Bullying
Bullying may be direct or indirect and varies between boys and girls. Direct bullying includes physical violence, taunting and teasing, threats of violence, and extortion or theft. In recent years, the academic definition of bullying has been expanded to include indirect bullying, such as name calling, spreading rumors, and exclusion from a peer group. Indirect bullying socially isolates children and is also known as relational aggression. Relational bullying is a subtle type of aggression. It is important that adults prevent and stop not only overt aggression (e.g., hitting, pushing, teasing) but also relational aggression (e.g., passing rumors, isolating someone).1
Research conducted with students from third to sixth grade found that spreading rumors decreased 72 percent when an anti-bullying program, Steps to Respect, was instituted.2 The three-year program included teacher training and lessons for students that showed them how to respond when they were confronted with malicious gossip about themselves or others. “The study adds to growing evidence that bullying is a school-wide ecology, involving not just the bully and victim, but onlookers who enable the bullying, adults that ignore the problem, and even the victim and friends who may escalate a bad situation.3
The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is a multilevel, multicomponent program designed to reduce and prevent schools’ bully problems. School staff members are largely responsible for introducing and implementing the program, and their efforts are directed toward improving peer relations and making the school a safe and pleasant place to be.
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Footnote
1Getting Results: Developing Safe and Healthy Kids Update 4—Violence Prevention and Safe Schools (PDF; 402KB; 113pp.), Sacramento: California Department of Education, 2005, 16.
2 Low, Sabina, Karin S. Frey, and Callie. J. Brockman. Gossip on the Playground: Changes Associated with Universal Intervention, Retaliation Beliefs, and Supportive Friends (PDF; Outside Source), School Psychology Review, 2010, Volume 39, No. 4, 536-551.
3 Inside School Research (Outside Source), Education Week, January 2011.