BULLYING IN SCHOOL BASED SETTINGSNational Crime Prevention Centre

What Have We Learned?

March 23, 2006

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Overview

• National Crime Prevention Strategy

• What is bullying?

• What we have learned

• Next steps

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National Crime Prevention Strategy

• Focus on people most vulnerable to becoming offenders or victims (children, youth, Aboriginal people, seniors among others)

• Focus on factors that place people at higher risk such as domestic violence, substance abuse, low literacy skills, poverty

• Focus on crime prevention through social development

• Social policy tool

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Interest in Bullying

• School-based initiatives

• Public Education

• Canadian Initiative for Prevention of Bullying

• Knowledge development

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Bullying

Actions within a relationship between a dominant person or group and a less dominant person or group where: An imbalance of power (real or perceived) Physical or psychological (verbal or social) Direct or indirect actions Repeated over time Intent to harm

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Canadian Statistics – High School Yuile, Pepler, Craig & Connolly (2003)

11% of high school students reported bullying others in the last 5 days

10-15% of students reported being victims of bullying in the last 5 days

Bullying rates increase during transition to grade 9 especially for boys

65% of high school students are victims of verbal or social bullying at least once during the term

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A Larger Context

Bullying problems are relationship problems that occur in a social domain. As such, they also implicate:

Peers – present in 85% of bullying episodes Adults - parents, teachers, administrative staff, coaches,

lunchroom supervisors, custodial staff Larger social domain – community and society, popular

media.

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Helping Adults Intervene

Adult intervention is low:

Most bullying is verbal Incidents are brief Clandestine nature – occur in low monitoring situations Other priorities Beliefs and values

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Consequences of Bullying

• Victims – physical and emotional damage

• Long lasting – distress, self-blame, fear, depression, suicide

• Bullies – anti-social behaviour, dating violence, delinquent behaviour

• Long lasting – continued relationship problems and anti-social behaviour, aggressive tendencies, depression

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Best Practices

Develop whole school approach Plan the intervention Address multiple risk factors Involve multiple stakeholders Involve students in all aspects Consider audience

gender, age, culture, sexual orientation

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What doesn’t work

Zero tolerance School expulsion Individually-focused programs Situational deterrents

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Mining NCPS Projects

87 school-based bullying projects

Funded from April 1, 1998 to March 31, 2003

Total amount of funding - $5.7M dollars

78/87 projects were funded through Community Mobilization Program

Projects were funded in every province and territory

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Regional Distribution of Bullying Projects

National5%

British Columbia

9%

North3%

Atlantic20%

Québec29%

Ontario25%

Prairie9%

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Objectives

Objective # of Responses

% of Projects

Education/Awareness 67 77%Knowledge Development 50 57%Community Capacity Building 31 36%Life/Social Skills Development 30 34%Behavioural Change 30 34%Participation/Engaging/Mobilization 29 33%Attitude Change 27 31%Develop Relationship/Partnership 25 29%Program Development 22 25%Enhanced Leadership Development 10 11%Organizational Capacity Building 5 6%Systemic Integration & Change 5 6%Cultural Development 3 3%

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Risk and Protective Factors

Category # of Responses

Percentage of Projects

Individual Skills & Characteristics

80 92%

Community Related Factors

57 66%

School Related Factors

53 61%

Family and Friends

27 31%

Society Related Factors

20 23%

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Activities

Activity #of Responses

% of Projects

Provide workshops, presentations or classes for children or youth

47 71%

Create a product, tool or resource 45 68%

Provide training to teachers, school staff & others who work w/children and youth

24 36%

Organize an awareness campaign 19 29%

Conduct a literature review related to crime/victimization issues & solutions

19 29%

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Partnerships

Criminal Justice/Police 35 45%An individual school 28 36%Non-profit volunteer Organization 28 36%School Board 24 31%Health Organization/Agency 20 26%Local/Municipal/Regional Government 16 21%Private Foundations 15 19%Business/Corporations 15 19%Social Services 14 18%Education Association or Organization 13 17%

Type of Partner # of Responses

% of Projects

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Sponsor

Non–government organizations 42 48%Education Sector 15 17%Crime Prevention Groups 12 14%Coalition/Interagency network 6 7%Drama Companies 3 3%Private Foundations 2 2%Religious/Faith 1 1%Local/Municipal/Regional Government 1 1%Aboriginal NG – First Nation 1 1%Equality Seeking/Advocacy Groups 1 1%Social Services 1 1%Health 1 1%Urban/Community Planning 1 1%

Sectors represented by Sponsoring Organizations

# of Responses

% of Projects

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What Projects Said Worked

• Workshops, presentations– esp. interactive ones• Use of theatre – powerful in its impact • Conferences –follow-up actions essential • Tools, resources – with youth involvement • Anti-bullying curriculum – not just “one-shot” • Skill-building – for youth at risk • Mentoring – benefits for both mentor and mentee

**Comprehensive Community Approaches**

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Challenges

Project planning Working within school environment Engaging parents Coping with the unexpected Difficult subject matter Evaluation and research issues

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Some of the gaps in knowledge

Gender specific approaches

Age-specific approaches

Bullying based on sexual orientation

Bullying based on cultural background

Bullying based on disabilities – both victims and bullies

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Public Education

Public Service Announcements Concerned Children’s Advertisers (CCA) Lesson plans being developed Visit website www.cca-kids.ca

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What Next?

• Development of variety of products

• Influence community action and research

• Build continual, systematic loop of knowledge development

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