Profiles of a Bully: How to Make a Center Safe

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Profiles of a Bully How to Make a Center Safe

• Bradley Kohl, MSW
• Center Mental Health Consultant
• Shriver Job Corps Center
• National Health and Wellness Conference
• April 25, 2007
• Denver, Colorado

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What is Bullying?

Definition Repeated physical, verbal sexual, or
psychological attacks or intimidation by an
individual who is perceived as being physically
or psychologically stronger than another.
Analogies include sexual harassment and spouse
abuse, i.e., all involve an imbalance of power.
The perpetrator may blame the victim for the
abuse, and the victim may blame him or
herself. Ref Olweus, D. (2003). A profile of
bullying at school. Educational Leadership,
60(6), 12-17.
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Relational Aggression (RA)

• Definition the use of social relationships to
  hurt and/or dominate
• Examples include
• Rumors
• Name calling
• Excluding from social groups
• Gossip
• Ref Dellasega and Nixon, (2003) Girl Wars 12
  Strategies That Will End Female Bullying,
  Fireside Books

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A Look at Bullying Statistics

• 1/3 of all high school students report being
  involved in frequent and serious bullying
• 10 as perpetrators
• 13 as victims
• 6 as both
• ? as witnesses and bystanders
• Ref Nansel, T. R., Overpeck, M., Pilla, R. S.,
  Ruan, W. J., Simons-Morton, B., Scheidt, P.
  (2001). Bullying behaviors among U.S. youth
  Prevalence and association with psychosocial
  adjustment. Journal of the American Medical
  Association, 285(16), 2094-2100.

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Bullying Statistics (continued)

• 77 of middle and high school students in the
  rural Midwest towns they studied reported having
  been the target of bullies at some point in their
  school career.
• 51 of males in another study reported that they
  were afraid of someone in their school.

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Bullying Statistics (continued)

• 8 out of 10 high school students in one survey
  responded that they had been the target of sexual
  harassment.
• Ref U.S. Secret Service U.S. Department of
  Education. (2002). The final report and findings
  of the Safe School Initiative Implications for
  the prevention of school attacks in the United
  States, by B. Vossekuil, R. A. Fein, M. Reddy, K.
  Borum, and W. Modzeleski. Washington, DC U.S.
  Secret Service.

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Why Be Concerned About Bullying?

• Bullies are 5 times as likely to become adult
  criminals as non-bullies
• Targets of bullying are more likely to become
  depressed as adults
• Preventing bullying improves the emotional safety
  of the Center
• Ref Ross, D. (1996) Childhood Bullying and
  Teasing, ACA Press

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What Is The Impact of Emotional Violence?

• The American Academy of Pediatrics has stated
  that in some cases the psychological consequences
  of verbal abuse by peers may be more damaging
  than physical abuse.

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Verbal and Psychological Abuse Tends To

• Denigrate and diminish the victim/target
• Damage a persons positive self-concept
• Become accepted as normal behavior
• Harm the perceived level of emotional safety in
  the school setting. This can apply to victims
  and bystanders/ witnesses.

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Further Consequences of Bullying

• Youth who are bullied have significantly higher
  rates of suicide, depression, PTSD, and substance
  abuse.
• Ref U.S. Department of Health and Human
  Services, Center for Mental Health Services
  (2003). Bullying is not a fact of life
  (CMHS-SVP-0052).

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Further Consequences of Bullying

• Almost 75 percent of students who used violent
  weapons at school (e.g., guns or knives) to
  attack others felt persecuted, bullied,
  threatened, attacked, or injured by others prior
  to the incident.
• Ref U.S. Secret Service U.S. Department of
  Education. (2002). The final report and findings
  of the Safe School Initiative Implications for
  the prevention of school attacks in the United
  States, by B. Vossekuil, R. A. Fein, M. Reddy, K.
  Borum, and W. Modzeleski. Washington, DC U.S.
  Secret Service.

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More Findings Re Weapons

• About 50 percent of boys and 30 percent of girls
  who had bullied others in school reported
  carrying a weapon.
• Thirty-six percent of boys and 15 percent of
  girls who had been bullied carried a weapon.
• Youth who are bullied and who also bully others
  away from school were nearly 16 times more likely
  to carry a weapon.
• Ref Nansel, T. R., Overpeck, M. D., Haynie, D.
  L., Ruan, W. J., Scheidt, P. C. (2003)
  Relationships between bullying and violence among
  U.S. youth. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent
  Medicine, 157(4), 348-353.

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Adolescent Developmental Tasks

• Develop independence and self-reliance
• Develop a secure and stable personal identity
• Move effectively toward a productive role in
  society, i.e., mainly with respect to work and
  relationships

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Bullyings Impact on Developmental Tasks

• Decrease confidence/perceived competence/sense of
  mastery
• Disconnection from emotional experience and
  development
• Disruption in normal identity development
• Increase reliance on unhealthy coping skills,
  e.g., drug and alcohol abuse

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Typical Interventions

• Denial Thats just boys being boys, it doesnt
  mean anything.
• Blaming the victim or expecting the victim to
  solve the problem If you just didnt react like
  that, they would leave you alone.
• Seeing it as character-building for the victim
  It just might toughen her up, she needs to learn
  to stand up for herself.

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Myths About Youth and Bullies

• Myth
• Youth always refuse to tell adults about what
  they see or experience that concerns them.
• Reality
• It depends on what they think we will do with
  the information.

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Myths About Youth and Bullies

• Myth
• Bullying cant be stopped, its just the way
  young people act always has been, always will
  be.
• Reality
• Very effective interventions have been developed
  and can be implemented which significantly
  diminish bullying in schools and other settings.

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Myths About Youth and Bullies

• Myth
• If a kid isnt either a bully or a victim, he
  or she isnt really affected by bullying.
• Reality
• Bullying affects everyones sense of emotional
  safety.

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Myths About Youth and Bullies

• Myth
• Kids have to learn how to deal with bullies
  on their own, it teaches them how to be tough.
• Reality
• If they had the ability to effectively handle
  bullying, they wouldnt be the victims of
  bullies. We are obligated to intervene on
  several different levels.

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Focus on Bullies

• Bullies
• Tend to rely on belligerence and intimidation
• Enjoy dominating other kids
• Have learned that using aggressive behavior
  achieves desired results
• Tend to misinterpret neutral interactions as an
  affront or attack.
• Tend to come from homes with little expressed
  affection and harsh inconsistent discipline.
• Males? more likely to use physical intimidation
• Females? more likely to use psychological
  intimidation

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Bullies as Adults

• Have a one in four chance of having a criminal
  record by the age of 30.
• (vs. one in 20 chance for non-bullies)
• Ref Ross, D. (1996) Childhood Bullying and
  Teasing, ACA Press

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Focus on Victims

• Victims tend
• to be physically weaker
• to have some difference from other students
  (although difference in itself is not sufficient
  or necessary)
• to feel they may deserve the abuse
• to display attention-seeking behavior which
  serves to encourage the abuse

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Responding Effectively to Bullying

• Involves development and consistent enforcement
  of effective consequences for verbal and physical
  aggression which are predictable, inevitable,
  immediate, and escalating, and based on uniform
  expectations for all.
• Consistent use of consequences will reduce
  bullying and are a necessary component of
  effective prevention.
• Inconsistent enforcement makes the problem worse.
  
• Ref Stan Davis, http//www.stopbullyingnow.com

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Intervention with Bullies

• Bullies need to learn to
• Acknowledge their own actions
• Acknowledge the results of their behavior on
  themselves
• Connect actions and consequences ("I broke a
  rule and got in trouble. I don't want to go
  through that again!")
• Change their actions to stay out of trouble
• Find other ways to get their needs met
• Acknowledge the results of their behavior on
  others
• Develop remorse ("I hurt someone")
• Learn to trust and delay gratification
• Form relationships with helping adults

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What About the Silent Majority?

• Ongoing education should be aimed at the silent
  majority of students (the /- 85 who are neither
  victims nor bullies), asking them to stand up to
  bullies, get adult help, and reach out in
  friendship to peers who are excluded. The goals
  of this education are to build peer pressure
  against bullying, to stop copycat bullying, and
  to increase support for victims.

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Witnesses May

• Be afraid of associating with the victim for fear
  of lowering their social status among their
  peers, or fear retribution from the bully and
  becoming victims themselves
• Fear reporting bullying incidents because they do
  not want to be considered a "snitch," "tattler,"
  or "informer"
• Experience guilt or helplessness for not standing
  up to the bully on behalf of their classmate
• Be drawn into bullying behavior by peer pressure
• Feel unsafe, a loss of control, or unable to take
  action

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Some Ideas to Prevent Bullying

• Discuss with students alternative ways to respond
  and prompt them to use them
• Reward kindness
• Address the environmental factors
• Help students recognize and reinforce healthy
  relationship boundaries
• Help to start an anti-RA campaign
• Develop the most positive staff-student
  atmosphere possible