Bullying Prevention
Conflict resolution and bullying prevention are natural partners. A comprehensive violence prevention plan should include both. Schools that have a solid conflict resolution program in place are ideally positioned to engage in bullying prevention as a next step. Conflict resolution teaches students how to solve problems when power is fairly equal and when both parties have some interest in resolving the conflict. Bullying, on the other hand, occurs when one party has more power, that party has no interest in resolving the problem, and he is primarily interested in hurting the other. In these circumstances, conflict resolution techniques are not likely to be effective, so other methods must be in place. (To learning more about bullying prevention, please visit our online learning module.)
A bullying prevention program should teach students how to distinguish normal peer conflict, which responds well to conflict resolution strategies, from bullying violence, which warrants a different set of strategies. Once students understand which type of conflict they are dealing with, they can decide which strategies to use. There are several factors (for example, contextual factors and personality traits) that determine when some strategies are more appropriate than others.
Rethinking the deeper impacts that bullying has on our school culture is important for existing conflict resolution programs. While many such programs have a long history of creating safe and caring youth cultures and providing students and staff with specific skills to confront injustice, the recent attention to bullying has expanded the importance of this work and has provided language and additional strategies for surfacing and handling this more serious form of conflict and violence. Likewise, bullying prevention programs can benefit from the comprehensive experience that conflict resolution programs offer.
Videos of Possible Interest
- Girls Bullying
- On-the-Spot Bullying Prevention
- The Transformation of West Philadelphia High School: a story of hope
- PAX Good Behaviour Game
- Peaceful School Bus Program – Hazelden Foundation
- On-the-Spot Mediation: how to use your skills in everyday life
- Cyberbullying Toolkit: Webinar Archive
- Another Bully Busters Song
- Overview of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program
- Puppet Show – Kids Against Bullying
- Teaching Students How to “Stand Up” to Bullying – Webinar Archive
- Bullied: A Student, a School and a Case That Made History
- Cyberbullying (UNICEF)
- Students Take on Cyberbullying
- Social Emotional Learning via The Heart Story (RCCP)
- Help Increase the Peace Students Bullying Research Project
- Cyberbullying Toolkit for Educators
See MORE VIDEOS...
Sample Catalog Resources
Below you'll find a randomized listing of up to 20 related items (we may have more...) drawn from our Resource Catalog.
| Resource Title | Description | Links |
|---|---|---|
| Bullying in out-of-school time programs: tips for youth-serving professionals and volunteers | Pdf document that examines bullying in extracurricular activities with tips for professionals and volunteers. | |
| What we know about bullying | Pdf document with information on bullying. | |
| Social and Emotional Learning and Bullying Prevention | 21-page briefing paper prepared for the National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and the Social and Emotional Learning Research Group at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "Schools using a social and emotional learning (SEL) framework can foster an overall climate of inclusion, warmth, and respect, and promote the development of core social and emotional skills among both students and staff. Because bullying prevention is entirely congruent with SEL, it can be embedded in a school's SEL framework. The aims of this brief are to (a) provide a basic description of a school-wide SEL framework, (b) illustrate the relationship between social and emotional factors and bullying, and (c) explain how an SEL framework can be extended to include bullying prevention." | |
| Bullying among children and youth with disabilities and special needs | Pdf document discussing bullying of children with disabilities and special needs. | |
| Best practices in bullying prevention and intervention | Pdf document outlining best practices for bullying prevention and intervention. | |
| What to do if your child is being bullied | Pdf document with instructions to parents whose children are being bullied. | |
| Bully Prevention in Positive Behavior Support for Middle Schools | This 45-page handbook focuses on school-wide positive behavior support, explicit instruction, and a redefinition of the bullying construct in a middle school. | |
| What should I do if I'm bullied | Pdf document with advice to children who are bullied. | |
| State laws related to bullying among children and youth | Pdf document presenting information on state laws that deal with bullying. | |
| Exploring the nature and prevention of bullying: bullying quiz | One page true/false quiz on bullying. | |
| Bullying behavior chart | Pdf document in table form which outlines three types of bullying, (physical, emotional and social), as well as levels of severity, with behaviors in each section, adapted from, "New Jersey cares about bullying." | |
| Sample newsletter article: bullying among children and youth | Pdf document presenting a sample newsletter article on bullying. | |
| Clique bullying scenario | Web-based interactive scenario which presents children reacting to a clique bullying situation and "taking a stand against the crowd." | |
| Tug of war - Peace Through Understanding Conflict | This 10-chapter 104-page book, available as a pdf, is for youth ages 8-16 interested in a peaceful world - and in understanding the forces that cause conflict, both in personal relationships and across the globe. Tug of War describes: 1) What the roots of war are. 2) How we create "The Enemy". 3) A new way to handle violence. Illustrated by award-winning artist, Rod Cameron. Part of the Education for Peace Series by Atrium Society Publications | |
| Misdirections in bullying prevention and intervention | Pdf document which discusses mistakes made in dealing with bullies and suggestions for alternative strategies. | |
| Digital Citizenship Poster for Middle and High School Classrooms | A poster targeting middle school and high school age youth that provides a flow chart to help students decide if sharing something (a photo for instance) online is appropriate or not. A larger poster is available for order - info at www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/middlehigh_poster | |
| Measuring Bullying Victimization, Perpetration, and Bystander Experiences: A Compendium | This compendium (128-page pdf) provides researchers, prevention specialists, and health educators with tools to measure a range of bullying experiences: bully perpetration, bully victimization, bully-victim experiences, and bystander experiences. The compendium represents a starting point from which researchers can consider a set of psychometrically sound measures for assessing self-reported incidence and prevalence of a variety of bullying experiences. | |
| Exploring the nature and prevention of bullying: Significant identifying characteristics for victims | Word document that lists 21 characteristics of victims of bullying. | |
| Tips for selecting materials from the resource list | Pdf document providing tips for choosing materials on bullying. | |
| STOP: On-the-spot bullying intervention | Word document presenting actions and statements for on-the-spot intervention of bullying behavior. |