Building Capacity to Reduce Bullying Workshop Summary (2014) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
5 Family-Focused Interventions
5 Family-Focused Interventions
Pages 49-56
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 49... ...
(Holt) • Youth who are involved in bullying report more mental health difficulties than their parents think they are experiencing.
|
From page 50... ...
PARENT ATTITUDES ABOUT AND RESPONSES TO BULLYING Less is understood about parents' role in bullying issues than about the various other bullying-related factors discussed at the workshop, said Melissa Holt, an assistant professor at the Boston University School of Education. Multiple studies have found that parents tend to report lower rates of bullying than do students, she said.
|
From page 51... ...
To assess mental health, the researchers asked the students to rate themselves on emotional function, conduct, hyperactivity, social behavior, and other areas. Across all these domains, youth who were involved in bullying "are reporting more associated mental health difficulties than parents feel their children are experiencing," Holt said (see Figure 5-2)
|
From page 52... ...
SOURCE: Holt et al., 2008. 25 Rates of Mental Health Difficulties 20 15 Student report Parent report 10 5 0 l t iy er l al na ia c tiv du t Pe oc To io ac on os ot er Em C Pr yp H FIGURE 5-2 Children report higher rates of mental health difficulties associated with bullying than do their parents.
|
From page 53... ...
The relatively little research conducted so far on risks for bullying that arise from within families has looked at family violence, parenting practices, and family relationship characteristics -- all factors that relate to the risks for aggression and violence more generally, Gorman-Smith said. Some research indicates that youth who live in families where there is intimate partner violence or child abuse and neglect are at significantly increased risk for engaging in bullying behavior (Smokowski and Kopasz, 2005)
|
From page 54... ...
Based on the larger body of research on family-focused interventions for general aggression and violence, GormanSmith listed a number of protective measures and goals that have been identified for working with families: nurturing parenting skills; building stable family relationships with emotional connections, clear communication, and support; encouraging the supervision and monitoring of children; increasing parental involvement in schools; and connecting families within neighborhoods with one another and to greater social support. Many of these elements form the basis for two family-focused programs aimed at decreasing the risk for aggression and violence with which Gorman-Smith has been involved in over the past 15 to 20 years (Multisite Violence Prevention Project, 2009, 2013; Tolan et al., 2010)
|
From page 55... ...
Most social workers at schools and staffers at community mental health agencies are trained to work with people who come in seeking services and assistance. Yet many people in the communities viewed the prevention outreach as unethical and intrusive because they were not necessarily asking for help, GormanSmith said.
|
From page 56... ...
Holt suggested framing the broader conversation around "supporting healthy and positive development" of families rather than preventing bullying or violence. The idea is that parenting is hard and that parents need more support, she said, so it is okay for them to seek ideas, information, and help from other families in managing some of these situations.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.