiencing problems such as anxiety and depression, as well as eating disorders and antisocial behaviour. Founded on rigorous academic research, this important book tackles the negative consequences of bullying, and bullying culture itself, by examining the social and cultural contexts that perpetuate such behaviour from childhood through adolescence and potentially into adulthood. Containing contributions from an international team of authors, this book explores current interventions to prevent and reduce school bullying and to alleviate its negative effects on the mental health of children and young people. In-depth discussion of the profound implications of this research for researchers, practitioners and policymakers makes this book essential reading for those interested in bullying culture and the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.

This timely Brief offers up-to-date findings about bullying--from trends and outcomes to assessment and identification--and workable approaches to combat this social epidemic on multiple fronts. The book examines links between bullying and mental health issues, the complex dynamics between bully and bullied (especially since bullies themselves may be victimized by others) and new challenges presented by youth involvement in social media. Effects of whole-school interventions involving students, teachers, and administrators, on bullying and its consequences, are concisely presented. And clinicians have guidelines for coordinating with children, parents, schools and the community. Included in the coverage: State statutes and federal anti-bullying efforts. A parent's perspective on the bullying of special-needs children. School-based prevention programs. Bullying and special populations. Parent strategies to reduce cyber-bullying. Best practices for promoting awareness and advocacy. Practical Strategies for Clinical Management of Bullying is an important reference for clinicians, parents, professionals at child-serving agencies and organizations, school administrators and staff, policymakers and child advocates. Its coverage strikes the right balance between intervention and prevention, with effective methods for helping victims--and bullies--heal.

Bullying has long been tolerated as a rite of passage among children and adolescents. There is an implication that individuals who are bullied must have "asked for" this type of treatment, or deserved it. Sometimes, even the child who is bullied begins to internalize this idea. For many years, there has been a general acceptance and collective shrug when it comes to a child or adolescent with greater social capital or power pushing around a child perceived as subordinate. But bullying is not developmentally appropriate; it should not be considered a normal part of the typical social grouping that occurs throughout a child's life. Although bullying behavior endures through generations, the milieu is changing. Historically, bulling has occurred at school, the physical setting in which most of childhood is centered and the primary source for peer group formation. In recent years, however, the physical setting is not the only place bullying is occurring. Technology allows for an entirely new type of digital electronic aggression, cyberbullying, which takes place through chat rooms, instant messaging, social media, and other forms of digital electronic communication. Composition of peer groups, shifting demographics, changing societal norms, and modern technology are contextual factors that must be considered to understand and effectively react to bullying in the United States. Youth are embedded in multiple contexts and each of these contexts interacts with individual characteristics of youth in ways that either exacerbate or attenuate the association between these individual characteristics and bullying perpetration or victimization. Recognizing that bullying behavior is a major public health problem that demands the concerted and coordinated time and attention of parents, educators and school administrators, health care providers, policy makers, families, and others concerned with the care of children, this report evaluates the state of the science on biological and psychosocial consequences of peer victimization and the risk and protective factors that either increase or decrease peer victimization behavior and consequences.

Overview of field of bullying prevention by three acknowledged experts in the field

High profile media reports of young people committing suicide after experiencing bullying have propelled a national conversation about the nature and scope of this problem and the means to address it. Specialists have long known that involvement in bullying in any capacity (as the victim or as the perpetrator) is associated with higher rates of suicidal ideation and behaviors, but evidence about which bullying subtype is at greatest risk is more mixed. For instance, some studies have shown that the association between suicidal ideation and bullying is stronger for targets of bullying than perpetrators. However, another study found that after controlling for depression, the association was strongest for perpetrators. Similar disagreement persists with regard to gender disparities relating to bullying and self-harm, for instance. Youth Suicide and Bullying presents an authoritative review of the science demonstrating the links between these two major public health concerns alongside informed discussion and evidence-based recommendations. The volume provides sound, scientifically grounded, and effective advice about bullying and suicide at every level: national, state, and community. Chapters provide details on models of interpersonal aggression; groups at risk for both bullying and suicide (such as sexual minorities); the role of stigma; family, school, and community-based youth bullying and suicide prevention programs, and more. Each chapter concludes with recommendations for mental health providers, educators, and policymakers. Compiling knowledge from the most informed experts and providing authoritative research-based information, this volume supports efforts to better understand and thereby reduce the prevalence of victimization and suicide.