Bullying Programs Presented by: Clara Mills 4

1. Bullying Programs Presented by: Clara Mills 4/8/09 Training School Psychologists to be Experts in Evidence Based Practices for Tertiary Students with Serious Emotional Disturbance/Behavior Disorders US Office of Education 84.325K H325K080308

2. Bullying Defined Bullying has been defined as repeated, intentional, harmful, and aggressive behavior inflicted by a person or group with seemingly more power on a person or group with lesser power (Nansel et al., 2001). Bullying occurs when there is an imbalance of power between the perpetrator and the victim.

3. Examples of Bullying Behavior Bullying can be physical (e.g., hitting, kicking, pushing, choking) Bullying can also be verbal (e.g., calling names, threatening, taunting, malicious teasing, spreading nasty rumors) Bullying may manifest itself in other ways, such as making faces or obscene gestures or the intentional exclusion from a group.

4. Bullying Stages Bullying is primarily physical in children. Bullying becomes relational aggression in adolescents. In adulthood, bullying often appears in the form of sexual harassment.

5. How Common is Bullying? An estimated 1.6 million children in grades 6 to 10 in the USA are bullied at least once a week Other research has found that 26% of boys reported bullying others �sometimes� to �weekly,� and 21% of boys reported being bullied �sometimes� to �weekly.� A recent American Medical Association report on students in sixth through tenth grades estimated that over 3.2 million youngsters are victims of bullying annually.

6. Causes and Contributory Factors The desire of control, envy, and emotional stress are all causes of bullying. Often, bullies have been bullied themselves. It is common for bullies to have emotional or physical abuse in their histories. Bullies also have a high incidence of conduct and adjustment disorders. Trigger factors include diversity in race, ethnicity, religion, and language. Bullies also tend to have friends and are popular.

7. A lack of parental involvement and warmth Parents who allow children to be inappropriately aggressive toward their siblings, their peers, and even adults Parents who use physical punishment and emotional outbursts to discipline their children. Parental Risk Factors

8. Characteristics of Victims Victims are likely to express a fear of fighting and do not defend themselves Victims tend to have a negative attitude toward aggression and are physically weaker than their classmates Victims often have low self�esteem. Victims also tend to have overly supportive and authoritarian parents.

9. Effects of Bullying In the United States, children and adolescents confront problems which include racism, poverty, pressure to use drugs and alcohol, and to have sex early. So, bullying has not been a major public concern. Bullies and victims are more likely to be involved in violent behavior in the future. Later in young adulthood, male victims are at risk for anxiety and male bullies are at risk for personality disorders.

10. Bullying Programs The Olweus Bully Prevention Program (Olweus et al., 1999) is an anti-bullying program designed to help identify bullies, in elementary, middle, and high schools, and to help them as well as their victims cope with the effects of this type of school violence. The Second Step Violence Prevention Program is also a classroom-based program that has shown some success in improving social competence and reducing anti-social behaviors as well as decreasing aggression (Van Schoiack-Edstrom, Frey, & Beland, 2002).

11. Bullying Programs Continued Steps to Respect program is designed to decrease school bullying problems by (1) increasing staff awareness and responsiveness, (2) fostering socially responsible beliefs, and (3) teaching social-emotional skills to counter bullying and promote healthy relationships. The program also aims to promote skills (e.g., group joining, conflict resolution) associated with general social competence. The Steps to Respect program comprises a school-wide program guide, staff training, and classroom lessons for students in Grades 3�6.

12. Components of Programs that have been Successful Publically displaying school rules and making sure students understand them Rewards for following rules School connectedness Staff training Targeting at risk students Tailoring approaches for different schools Parent involvement

13. The Olweus BullyingPrevention Programme (BPP) The BPP starts with a needs assessment to identify prevalence, types, areas and attitudes related to bullying. A coordinating committee, comprised of teaching and non-teaching staff and community members, uses the needs assessment data to develop school specific implementation plans using the strategic BPP model. The BPP model outlines school, class and individual level interventions with flexibility for cultural and developmental tailoring. The needs assessment survey is repeated annually to evaluate success of the program.

14. The Olweus BullyingPrevention Programme (BPP) Core components of the program are rules against bullying, a bullying awareness day, improving supervision, parent involvement, class councils, a working system of positive and negative consequences and individual interventions. Positive incentive programs are designed and implemented in each school. Incentives vary by developmental level and current fads. Stickers, point systems or movie tickets were raffled to students with good behavior.

15. Black and Jackson (2007) This study examined the effectiveness of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (BPP). Six schools from a large, urban school district implemented the BPP over four years. Lunch and recess observations were used to identify bullying incident density. Certified Olweus trainers taught the Olweus model to representatives from each school. Sixty-seven percent of students were from low-income families and predominantly minority, African American (81.8 percent) and Latino (9.6 percent).

16. Design Mixed methods design was used. An independent evaluator performed 319 observation sets over 7,589 minutes. Data were converted to standardized incident density through the calculation: BID = I* (100/n* 60/t) [where: BID = bullying incident density in number of incidents per 100 student hours: I = number of incidents; n = total number of students observed; t = total time period observed in minutes].

17. Results Bullying incident density decreased by 45 percent from an average of 65 incidents per 100 student hours at baseline to an average of 36 incidents per 100 student hours. Interventions implemented in schools with the greatest reductions in BID were posting rules, consistent enforcement for rules, positive incentive programs, an organized student flow, reorganization of lunches or recess to reduce large numbers of students, providing positive age appropriate activities for students, and having interested adults who interacted with the students one-on-one.

18. Ferguson et al. Meta-Analysis-Criteria Articles had to have been published between the years of 1995 and 2006. Outcome variables had to clearly measure some element of bullying behavior or aggression toward peers, including direct aggressive behavior toward children in a school setting. Articles included had to involve some form of control or contrast group to test program effectiveness. Pre�post only designs were not included. Intervention programs had to be school based. Only articles published in peer-reviewed journals were included in the analysis.

19. Ferguson et al. Meta-Analysis Results suggested a significant effect for anti-bullying programs (r = .12). The greatest effect was found for anti-bullying programs that targeted at risk students (r =.19).

20. Conclusion There are many negative consequences of bullying for the victim and the perpetrator. Meta-analysis results are not impressive. I would suggest more research on individual bullying programs and what components are effective. This would allow researchers to develop more effective programs.