The boy with glasses, the girl with short hair, the Asian boy, the overweight girl…it doesn’t matter what the issue, they’ve all been victims of what is generally known as youth violence – simply because they are different.
Youth violence is the umbrella term for any type of physical or psychological harm and includes physical fighting, gang fighting, electronic aggression, sexual violence, and bullying. Regardless of which category you look at, youth violence is a serious public health problem and has affected a significant number of youth in every community and in every walk of life.
For several decades, public health professionals have been working to improve the health of our nation through a science-based program known as “Healthy People” (see story below). One of the critical objectives is to significantly reduce youth violence, particularly bullying, defined as unwanted, aggressive behaviors that are repeated over time that provide a real or perceived power imbalance that favors the perpetrator.
In the Healthy People 2020 Spotlight: Bullying Webinar released late last year, researchers revealed that the problem isn’t going away any time soon. In the 2008-2009 School Crime Supplement which surveys children ages 12 through 18, 26.6 percent of boys and 29.5 percent of girls had experienced bullying during the year. That would include any of the four types of bullying: physical, verbal, indirect (rejection, exclusion, rumor spreading), and electronic (emails, text messages). Furthermore, bullying starts young, usually in 6th grade and continues heavily through 9th and 10th grade. The problem abates somewhat in the junior and senior years of high school.
Of interest, cyberbullying is still low on the list of bullying types, although it is slowly becoming more popular. The most common bullying practice is in person teasing and /or hitting done at school. The most frequent bullying incidences are those that belittle another based on their looks or speech with 20% of males and 21% of females in middle school claiming victimization.
There are many parents and community members who believe that bullying is just a part of life. I’ve heard some parents say “suck it up and deal with it” or “tease them back” or worse yet “ignore it and it will go away.” Unfortunately, those lines have never worked. Youth who are bullied have significantly lower peer status, lower social competence, and a negative opinion of self and school. It affects their grades, attitude and self-esteem. Furthermore, those with disabilities are twice as likely to become victims as their non-disabled counterparts, making school an even tougher environment than it already is. A 2009 survey of families with children on the autism spectrum found that almost 40 percent of them were bullied at some point during the school year.
The answer isn’t easy, but there are workable solutions that can drastically reduce youth violence, in particular bullying. In European countries, bullying is already dropping thanks to interventions that involve parents, multimedia communications, and teacher’s competencies in responding to bullying. What are they doing?
Schools in these countries have collaborated with communities and parents to prevent bullying from starting in the first place. Reductions in bullying were associated with eight key elements: parent training, increased playground supervision, non-punitive disciplinary methods, home to school communications, effective classroom rules, effective classroom management, embed anti-bullying into the curriculum, and utilizing social-emotional learning approaches.
Research has shown that collaborations to stop bullying do work. Here are a few take-aways from the most recent Webinar from Healthy People 2020:
· Student opinion – bring students in whenever possible
· Leadership opportunities – let students take ownership of the problem
· Resources – give students the right tools to lead
· Encouragement – taking a step back, reassure and support
· Attending events – support student events and gain knowledge
· Talking to the anti-defamation league – supporting world of difference programs in schools
· Taking individual experiences seriously – acknowledging each experience and what it brings
· Prioritizing – recognizing when to step up or step back
· Understanding roles – should you be the student or the teacher?
· Student task force – let students make the decision
· Remaining aware – keep relationships well maintained and up-to-date
· Spreading the wealth – recognizing unique abilities and using them
· Innovative approach – get online and see what resources are out there
· Prevention not intervention – stop bullying before it happens
· Constant evolution – fresh ideas and people
· Listening – genuine listening to students and all leaders
There is a great toolkit available to help communities work to prevent bullying at www.stopbullying.gov.
What is Healthy People?
This program provides 10-year objectives for improving the health of all Americans. For the past three decades, Healthy People has established benchmarks and monitored progress over time for three key purposes:
1. Encourage collaborations across communities and sectors
2. Empower individuals toward making informed health decisions
3. Measure the impact of prevention activities
The current edition of the program, Healthy People 2020, launched on December 2, 2010 with new 10-year goals that will address the following mission points:
· Identify nationwide health improvement priorities
· Increase public awareness and understanding of determinants of health, disease and disability
· Provide measurable objectives and goals
· Engage multiple sectors to take actions
· Identify critical research, evaluation and data collection needs
Reference
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2012). Healthy People 2020 Webinar: Bullying Among Adolescents. Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/Learn/webinarsArchive.aspx#r.
No comments:
Post a Comment