The hidden consequences of bullying may be far more than we as a society are willing to acknowledge. Thirty five years ago Greg’s family moved from the farm house to a town house when he was in middle school. The farm boy was an oddity in the city school and the bullying started immediately. At one time he was threatened with a gun. The child with the gun got kicked out of school, but the bullying continued in other ways. Greg had a rich imagination and retreated from real life into a fantasy life where he was a basketball star and very popular. About the same time, Greg was introduced to pornography. He quickly became addicted as he used both the fantasies and the pornography to escape the pain of the bullying. Fast forward to today. Greg now appears to be a successful business owner and leader in the church and community. Statistically, he would be one of those that bullying had no ill effect. The hidden reality is far different. His business has a high employee turnover and his former employees don’t have a lot of good to say about him. He almost destroyed his business because of his addiction. He lives in a fantasy world and gets rid of anything that starts to interfere with his highly protected view of himself. His family has paid the price of those unresolved pains. His children were bullied at school and church or they became the bullies. He divorced and remarried. His children all have emotional and related physical issues including; anxiety, depression, paranoia, cutting, anorexia, attempted suicide and one child died by suicide. The family legacy is one of running away from problems rather than working to resolve them. The fear of facing the problem is much too overwhelming. Greg is just one example of the ongoing fear that lives in the heart of the bullied. What is the real impact of bullying on our society? Greg is now in a power position in society. How many adults in power positions were once bullied as a child? How many adults were once the bully and still are because they never lost their dominant position? Those are questions to consider as I define bullying and the mindset that makes it possible and then continue with what is being done and what still needs to be done.
Bullying defined and the mindset of the bully
We need to understand what bullying is and the psychological mindset that makes bullying possible before we can determine solutions to the problem. “Bullying involves targeted intimidation or humiliation. Typically, a physically stronger or socially more prominent person (ab)uses her/his power to threaten, demean, or belittle another. To make the target or victim feel powerless, the bully can resort to a number of aggressive behaviors. However, bullying entails more than aggression: It captures a dynamic interaction between the perpetrator and the victim. The power imbalance between the two parties distinguishes bullying from conflict. (Juvonen and Graham, 2013, p.161). Bullying can include physical or relational aspects. Relational bullying can be more psychologically harmful because of the tendency to overlook or dismiss it. The mindset of bullies is a critical element in understanding the problem. “Early studies suggested that childhood aggression stems from a lack of social skills or that aggressive behaviors reflect a budding antisocial personality (Juvonen and Graham, 2013, p.164).” However, relational bullying requires a high level of social skills. There is evidence to suggest bullies lack empathy. It is more important to them to be visible, influential, and admired. They frequently have high social status. They use strategic behavior to gain and maintain a dominant position. They rate themselves lower on depression, social anxiety, and loneliness than youths who are socially adjusted. They “maintain their positive self-views by blaming and aggressing against others instead of accepting personal responsibility for negative events.” The feedback they receive from their peers is more positive than negative. “When peers do not challenge bullies’ aggressive behaviors, bullying is maintained and even reinforced by the peer collective (Juvonen and Graham, 2013, p.165).”
What isn't working
Bullying is an ongoing problem for the schools and our society. It is a complex problem with no easy fixes. Laws require schools to have anti-bullying policies, but they don’t go far enough. Schools have tried several approaches, but they face limitations of time, budget, and biases of parents and staff. Their approaches tend to be quick fix and short term. Misdirections in Bullying Prevention and Intervention (2014) reviews the programs that aren’t working and why. In brief;
· Zero Tolerance doesn’t work because one in five students would be affected by the policies and the threat to expel an offending student limits the willingness to report bullying.
· Conflict resolution and peer mediation may be great for conflict situations, but it sends the wrong message to both victims and bullies. Bullying is not a conflict, it is a form of victimization. “The message to a child who is bullied should be, “no one deserves to be bullied, and we will do everything we can to stop it.” The message for children who bully should be, “your behavior is inappropriate and you, must stop it.”
· Simple, short-term solutions have no lasting effect because they are just too limited for a complex problem.
· Group treatment for children who bully can intensify the problem as the members serve as role models for each other and reinforce the antisocial and bullying behaviors.(pp.1-2)
P Promising Programs
There are promising programs that have shown some success. In 2012, an international review of the effectiveness of antibullying school programs looked at the effectiveness of the components of many different programs and came up with these recommendations:
1) Success is greater when all the staff in the school and the parents of the children are involved.
2) The programs need to be adapted to the social and cultural characteristics of the school population.
3) Long-term intervention is vital. Effectiveness decreases when the intervention is not maintained. Reminder sessions need to be included in the program and within the academic curriculum (Barbero, Hernández, Esteban, García, 2012)”
Specific programs noted in the article, Bullying in Schools (2013) include many of these elements. They are in two categories, school wide interventions and targeted interventions.
· School wide interventions include the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP), KiVa “against bullying,” WITS (Walk Away, Ignore, Talk It Out, and Seek Help), and Steps to Respect. “Steps to Respect” is one of the few programs implemented in the United States. It was implemented in the elementary school grades in the Pacific Northwest.
· Targeted interventions focus on 10 -15% of youth who are involved in bullying incidents. They are designed to address the dysfunctional thoughts and behaviors of children who show aggression against others. Fast Track is an extensive program that has a yearlong curriculum, weekly meetings, and goes from 1st to 5th grade. It is not easily implemented and requires targeting the right youth. Other target approaches include Brainpower for elementary youth and Coping Power Program for boys transitioning to middle school (Juvonen and Graham, 2013)
Missing Pieces
Even though we see some success in these programs there are missing pieces and the percentage of schools implementing the successful programs are limited. Some missing pieces:
- There is very little research on the long term consequences of bullying in both the victims lives and the bullies lives. Questions that still need to be answered include: Where are they now? How did the bullying impact their life? How many adults are still carrying traumatic scars from their youth? Did the physical forms of bullying stop only to be replaced by the relational forms?
- Research is limited on the characteristics of schools that promote or protect against bullying (Juvonen and Graham, 2013)
- The targeted approaches tend to focus on the bully and there seems to be very few programs that address the needs of the victims.
Even with the best programs, wide reach implementation has many challenges especially in the USA. The OBPP has only been implemented in about 4% of the schools in the United States. Problems in implementation include; lack of motivation to implement comprehensive school based programs, inadequate knowledge about effective prevention and intervention, and the resources to make it happen. Bullying needs to be recognized as an issue of public health and not just an issue of the education system (Olweus, Limber 2010)
Where do we go from here?
So where do we go from here? We are starting to recognize bullying is a problem. There are movies and TED talks and media spots addressing the issue. Many of us know personal stories of those impacted by bullies. As I started research on this paper, my neighbor’s boy was out of school because of being physically bullied. He told me that even after multiple complaints the school was unwilling to do anything about it. I pulled my children out of school to homeschool them partly because of bullying and not feeling like I could get help from the school to prevent it. How do we provide sufficient motivation to overcome the challenges of implementing these programs in the schools? My proposal includes:
- We need more research of the real impact on our society because of bullying and more research on the characteristics of those schools that don’t seem to have a problem with bullying. The research could be used to help educate the public, the policy makers, school staff and especially the principals. A motivated school principal can go a long way in pushing past the obstacles in implementing the programs.
- We need laws that do more than require a bully prevention program. The laws need to “require research-based approaches to prevention and intervention (Olweus, Limber 2010).”
- Schools need to implement long term school wide programs that help bullies and victims as well as harnessing the power of the peer support group. Understanding what gives the bully power, including the bully support group, goes a long way in prevention. If targeted approaches are used, they need to include help for the victims.
Overall, most schools have antibullying policies, but they are ineffective. There are programs available to help with the bullying problem, but they are not being implemented. We need to continue our education as a society on the harmful effects of bullying and provide resources to the schools so they will implement the programs that are having success. The health of our society depends on it. The power needs to be taken away from the bully!
References
Jiménez Barbero, J., Ruiz Hernández, J., Llor Esteban, B., & Pérez García, M. (2012). Effectiveness of antibullying school programmes: A systematic review by evidence levels. Children and Youth Services Review, 34(9), p.1646–1658
Juvonen, J., & Graham, S. (2013). Bullying in Schools: The Power of Bullies and the Plight of Victims. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 159-185. Retrieved November 15,2014, from http://psych.annualreviews.org
Misdirections in Bullying Prevention and Intervention.pdf (2014, June) Retrieved November 14, 2014, from http://www.stopbullying.gov
Olweus, D. and Limber, S. P. (2010), Bullying in School: Evaluation and Dissemination of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 80: 124–134. doi: 10.1111/j.1939-0025.2010.01015.x
Stuart-Cassel, V., Bell, A., Springer, J. F. (2011) Analysis of State Bullying Laws and Policies. Retrieved on November 28, 2014, from http://www2.ed.gov
Tamanini, K. (2009). How Do We Stop Bullying in Schools?. Psych Central. Retrieved on November 10, 2014, from http://psychcentral.com
Twemlow, Stuart W., and Sacco, Frank C.. Preventing Bullying and School Violence. Arlington, VA, USA: American Psychiatric Publishing, 2012. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 11 November 2014.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment