Preventing Bullying Through Science, Policy, and Practice


Book Description

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.




What Makes a Bully?


Book Description

Back Page I cry every day before and after school because I have been a victim of bullying for most of my life. I had the misconception that once I reached middle school that I would be free from being [a] victim. Wow! Was I wrong [!] I am now a 7th grader and the torture continues. I suffered in silence until I met Ms. Smart; I feel some level of comfort because she let us know that she does not tolerate bullying in her classroom. Like many others I tried to commit suicide by jumping out of a window of a three-story building. I am also a cutter. I want to live but how? –Seventh-grade student Unfortunately, stories like that of this middle school student are all too common. The social pressures of bullying can lead to intolerable unpleasantness for some students. Bullying in schools is a growing concern in the United States. Bullying causes many problems, not only for the victim, but also for the bully. Students desire a safe haven at home and school; however, problems with bullies lead to insecurity in the victim and make home and school feel more like a prison than the safe haven they are supposed to be. Bullying via the Internet or cyberbullying is steadily increasing. A bully can harass someone via text, email or hurtful comments on a social network site. This has led to a whole new breed of bullying. A bully no longer has to be face to face. He/she can now say harmful things about a person through the Internet for others to read and comment. No matter how it is looked at, bullying is wrong. It’s never okay. It’s never cool. It never makes one person look better than another because they are bullying someone. This book offer strategies as to what to do if one should find themselves as a victim of bullying behavior as well as if you happen to be the bully. Also covered are tips for parents, teachers and community members.




I Love You Rituals


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Fight!


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Connected


Book Description

Celebrated scientists Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler explain the amazing power of social networks and our profound influence on one another's lives. Your colleague's husband's sister can make you fat, even if you don't know her. A happy neighbor has more impact on your happiness than a happy spouse. These startling revelations of how much we truly influence one another are revealed in the studies of Dr. Christakis and Fowler, which have repeatedly made front-page news nationwide. In Connected, the authors explain why emotions are contagious, how health behaviors spread, why the rich get richer, even how we find and choose our partners. Intriguing and entertaining, Connected overturns the notion of the individual and provides a revolutionary paradigm-that social networks influence our ideas, emotions, health, relationships, behavior, politics, and much more. It will change the way we think about every aspect of our lives.




Bullying in Secondary Schools


Book Description

`This is a worthwhile read and many of the ideas could well be used in schools to address the issues of bullying. There is something for everyone in the book, and it should be on any reading list for student teachers and certainly for the senior manager with responsibility for pastoral systems in every school′ - Emotional & Behavioural Difficulties `This book is a must for all teachers in secondary school throughout the country. The value of this book lies in the potential for its application in a realistic school setting by staff from the head teacher, to teachers, to pupils and all those who are in the school environment′ - Dr L F Lowenstein, Clinical and Educational Psychologist `The authors of this book adopt a new approach to dealing with bullying. Instead of discussing how often it occurs, who bullies and who is bullied, they see bullying as part of a social dynamic and unsafe school culture. This book is an essential practical guide to dealing with bullying for teachers, teachers trainers, counsellors, pupil and families′ - Childright `This book is an important and comprehensive resource dealing with school bullying issues in a practical way, with strategies designed to be used easily in the classroom. It gives valuable advice to teachers on dealing with bullies in the most effective way, using victims and bystanders as part of the solution. It should be required reading in every secondary school′ - Liz Carnell, Director, Bullying Online This book is a practical guide to dealing with bullying in secondary schools. The authors present what we know about bullying, describe development issues for adolescence and discuss the social context of the school. They analyze key features of healthy and unhealthy schools, and set out a whole school approach to bullying and other social problems that arise in the secondary school. The authors show that by empowering the bystanders through providing effective teacher support, much of the bullying can be stopped at an early age and a healthy and safe school can be created. Their suggestions are based on student-centred responses and on programmes developed specifically to deal with bullying. This book is written especially for secondary school teachers, administrators and students, and the families and caregivers of the students. It is also for those who train teachers, for counsellors and for educators at all levels.




The Bully Society


Book Description

Choice's Outstanding Academic Title list for 2013 Through interviews and case studies, Klein develops an explanation for bully behavior in America's schools In today’s schools, kids bullying kids is not an occasional occurrence but rather an everyday reality where children learn early that being sensitive, respectful, and kind earns them no respect. Jessie Klein makes the provocative argument that the rise of school shootings across America, and childhood aggression more broadly, are the consequences of a society that actually promotes aggressive and competitive behavior. The Bully Society is a call to reclaim America’s schools from the vicious cycle of aggression that threatens our children and our society at large. Heartbreaking interviews illuminate how both boys and girls obtain status by acting “masculine”—displaying aggression at one another’s expense as both students and adults police one another to uphold gender stereotypes. Klein shows that the aggressive ritual of gender policing in American culture creates emotional damage that perpetuates violence through revenge, and that this cycle is the main cause of not only the many school shootings that have shocked America, but also related problems in schools, manifesting in high rates of suicide, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-cutting, truancy, and substance abuse. After two decades working in schools as a school social worker and professor, Klein proposes ways to transcend these destructive trends—transforming school bully societies into compassionate communities.




When Kids Call the Shots


Book Description

If you want to fix your rebellious and disrespectful child, you need to start by fixing yourself. Are your kids pummeling you with demands and bossing you around with impunity? Have your once-precious preschoolers become rebellious, entitled, and disrespectful to authority? While there are plenty of so-called experts who might try to validate your convictions that you have done all you can to “fix” your “difficult” children, the hard truth is, they’re not doing you any favors by placing the responsibility solely on your children. Parenting struggles rarely originate from just one side. Instead, they erupt at the volatile intersection of a child's personality with a parent's own insecurities and behaviors. In When Kids Call the Shots, therapist and parenting expert Sean Grover untangles the forces driving family dysfunction, and helps parents assume their leadership roles once again. Parents will discover: Three common bullying styles used by kids Parenting styles that contribute to power balances Critical testing periods in a child’s development Coping mechanisms that backfire Personalized plans for calmly exerting authority in any scenario The solution to any problem begins with learning to control what you can control. In parenting, you’ve already learned how impossible it is to control your kids. Begin by controlling you!




Taking the Bully by the Horns


Book Description

Explores different ways children and teenagers are bullied (both mentally and physically), how the bully becomes a bully, how the victim becomes a victim, and what can be done about it.




What Makes a Bully?


Book Description

I cry every day before and after school because I have been a victim of bullying for most of my life. I had the misconception that once I reached middle school that I would be free from being [a