Identification of Effective and Adaptive Responses to Peer Victimization Among Elementary School-aged Children

Arizona State University, Scottsdale AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Bullying has become a top concern in U.S. schools with increasing societal demands to reduce the amount of violence being perpetrated among children. School districts are often pressured into responding hastily to these concerns by implementing generic (broadbased, schoolwide) anti-bullying programs or taking a "no tolerance" stance against bullying behaviors without really knowing the degree to which such efforts will be effective at reducing overall school bullying-or for whom they will be effective. Moreover, the focus on such policies tends to be on the perpetrators of violence to the exclusion of attending to the role of the victims in these interactions and the effects of such experiences on their development. This project will expand our understanding of why certain children seem to be a heightened risk for classmates' bullying and what they can do to protect themselves. By learning how elementary school-age children naturally respond to being bullied at school, we will be able to identify responses that are both effective and ineffective at stopping peer harassment as well as those that either increase or decrease subsequent psychological distress. The implications of this study for preventive interventions address the erroneous assumption of a one-kind-fits-all program in which a single coping strategy (or set of strategies) can be taught that will work for all children. Specifically, what is successful at stopping bullying is expected to differ depending on individual children's characteristics, such as how they react emotionally, why they believe they are being bullied, and what social support (e.g., friends, teachers and parents) and resources (e.g., social reputation, social competencies, physical strength) they have available. Increased understanding of such differences will not only improve the effectiveness of children's ability to reduce their own victimization, but could simultaneously improve the effectiveness of school-based (generic) anti-bullying programs in our nation's schools.