Susan M. Swearer

What Can Be Done About School Bullying? Linking Research to Educational Practice

In this article, the authors review research on individual, peer, and school contributions that may be critical factors for enhancing efforts to address bullying among students. Methodological challenges are delineated, with an emphasis on how bullying is defined and assessed and the subsequent implications for bullying prevention and intervention program evaluation. The impact of school-based anti-bullying programs and the challenges currently facing educators and researchers in this area are discussed. The article concludes with a proposal for a broader, ecologically based model of school bullying based on the emerging literature.

Bullying in schools: An ecological framework

SUMMARY In this paper, we will argue that careful examination of research on bullying and victimization establishes that these are ecological phenomenon that emerge from social, physical, institutional and community contexts as well as the individual characteristics of youth who are bullied and victimized. Consequently, we will use an ecological framework to review prominent definitions and explanations of the problem of bullying and to make suggestions for linking intervention to research findings. It is hoped that this paper will further bridge the gap between the empirical knowledge about bullying and resultant prevention and intervention efforts.

Psychosocial correlates in bullying and victimization: The relationship between depression, anxiety, and bully/victim status

SUMMARY Examined differences between bullies, victims, and bully-victims on internalizing psychopathology (depression and anxiety). Participants included 133 (66 male and 67 female) sixth-grade students from a Midwestern middle school, ages ranging from 11 to 13 years old. The data presented are from the first two years of a five-year longitudinal study that began January of 1999. Initial results indicate differences between bullies, victims, bully-victims, and students without bully/victim problems (no status) in terms of depression and anxiety. Specifically, bully-victims and bullies were more likely to be depressed than victims and no status students. Bully-victims and victims were more likely to experience anxious symptoms than bullies and no status students. Thus, an interesting pattern emerged with respect to internalizing psychopathology along the bully/victim continuum. Bully-victims may be the most impaired subtype with respect to depression and anxiety. Implications for prevention and intervention programs are discussed.

Four decades of research on school bullying: an introduction

This article provides an introductory overview of findings from the past 40 years of research on bullying among school-aged children and youth. Research on definitional and assessment issues in studying bullying and victimization is reviewed, and data on prevalence rates, stability, and forms of bullying behavior are summarized, setting the stage for the 5 articles that comprise this American Psychologist special issue on bullying and victimization. These articles address bullying, victimization, psychological sequela and consequences, ethical, legal, and theoretical issues facing educators, researchers, and practitioners, and effective prevention and intervention efforts. The goal of this special issue is to provide psychologists with a comprehensive review that documents our current understanding of the complexity of bullying among school-aged youth and directions for future research and intervention efforts.

Understanding the psychology of bullying: Moving toward a social-ecological diathesis-stress model

With growing recognition that bullying is a complex phenomenon, influenced by multiple factors, research findings to date have been understood within a social-ecological framework. Consistent with this model, we review research on the known correlates and contributing factors in bullying/victimization within the individual, family, peer group, school and community. Recognizing the fluid and dynamic nature of involvement in bullying, we then expand on this model and consider research on the consequences of bullying involvement, as either victim or bully or both, and propose a social-ecological, diathesis-stress model for understanding the bullying dynamic and its impact. Specifically, we frame involvement in bullying as a stressful life event for both children who bully and those who are victimized, serving as a catalyst for a diathesis-stress connection between bullying, victimization, and psychosocial difficulties. Against this backdrop, we suggest that effective bullying prevention and intervention efforts must take into account the complexities of the human experience, addressing both individual characteristics and history of involvement in bullying, risk and protective factors, and the contexts in which bullying occurs, in order to promote healthier social relationships.

The Critical Role of School Climate in Effective Bullying Prevention.

Research has shown a negative association between positive school climate and bullying behavior. This article reviews research on school climate and bullying behavior and proposes that an unhealthy and unsupportive school climate (e.g., negative relationship between teachers and students, positive attitudes towards bullying) provides a social context that allows bullying behavior to occur. We provide information on how to evaluate the school climate and intervene to promote a more positive school climate and to reduce bullying behavior. Although there has been an increased interest among school personnel, parents, and students to reduce bullying behavior, the issue of how to assess the myriad of factors that may cause and maintain bullying behaviors, and to select evidence-based prevention and intervention programs, remains a challenge for many educators. This article seeks to address these two issues by highlighting the importance of school climate in bullying prevention and reviewing some school climate evaluations and intervention programs.

Examination of the Change in Latent Statuses in Bullying Behaviors across Time.

Involvement in bullying and victimization has been mostly studied using cross-sectional data from 1 time point. As such, much of our understanding of bullying and victimization has not captured the dynamic experiences of youth over time. To examine the change of latent statuses in bullying and victimization, we applied latent transition analysis examining self-reported bullying involvement from 1,180 students in 5th through 9th grades across 3 time points. We identified unobserved heterogeneous subgroups (i.e., latent statuses) and investigated how students transition between the unobserved subgroups over time. For victimization, 4 latent statuses were identified: frequent victim (11.23%), occasional traditional victim (28.86%), occasional cyber and traditional victim (10.34%), and infrequent victim (49.57%). For bullying behavior, 3 latent statuses were identified: frequent perpetrator (5.12%), occasional verbal/relational perpetrator (26.04%), and infrequent perpetrator (68.84%). The characteristics of the transitions were examined. The multiple-group effects of gender, grade, and first language learned on transitions across statuses were also investigated. The infrequent victim and infrequent perpetrator groups were the most stable, and the frequent victim and frequent perpetrator groups were the least stable. These findings suggest instability in perpetration and victimization over time, as well as significant changes, especially during school transition years. Findings suggest that school-based interventions need to address the heterogeneity in perpetrator and victim experiences in adolescence.

Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions for Depression: Review and Implications for School Personell.

Depression is one of the most commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorders among school-age youths. As such, school personnel should play an important role in the identification, assessment, and treatment of depression and related problems in school. School-based treatment of depression is especially relevant for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) and learning disabilities (LD) because they may be at a higher risk than their nondisabled peers of displaying depressive symptomatology. Cognitive-behavioral interventions (CBIs) have shown promise as an evidence-based treatment for childhood and adolescent depressive disorders. This article focuses on how CBI techniques can be used by school personnel under the proper clinical supervision for reducing students’ depressive symptomatology. First, common CBI techniques are described. Second, empirical studies using CBI to treat children and adolescents who are depressed are reviewed. Finally, implications for using these techniques in a collaborative effort among school psychologists, counselors, and special educators in an ethical and valid manner are presented.

Current Perspectives on Linking School Bullying Research to Effective Prevention Strategies

In the prevention literature, the terms “primary,” “secondary,” and “tertiary” refer to specific prevention and intervention strategies designed to reduce problem behavior in youth. Perhaps the most widely recognized model that embraces this three-tiered model is Positive Behavior Supports (PBS; Sprague & Golly, 2004; Sprague & Walker, 2005). PBS is a systems-based, behaviorally focused prevention and intervention set of strategies designed to improve educational outcomes and social development for all students. PBS models illustrate that approximately 80% of students will need primary prevention strategies, 15% will need secondary prevention strategies, and 5% will need tertiary prevention strategies. Applied to the problem of bullying, the goal of primary prevention is to reduce the number of new cases of bullying. The idea is that through wholeschool and classroom-wide strategies, new incidents of bullying can be curtailed. Fifteen percent of students will need secondary prevention strategies designed to reduce engagement in bullying. These might be the students who are involved in bullying as a bystander or students who are involved in bullying less frequently or less severely. Finally, tertiary prevention strategies are designed for the 5% of students who are involved in frequent and intense bullying behaviors. These are the students who might have concomitant psychological problems (i.e., depression and anxiety) as a result of their involvement in bullying behaviors (Craig, 1998; Kaltiala-Heino et al., 2000; Kumpulainen et al., 2001; Swearer et al., 2001). The goal of tertiary prevention is to reduce complications, severity, and frequency of bullying behaviors. While not an exhaustive list, Figure 17.1 outlines three bullying prevention and intervention initiatives that illustrate the three PBS tiers. A description of these three initiatives will be provided in the next section of this chapter.

Bullying and Peer Victimization

Research has demonstrated a link between internalizing factors and bullying perpetration and peer victimization; however, few studies have examined predictors of cognitive and psychosocial factors, such as locus of control and hopelessness. The current study examined cognitive and psychosocial factors in bullying perpetration and peer victimization in a sample of 469 middle school students. A mediator model of hopelessness was also investigated. Students involved in bullying reported a greater external locus of control compared with peers who were not involved in bullying. Bully-victims endorsed the highest externality. Results showed that hopelessness fully mediated the relationship between verbal/relational victimization and external locus of control for the victim group, but not the bully-victim group. Implications for bullying prevention and intervention efforts are discussed.