Transcript Powerpoint - The Melissa Institute

The Lifecycle of Bullying:
Why Kids Bully and What We
can Do to Help them Stop?
Debra Pepler
Melissa Institute - Scientific Board
York University &
The Hospital for Sick Children
Objectives
Highlight emerging research on the
development and desistence in bullying.
Discuss what we as adults can do to promote
healthy relationships and healthy
development for children and youth who are
involved in bullying their peers.
What is Bullying?
Bullying is a relationship problem that requires
relationship solutions:
• Those who bully are learning to use power
aggressively to control and distress others
• Those who are victimized become trapped
in an abusive relationship.
Understanding
Developmental Pathways of
Children who Bully
Girls’ and Boys’
Bullying Trajectories
Pepler, Jiang, Craig, & Connolly, 2008, Child Development
Individual Risk Factors for
Bullying in Late Elementary &
High School
Children who bully exhibit problems with:
• Moral disengagement
• Physical aggression
• Relational aggression
Relationship Risk Factors for
Bullying in Late Elementary & High
School
Children who bully have problems in their
relationships with parents and friends:
• Parental trust
• Parental monitoring
• Parental conflict
• Friends who also bully
• Conflict with peers
• Susceptibility to peer pressure
What Happens for Those
Youth who Desist in
Bullying?
These youth have accomplished the
developmental tasks for social competence
and social responsibility.
They are no longer:
• Morally disengaged
• Physically aggressive
• Relationally aggressive
What Happens for Those
Youth who Desist in
Bullying?
These youth have developed better
relationships with parents and are no longer
different than the non-bullying youth:
• Trust with parents
• Parental monitoring
• Parental conflict
What Happens for Those
Youth who Desist in
Bullying?
These youth have also developed better
relationships with their friends:
They no longer are high on:
• Friends who also bully
• Conflict with peers
However, they are still somewhat high on:
• Susceptibility to peer pressure
What has Happened for
Those Youth who Desist in
Bullying?
They have developed relationship skills that
are essential for healthy relationships:
• Physical
• Social
• Emotional
• Behavioural
• Cognitive
• Moral
Their relationships have also improved:
-- a bi-directional process
What Happens for Those
Youth who Persist in
Bullying?
Developmental Pathways of
Power and Aggression
in Relationships
Elder
Abuse
Child
Abuse
Marital
Abuse
Gang/ Delinquency
Dating
Aggression Aggression
BULLYING
Sexual
Harassment
Workplace
Harassment
We can Do to Help them
Stop?
Nature and Nurture!
Some children are born with biological
challenges….
These work together with the environments in
which they grow up (i.e., their relationships)
to shape their development.
Healthy Development
depends on
Healthy Relationships
Emerging research on:
• Epigenetics: changes in gene expression
• Brain architecture and activity
• Family, peer, and other relationships
• Societal factors
Relationships Matter for
Gene Expression
The “operating system” for genes is built over
time through:
• Positive experiences, such as exposure to
rich learning opportunities.. or
• Negative experiences, such as stressful life
circumstances
Experiences leave a chemical “signature” on
genes, which can be temporary or
permanent
• These experiences affect how easily the
genes are switched on or off.
Relationships Matter for the
Brain through Genes and
Experiences
The brain adapts to the experiences that a
child has..
If the child has positive experiences, the brain
adapts positively for learning, memory, and
regulation
If the child has stressful experiences, the brain
adapts negatively, with too much or too little
response to any stress.
As the brain develops, the gene expression
adapts as well, leading to further
positive or negative
brain development
What Does This Have To Do
With The Role Of Adults?
Children experience their world as an
environment of relationships.
• Relationships are important throughout
development
• Relationships affect all aspects of
development – intellectual, social,
emotional, physical, behavioral, and
moral.
Adults are responsible for
the quality of children’s
relationships
Relationships are the “active ingredients” of
the environment’s influence on healthy
human development.
Relationships engage children in the human
community in ways that help them define who
they are, what they can become, and how
and why they are important to other people.
National Scientific Council on the Developing
Child
Working paper #1. Young children develop in
the environment of relationships
Other Relationships are
Important Too!
The relative importance of relationships with
parents, other caregivers, other adults, and
peers changes with development.
All these relationships are central to children’s
development of social competence and
social responsibility.
Growth-promoting relationships are based on
the child’s continuous give-and-take with a
human partner who provides what nothing
else in the world can offer – experiences
that:
• are individualized to the child’s unique
personality style
• build on his or her own interests,
capabilities, and initiative
• shape self-awareness
• stimulate the growth of his or her heart and
mind.
National Scientific Council on the Developing
Child
Working paper #1. Young children develop in
the environment of relationships
What can we do to promote
healthy relationships for
all children and youth?
Bullying is a Relationship Problem that
Requires Relationship Solutions
Child or
youth’s needs,
strengths,
challenges
© Promoting Relationships and Eliminating Violence Network, 2007
Back to the Brain for a Moment
Research on the brain activity of children
referred and treated for aggressive
behaviour problems
James Stieben and colleagues
Marc Lewis and colleagues
Developmental Perspective
What relationship skills is this girl lacking?
Relationship Perspective
• How do this girl’s peers relate to her?
• How do adults relate to her?
• What do you imagine her family life might
be like?
What might we do to promote
healthy development for this girl
through adolescence and into
adulthood?
Developmental Perspective
Intervening to support a girl’s needs,
strengths, challenges
Scaffolding
• Metaphor to describe adults’ role in
anticipating and providing ever-changing,
individualized supports to allow children to
rise about their normal level of performance
(tailored coaching).
• Can be programmatic, such as social skills
training, or moment-to-moment.
Relationship Perspective
Intervening to promote positive
and discourage negative
relationship experiences
Social Architecture
• Metaphor to describe how as adults, we are
responsible for creating safe and inclusive
contexts for children and youth and
discouraging negative relationship
dynamics.
What SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE
could you create for the girl in the
video to ensure she is in healthy
relationships and not engaged in
unhealthy relationships?
Promoting Positive
Relationships for Children
and Youth …
The change starts with us!
Strategies for Building Healthy
Relationships
Healthy relationships strategies require:
• Awareness of potential problems
• Catch problem EARLY; ongoing support
• Communication among adults, between
students and adults, between home and
school, etc.
• Support for the most vulnerable children and
youth.
• Systems Change, Social Architecture,
Scaffolding, and
Self-Awareness
It Takes a Village to
Raise A Child
Bullying is a relationship problem that
requires relationship solutions in all of
the places where children live, learn,
play and work.
Partnerships for Social
Responsibility
Counselors and school leaders can partner
with teachers, parents, community
organizations, and police to:
– Put necessary developmental
supports in place (scaffolding)
– Organize peer experiences to reduce
bullying and other antisocial
behaviours (social architecture)
– Develop community-wide prevention
programs
– Divert youth from troubled pathways
THANK YOU!
For Helping Us Bridge Research and Practice
to Promote Healthy Relationships for All Children and Youth
www.prevnet.ca