Bullying

By definition bullying is "systematically and chronically inflicting physical hurt and/or psychological distress on another" [1]. 

Sometimes we tend to think "that's a child's play" but it can be the cause for future problems.

As part of the education system, we should know how to recognise, intervene and act with the students involved in the bullying.

First of all, every single conflict might be consider as a bullying episode? The answer is NO!. We have to identify the behavior, and see if we can find the three main characteristics that a bullying behavior has. These are

1. It's a repeated behavior, the target is attacked every single day.
2. There is a power imbalance, could be due to he/she is smaller, younger or their social possition.
3. It's done on purpose. The student who bully enjoys seeing the bullied student suffering.

It is very important to identify as soon as possible this type of behavior and stop it, because, like the World health organization shows, bullying can be one of the reasons that cause youth violence [2]. The students who suffer bullying during their childhood are also more susceptible to suffer a huge variety of health risks such as depression, heart diseases, or even alcohol and/or drug abuse[3].

In addition, these students, seems to have lowest academic results, as it is shown in a Progress in International  Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) survey. The data is very clear, the students whose have been bulled obtained lower results (exactly 34 points under of those ones who never have been bulled[4]).

Average score from schools with low rates of bullying. Retrieved from [4]

Avarage score from schools with high bullying rates. Retrieved from [4]

The intervention has to follow a few simples rules, we should stop the event as soon as we see it and also stop the eye contact between the people implicated. We are the adults, so keep calm and do not ask any question with both together or bystanders, they could not telling us the truth regarding future actions. If there are any injuries, weapons or any other unsafety situation we have to call the police or any other authority. [1]

Something that I learnt today doing the researchment to write this post was that we do not have to encourage the students to apologize for bullying someone else, we have to be sure they know that this kind of behavior is unacceptable and that you will be aware that this won't happen anymore.

Most of the states in the U.S. have laws and policies against bullying. You can check them here. 

To conclude, a new in a local newspaper catched my attention. It was related with bullying. There is a anti-bullying program in Finland called KiVa. This program has been a very useful tool to prevent and intervene in bullying cases. It consist in a package of preventive activities like students lessons and video games and resources for those children who have been involved in bullying. 

The results are very positives, as we can see in the next graphic, that shows the number of bulled students [5].

Retrieved from  http://www.kivaprogram.net/is-kiva-effective

The program is implemented in other countries like England and Italy, getting the same amazing results that it did in Finland.

Resources

[1] NEA. (2010). NEA’s Bully Free: It Starts With Me. Retrieved from  http://www.nea.org/home/neabullyfree.html 

[2]WHO Media Center. (2015). Youth violence. Retrieved from : http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs356/en/

[3]Jorge C Srabstein & Bennett L Leventhal . (2010). Prevention of bullying-related morbidity and mortality: a call for public health policies. 2015, Retrieved from: http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/88/6/10-077123/en/

[4] Mullis, I.V.S., Martin, M.O., Foy, P., & Drucker, K.T. (2012). Chestnut Hill, MA: TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center, Boston College. Retrieved from:   http://timssandpirls.bc.edu/pirls2011/downloads/P11_IR_Chapter6.pdf

[5] KiVa International. (2011). Welcome to KiVa school!. 2015, Retrieved from: http://www.kivaprogram.net/program

Other Resources

• Koli Banik. (2014). Safer Schools Translate into Better Learning, Right?. 2015, Global Partnership for Education Retreived from : http://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/safer-schools-translate-better-learning-right
• Unesco. (2015). Bullying. 2015,Unesco Retreived from : http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/health-education/homophobic-bullying/bullying/
• C. M. Rubin. (2012). The Global Search for Education: It Takes a Community. 2015,  The Huffington Post Retreived from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/c-m-rubin/the-global-search-for-edu_48_b_1888887.html#es_share_ended
• Yanke,R.. (2015). 'Si la víctima responde, el acosador se anula'. 2015, El Mundo Retreived from: http://www.elmundo.es/espana/2015/05/14/5553912ce2704e2e7c8b4581.html