BASIC PRINCIPLES OF

BULLYING PREVENTION:
Gains & Challenges

Ronald L. Oliver, Ed.D.

Medellin, Colombia
Octubre 2008
FRAMEWORK OF PRESENTATION

I. NINE PRINCIPLES OF BULLYING

PREVENTION PROGRAMMING
II. FUTURE PROGRAMMING INITIATIVES
III. CONCLUSION & DISCUSSION
 Standard Definition of
Bullying
“A person is being bullied or
victimized when he or she is
exposed, repeatedly over time,
to negative actions (both verbal
and physical) on the part of one
or more persons (from Dan
Olweus, 1993b, p. 9).
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 Three Components of Definition:
1. Bullying is aggressive behavior or intentional
“harm doing” by one person or a group.

2. It is carried out repeatedly over time.

3. It is targeted towards someone

less powerful.

Viewed within the subset of aggression, it is usually

associated with low levels of violence. It is further viewed
as primarily being instrumental in nature, utilizing both overt
(direct) and covert (indirect) courses of action, e.g. through
withdrawal or threatened withdrawal of friendship

. .
 Why Bother?

 Because unchecked “bullying”

increases the risk for serious violence,
diminishes academic achievement, and
creates depression and fear in victims
while it presages delinquency and
criminality in bullies.
 9 BASIC PRINCIPLES OF
BULLYING
PREVENTION

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 FIRST PRINCIPLE
 Developa caring community
in the school.
 What is a “caring community”?

An environment in which students,

educators and other adults work
together for the social, physical and
emotional well-being of all members. It
conveys a sense of humanism, mutual
respect, emotional warmth, support for
pro-social behaviors, recognition of
basic rights and a sense of a common
union.
 Characteristics of a Caring
Community
 Committed to humane interactions;
 Committed to supporting social
connections and growth for all
members;
 Advocates democratic values;
 Fosters racial and ethnic equity and
oppositions to all forms of inequality.
 BENEFITS
Schools with a positive social climate
produce higher levels of academic
achievement, lower dropout rates, a
reduced level of injuries, property
destruction and vandalism, as well as
increased school morale (Hoover &
Oliver, 2008).
 COMPONENTS OF A CARING
COMMUNITY

1. ATTITUDINAL: a compassionate
and empathetic valuation of others

2. COGNITIVE: the ability to

imagine solutions to social
problems
Schools Need to Inspire the Best in
Each of Us
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or
acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes
out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny
ripple of hope, and crossing each other
from a million different centers of energy
and daring, those ripples build a current
which can sweep down the mightiest walls
of oppression and resistance.”
 Robert F. Kennedy, Capetown, S.A., 1966

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 2 Principle
nd

Adopt a Holistic Approach

Although each component of
these principles is discussed
separately, none can stand
alone. All are needed:

• Strong Leadership
• Student Involvement
• Parent Involvement
• Faculty & Staff support
• Community support
 Need for Positive School
Climate
In one of the first comprehensive
studies of bullying among middle
school students where schools were
a unit of analysis, results suggest
that school with less bullying were
characterized by positive disciplinary
actions, strong parental involvement,
and high academic standards (Ma,
2002).

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 3 Principle
rd

Establish Rules and

Consequences
 3 Principle
rd

In coordination with parents and students,

educators must set and enforce
behavioral standards that send the clear
message that bullying is unacceptable.
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 3rd Principle

While most school discipline codes

prohibit physical attacks, relatively
few prohibit verbal attacks. Yet
verbal attacks and teasing are
perceived as being as harmful to
students as physical attacks.
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Mental Health Consequences
of Bullying
• Kaltiala-Heino et al., (1999) assessed the
relationship between bully/victim status and
depression and suicidal ideation among 14-
16 year olds after controlling for age and sex,
• Bully-victims exhibited the highest risk for
depression,
• Followed by victims, and then
• Bullies.
• Bully-victims were also the most at-risk
group for suicidal ideation.
 3 Principle
rd

 Once a clear code of conduct with specific

rules and disciplinary consequences is in
place, educators should reexamine it
regularly, especially when new peer
victimization problems arise.
 Walker, Colvin and Ramsey (1995)
provide an overview of the best practices
for developing a proactive school-wide
discipline program.

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 4th Principle

Protect Vulnerable Individuals

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 4th Principle
 Specific policies must be developed and
put in place at the level of the classroom
and the school that will protect vulnerable
youngsters (Limber & Small, 2003).
 At the classroom level Olweus (1993b)
found that specific rules, gently but
consistently enforced reduced the amount
of bullying that took place in specific
environments.

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 5 Principle
th

 Createan Education
Campaign

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 5 Principle
th

 Getting the antibullying message out

was a central feature of the first
successful antibullying campaign
undertaken by Swedish social
psychologist, Dan Olweus (1993a) in
Norway.

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 5 Principle
th

 There are at least two crucial

aspects:
 the information they convey and
 the teaching approaches used to get
the message across.

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 6 Principle
th

Establish a Clear Referral

Process/Mechanism

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 6th Principle
 For the referral mechanism to work,
a climate must be established in
which students are not afraid to
admit that they are hurt and to ask
for help.
 They must be have confidence that
they will be listened to and taken
seriously.

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 7 Principle
th

Offer Group and Individual

Counseling

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 7 Principle
th

 Both bullies and chronic bullying

victims often approach situations
with idiosyncratic thought patterns.
Bullies can be encouraged not to
interpret neutral episodes as
instances of aggression requiring
counter-aggression, while victims
can learn to assert themselves more
confidently and effectively.

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 8 Principle
th

Develop a Family-Based
Approach

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 8 Principle
th

 The families of bullies are often

characterized by excessively loose
structure, a cool to cold emotional
climate, and a lack of supervision.
 Families of many chronically bullied
students appear to be over-involved
and highly over-protective.

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 9 Principle
th

Evaluate Progress
Carefully

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 9th Principle
 Evaluation, in this context, means
not only formal testing, but also all
efforts to determine whether and to
what degree a school program
operates effectively and efficiently.
 Comprehensive assessments should
utilize both quantitative and
qualitative measures.

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 RECOMMENDED
NEW INITIATIVES
FOR BULLYING
PREVENTION

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Recommended Programming
Strengthen Family-School Partnerships
 Avoid Blaming and Secondary
Victimization
 Rather than adopting a deficiency
model that focuses on struggling
families’ weakness and pathologies, it
is more effective to support family
advocacy programming and strength-
based perspectives.

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 Recommended Programs
 Strengthen Family-School Partnerships
by Developing Family Resource
Centers
Support the whole family by offering:
afternoon and early evening courses in
anger management and social skills
training, programming for academic
remediation or acceleration, health
services, child care and recreational
and fine-arts programming.

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 Recommended Programming
 Increase the role of human rights in
prevention programming:
 Use it as an organizing principle
 Bullying is an issue of the human
rights of safety and inclusion;
bullying represents a basic violation
of human rights and should be
treated as such.

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Recommended Programs
Combat Media Violence:
Educators could send letters and
bulletins to parents that offer
methods for helping their children
cope with media violence.
Offer media analysis training,
Plan meetings with PTA/PTO

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Recommended Programming
 Increase the focus on service to
others and service learning in
schools.

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 Final Recommendation
 The “culture of silence” is estimated
to effect 30% of children in England;
 The culture of “sapo” is likely even
more widespread in Colombia
 Start a “Frogs to Princes” campaign:
 Discredit silence (e.g. it’s not golden,
it’s yellow)

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 MUCHAS
GRACIAS POR SU
ATENCIÓN

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