“We Want to Learn How to be Human” Relationships Matter for Bullying

Prevention

Debra Pepler York University &

The Hospital for Sick Children

How Can We REALLY Prevent Bullying?

Healthy Development Depends on Healthy

Relationships

Developmental – Different Perspective

• Troubled child understood as requiring educational, mental health, and relationship supports.

• Move away from seeing emotional and behavioural problems as a discipline issue

• Formative/educational and restorative consequences

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BULLYING

Dating

Aggression

Sexual

Harassment

Gang

Aggression

Marital

Abuse

Workplace

Harassment

Child

Abuse

Elder

Abuse

Developmental Pathway of Power and Aggression in

Relationships

Aggressive children are not “just bad kids”…

They have missed

important developmental opportunities in

relationships

Video Observation 1

We will watch a Grade 3 girl (8 years old) who has been referred for social skills training for her aggressive behaviours.

Watch how unskilled she is when interacting with others, but also watch how her peers and even the adults act towards her.

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• Behavioural regulation: attentional, verbal, and social skills

• Emotional regulation: anger, anxiety, and arousal Executive functioning: perspective-taking & problem-solving abilities, consequence-based reasoning

• Moral understanding: empathy, respect, inclusion, and prosocial reasoning

All critical for successful social interactions, mental health and academic success

What is Not Developing?

What is Developing?

Aggressive strategies -- in their efforts to thrive Aggression can be “effective” in gaining control, solving problems, and acquiring resources and social power

However, dysregulation leads to:

• Irritablity which then leads to anger and oppositional behaviour

• Anxiety

• Other troublesome behaviours

• Patterns of escalating conflict

• Victimization by peers

• Mental and physical health problems

What is Developing?

Developmental Perspective

What is Not Developing?

Even with development of skills,

relationships matter

Video Observation 2

This boy is in Grade 1 and was identified as the most aggressive, noncompliant and disruptive child in the grade. We see him after 6 months of social skills training. He has learned all the skills we taught him and uses them well.

We did not, however, intervene to change how peers behave toward him.

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

Bullying: An Unhealthy Relationship

Victimized children experience chronic stress and are more likely to experience:

•headaches and stomach aches

•difficulties sleeping and bedwetting

•depressive symptoms

Children who bully are more likely to:

•Engage in substance use & delinquency

•Engage in physical aggression to dating partner

•Be at risk for mental health problems

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How Can We REALLY Prevent Bullying and

Violence? The development of antisocial

behaviour with its associated mental health problems is not just a school problem – it is a societal problem

How can we move toward a solution?

What are the steps to promoting optimal development?

• Early identification

• Engagement of child and family

• Tailored support to address developmental lag

• Ongoing monitoring to ensure that child is meeting developmental expectations

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Child or youth’s needs, strengths, challenges

© Promoting Relationships and Eliminating Violence Network, 2007

Bullying is a Relationship Problem that Requires Relationship

Solutions

Interventions for Children at Risk for Bullying and/or Victimization:

Determining Intensity

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Level 2: Secondary (selective) 10-15%

Level 1: Primary

(universal)

75-80% Level 3:Tertiary (Indicated) 5-10%

Strategies to Promote Healthy Relationships

• Self-Awareness

• Building Rapport

• Scaffolding

• Social Architecture

• Systems Change

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Bullying Prevention: A Rights Issue

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: All children have the right to be safe! Government: •Education Legislation – principals and teachers have responsibilities to protect students •Public Health Issue – healthy development depends on healthy relationships •Community – social services, recreation, health, and police are essential partners

Strategies for Building Healthy Relationships

Healthy relationships efforts require: • Awareness of potential problems

• Catching problem EARLY; ongoing support • Communication among adults, between students

and adults, between home and school, etc.

• Support for the most vulnerable children and youth.

• Self-Awareness, Build Rapport, Scaffolding, Social

Architecture, and Systems Change,

Canada’s Research Strategy for Social and Economic Change

Canada’s largest funding mechanism, Networks of Centres of Excellence supports partnerships to share expertise between university researchers and organizations doing the practical work

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A Societal Approach to Promoting Healthy Relationships and

Preventing Violence

Why Promoting Relationships and Eliminating Violence?

Healthy human development depends on healthy

relationships.

It Takes a Network 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.

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CCRC

Thanks to Our Partners

For Helping Bridge Research and Practice

to Promote Healthy Relationships for All Children and Youth

www.prevnet.ca

THANK YOU!