240 likes | 340 Views
BULLYING IN SCHOOL BASED SETTINGS. National Crime Prevention Centre What Have We Learned? March 23, 2006. Overview. National Crime Prevention Strategy What is bullying? What we have learned Next steps. National Crime Prevention Strategy.
E N D
BULLYING IN SCHOOL BASED SETTINGS National Crime Prevention Centre What Have We Learned? March 23, 2006
Overview • National Crime Prevention Strategy • What is bullying? • What we have learned • Next steps
National Crime Prevention Strategy • Focus on people most vulnerable to becoming offenders or victims (children, youth, Aboriginal people, seniors among others) • Focus on factors that place people at higher risk such as domestic violence, substance abuse, low literacy skills, poverty • Focus on crime prevention through social development • Social policy tool
Interest in Bullying • School-based initiatives • Public Education • Canadian Initiative for Prevention of Bullying • Knowledge development
Bullying • Actions within a relationship between a dominant person or group and a less dominant person or group where: • An imbalance of power (real or perceived) • Physical or psychological (verbal or social) • Direct or indirect actions • Repeated over time • Intent to harm
Canadian Statistics – High School Yuile, Pepler, Craig & Connolly (2003) • 11% of high school students reported bullying others in the last 5 days • 10-15% of students reported being victims of bullying in the last 5 days • Bullying rates increase during transition to grade 9 especially for boys • 65% of high school students are victims of verbal or social bullying at least once during the term
A Larger Context • Bullying problems are relationship problems that occur in a social domain. As such, they also implicate: • Peers – present in 85% of bullying episodes • Adults - parents, teachers, administrative staff, coaches, lunchroom supervisors, custodial staff • Larger social domain – community and society, popular media.
Helping Adults Intervene • Adult intervention is low: • Most bullying is verbal • Incidents are brief • Clandestine nature – occur in low monitoring situations • Other priorities • Beliefs and values
Consequences of Bullying • Victims – physical and emotional damage • Long lasting – distress, self-blame, fear, depression, suicide • Bullies – anti-social behaviour, dating violence, delinquent behaviour • Long lasting – continued relationship problems and anti-social behaviour, aggressive tendencies, depression
Best Practices • Develop whole school approach • Plan the intervention • Address multiple risk factors • Involve multiple stakeholders • Involve students in all aspects • Consider audience • gender, age, culture, sexual orientation
What doesn’t work • Zero tolerance • School expulsion • Individually-focused programs • Situational deterrents
Mining NCPS Projects • 87 school-based bullying projects • Funded from April 1, 1998 to March 31, 2003 • Total amount of funding - $5.7M dollars • 78/87 projects were funded through Community Mobilization Program • Projects were funded in every province and territory
Category # of Responses Percentage of Projects Individual Skills & Characteristics 80 92% Community Related Factors 57 66% School Related Factors 53 61% Family and Friends 27 31% Society Related Factors 20 23% Risk and Protective Factors
Activity #of Responses % of Projects Provide workshops, presentations or classes for children or youth 47 71% Create a product, tool or resource 45 68% Provide training to teachers, school staff & others who work w/children and youth 24 36% Organize an awareness campaign 19 29% Conduct a literature review related to crime/victimization issues & solutions 19 29% Activities
What Projects Said Worked • Workshops, presentations– esp. interactive ones • Use of theatre – powerful in its impact • Conferences –follow-up actions essential • Tools, resources – with youth involvement • Anti-bullying curriculum – not just “one-shot” • Skill-building – for youth at risk • Mentoring – benefits for both mentor and mentee • **Comprehensive Community Approaches**
Challenges • Project planning • Working within school environment • Engaging parents • Coping with the unexpected • Difficult subject matter • Evaluation and research issues
Some of the gaps in knowledge • Gender specific approaches • Age-specific approaches • Bullying based on sexual orientation • Bullying based on cultural background • Bullying based on disabilities – both victims and bullies
Public Education • Public Service Announcements • Concerned Children’s Advertisers (CCA) • Lesson plans being developed • Visit website www.cca-kids.ca
What Next? • Development of variety of products • Influence community action and research • Build continual, systematic loop of knowledge development