Bullies And Victims In Schools

Bullying is a covert problem, buried in he subculture of a school. But what kind of child becomes a bully or a victim, and why? What family and social context produce them? How important are the factors of race and gender in the bullying cycle?

Bullying at School is the definitive book on bullying/victim problems in school and on effective ways of counteracting and preventing such problems.

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.

This book focuses beyond the bully-victim dyad to highlight how bullying commonly unfolds within a complex system that involves many individuals interacting with one another. As the vast majority of bullying episodes occur in front of a peer audience, this book examines the ways in which bystanders can act to either fuel or deter bullying. Each chapter highlights a particular participant role: bully, assistant, reinforcer, outsider, defender, and victim. Attention is also devoted to the important influence parents and teachers have on the peer ecology and bullying dynamics. By viewing bullying through the eyes of each individual role, the authors provide an in-depth exploration of bullying as a group process with special attention to implications for prevention and intervention. This book refreshes and expands our understanding of bullying as a group process by highlighting classic research while integrating new findings with attention to changing technology and the modernization of our society. It provides a unique resource that will appeal to teachers and educational psychologists in addition to researchers in the areas of psychology, public health, and education.

This easy-to-read book describes the problem of bullying at all school levels--elementary, middle, and high. Chapters include different types of bullying that occur and how they effect the bully, the bullied, and the bystander. The authors report the results of many studies including personal research to discuss incidences of bullying at school, and list of sources for preventing and intervening to reduce this type of misbehavior are included.

Bullying is now widely recognised as a serious problem that affects many children in schools. It can take many forms, including direct verbal and physical harassment and indirect forms such as deliberate exclusion and the targeting of individuals using cyber technology. Continual and severe bullying can cause both short term and long term damage, making it difficult for victims to form intimate relationships with others and for habitual bullies to avoid following a delinquent lifestyle and becoming perpetrators of domestic violence. Even though this type of abuse affects many of our school children, Ken Rigby believes there are grounds for optimism. This passionate and motivating book shows that there are ways of reducing the likelihood of bullying occurring in a school and effective ways of tackling cases when they do occur. Using up-to-date studies, Bullying in Schools helps us to understand the nature of bullying and why it so often takes place in schools. Importantly, it examines and evaluates what schools can do to promote more positive peer relationships within the school community and take effective and sustainable action to deal with problems that may arise. Teachers, parents, school leaders, policy makers, and health professionals will find it invaluable and empowering.

In recent years there have been an increasing number of incidents where children have either perpetrated or been the victims of violence in the schools. Often times the children who perpetrated the violence had been the victims of school bullying. If bullying once was a matter of extorting lunch money from one's peers, it has since escalated into slander, sexual harassment, and violence. And the victims, unable to find relief, become depressed and/or violent in return. Despite all the media attention on recent school tragedies, many of which can be traced to bullied children, there has been little in the way of research-based books toward understanding why and how bullying occurs, the effects on all the individuals involved and the most effective intervention techniques. Summarizing research in education, social, developmental, and counseling psychology, Bullying: Implications for the Classroom examines the personality and background of both those who become bullies and those most likely to become their victims, how families, peers, and schools influence bullying behavior, and the most effective interventions in pre-school, primary and middle schools. Intended for researchers, educators, and professionals in related fields, this book provides an international review of research on bullying. KEY FEATURES: * Presents practical ideas regarding prevention/intervention of bullying * Covers theoretical views of bullying * Provides an international perspective on bullying * Discusses bullying similarities and differences in elementary and middle school * Presents practical ideas regarding prevention/intervention of bullying * Provides an international perspective on bullying * Outlines information regarding bullying during the elementary and middle school years * Covers theoretical views of bullying * Presents new approaches to explaining bullying * Contributing authors include internationally known researchers in the field

Using up-to-date studies, Bullying in Schools