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
- Help Increase the Peace Students Bullying Research Project
- On-the-Spot Mediation: how to use your skills in everyday life
- Overview of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program
- Students Take on Cyberbullying
- On-the-Spot Bullying Prevention
- Peaceful School Bus Program – Hazelden Foundation
- Another Bully Busters Song
- The Transformation of West Philadelphia High School: a story of hope
- Teaching Students How to “Stand Up” to Bullying – Webinar Archive
- Cyberbullying Toolkit for Educators
- Cyberbullying Toolkit: Webinar Archive
- PAX Good Behaviour Game
- Bullied: A Student, a School and a Case That Made History
- Girls Bullying
- Social Emotional Learning via The Heart Story (RCCP)
- Cyberbullying (UNICEF)
- Puppet Show – Kids Against Bullying
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 |
|---|---|---|
| HRSA stop bullying now resource kit | One page list of materials on bullying for professionals and parents. | |
| Advice from our "tween" and teen experts | Pdf document with advice on bullying from the Youth Expert Panel. | |
| STOP: On-the-spot bullying intervention | Word document presenting actions and statements for on-the-spot intervention of bullying behavior. | |
| 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. | |
| Working with young people who are bullied: tips for mental health professionals | Pdf document with tips for mental health workers who treat bullied youth. | |
| 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." | |
| What can students and youth do to lend a hand | Pdf document with advice to students and youth on bullying prevention. | |
| What we know about bullying | Pdf document with information on bullying. | |
| What should I do if I'm bullied | Pdf document with advice to children who are bullied. | |
| Research-based books and articles on bullying and peer victimization | Pdf document presents list of books and articles on bullying and peer victimization. | |
| Assessing the status of your school's comprehensive bullying prevention plan | Pdf document which presents a series of questions to help educators determine the status of bullying programs, based on Dan Olweus's, "Bullying prevention program." | |
| Scope and impact of bullying | Pdf document which discusses bullying. | |
| Bullying in our schools: protecting GLBT youth | Powerpoint presentation which discusses bullying in schools particularly involving gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered youth in schools. | |
| Steps to address bullying at your school: tips for school administrators | Pdf document with advice to school administrators on addressing bullying at school. | |
| Assessment toolkit for bullying, harassment and peer relations at school | 170-page pdf "designed for teachers, school administrators, and ministries of education... Developed in partnership with the Canadian Initiative for the Prevention of Bullying (National Crime Prevention Strategy), this free kit provides a standard way to measure the nature and prevalence of school peer relationship problems, standards for quality programs, and a common set of tools to assess the impact of school-based programs. From a public health perspective, it provides an overview of what works and what doesn’t, foundations for best practice standards, and outlines the core school components. CPHA’s toolkit includes tips for students, parents, teachers and administrators in the form of a handout and checklist that can be posted on the fridge at home, in the student’s desk and on the chalkboard at school." | |
| Working with young people who bully others: tips for mental health professionals | Pdf document with tips for mental health workers who treat bullies. | |
| Being an ally | Pdf document for students outlining steps and sample phrases to help diffuse bullying incidents. | |
| Children who bully | Pdf document on children who bully. | |
| Bully Prevention in Positive Behavior Support | A 52-page handbook focusing on giving elementary students the tools to reduce bullying behavior through the blending of school-wide positive behavior support, explicit instruction, and a redefinition of the bullying construct. | |
| Clique bullying scenario | Web-based interactive scenario which presents children reacting to a clique bullying situation and "taking a stand against the crowd." |