Kids need to know ways to safely stand up to bullying and how to get help. Research tells us that children really do look to parents and caregivers for advice and help on tough decisions.
Sometimes spending 15 minutes a day talking can reassure kids that they can talk to their parents if they have a problem. Start conversations about daily life and feelings with questions like these:.
Talking about bullyin g directly is an important step in understanding how the issue might be affecting kids. There are no right or wrong answers to these questions, but it is important to encourage kids to answer them honestly.
Assure kids that they are not alone in addressing any problems that arise. Start conversations about bullying with questions like these:. Get more ideas for talking with children - PDF about life and about bullying. If concerns come up, be sure to respond. Teachers and school staff also have a role to play. Help kids take part in activities, interests, and hobbies they like. Kids can volunteer, play sports, sing in a chorus, or join a youth group or school club.
These activities give kids a chance to have fun and meet others with the same interests. They can build confidence and friendships that help protect kids from bullying. By treating others with kindness and respect, adults show the kids in their lives that there is no place for bullying.
Even if it seems like they are not paying attention, kids are watching how adults manage stress and conflict, as well as how they treat their friends, colleagues, and families.
Skip to main content Official websites use. Breadcrumb Home How to Prevent Bullying. Print Share. How to Prevent Bullying. They can: Help kids understand bullying. Talk about what bullying is and how to stand up to it safely. Bullying is aggressive behaviour that is typically repeated over time. It is meant to cause harm, fear, distress or create a negative environment for another person. Bullying can happen when there is a real or perceived power imbalance. In Ontario schools, principals must address cyberbullying if it has an impact on the school climate.
For example, if the student is being bullied and is embarrassed because of a social media post or email that was sent to other students in the school, the student may not want to attend school. People sometimes confuse conflict with bullying, but they are different. Conflict between students does not always mean it's bullying. Conflict occurs between people who have a disagreement, a difference of opinion or different views.
When there is conflict, each person feels comfortable expressing their views. Children learn at a young age to understand that others can have different perspectives than their own. Developing the ability to gain perspective takes time and continues into early adulthood footnote 1 [1]. Conflict becomes negative when a person behaves aggressively and says or does hurtful things. Then the conflict is an aggressive interaction. Over time, a pattern of behaviour can emerge where the person who behaves aggressively in the conflict may continue or even make it worse.
The person who is on the receiving end of the aggressive conflict may begin to feel less able to express their point of view and may begin feeling powerless. That is when negative conflict can turn into bullying. For example, when there is conflict, a school staff member may try to have the students come together to tell their side of the story and help them resolve the situation together. When there is bullying, a principal will consider progressive discipline. Progressive discipline can include suspension or expulsion.
Teenagers might not tell you that there's a problem. Teenagers often prefer to handle things on their own. Bullying is a serious issue, with far-reaching consequences for the students, their families, peers and the community around them. Children who are victimized or bully other children are at risk for emotional, behavioural and relationship problems.
They will require support from adults to help them develop healthy relationships in school and throughout their lives. Some students miss school, see their marks drop or even leave school altogether because they have been bullied.
Even if they don't talk about it, you can watch for signs that a child is being bullied. It develops late in adolescence and does not usually become fully developed until early adulthood.
By working with the school to help your child handle the bullying, you are leading by example and giving a clear message that bullying is wrong. Look and listen for bullying in your home. There might be signs that one of your children is bullying a sibling. Children who bully are sometimes aggressive and disruptive at home and might not follow the household rules.
If you are concerned that your child may be bullying others, watch how your child interacts with siblings, with you and with friends. Children who physically bully other students may come home with bruises, scrapes and torn clothing.
Bullying occurs everywhere, even in the highest-performing schools, and it is hurtful to everyone involved, from the targets of bullying to the witnesses—and even to bullies themselves. As we discovered, not all approaches to bullying prevention are equally effective. Most bullying prevention programs focus on raising awareness of the problem and administering consequences.
But programs that rely on punishment and zero tolerance have not been shown to be effective in the U. Programs like peer mediation that place responsibility on the children to work out conflicts can increase bullying. Bystander intervention, even among adults, only works for some people—extroverts, empaths, and people with higher social status and moral engagement.
Many approaches that educators adopt have not been evaluated through research; instead, educators tend to select programs based on what their colleagues use. We found two research-tested approaches that show the most promise for reducing bullying along with other forms of aggression and conflict.
They are a positive school climate, and social and emotional learning. School climate can be difficult to define, though possible to measure. The elements of a positive climate may vary, but may often include norms about feelings and relationships, power and how it is expressed, and media consumption. Social norm engineering is a conscious process that builds a positive culture among student peers and school adults that becomes self-reinforcing.
Like a healthy immune system, a positive school climate promotes optimal health and reduces the chances of dysfunction or disease. Leadership is key to a positive climate. Do leaders understand that uninterrupted, severe bullying can confer lifelong negative consequences on targets of bullies, bullies, and witnesses? Can they discern between typical developmental processes that need guidance versus bullying that needs assertive intervention?
Next, are teachers prepared to deal with bullying? Students consistently report that teachers miss most incidents of bullying and fail to help students when asked. A majority of teachers report that they feel unprepared to deal with classroom bullying. Some teachers bully students themselves , or show a lack of empathy toward children who are bullied.
School climate assessments can be completed periodically to track the impact of improvements. Social and emotional learning SEL is well known, and involves teaching skills of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, responsible decision making, and relationships management. Schools can refer to this summary of legal issues on bullying. Many states have laws that outlaw sexting, and most states outlaw revenge porn. Find out your state laws.
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