Prevention is the Solution
This article presents a guide for school personnel who are trying to determine how to implement effective bullying prevention and intervention programming. It offers ways to create the right program for the school and its community.
Important elements of an effective prevention program
1. A one-shot assemblies or pulling a few bits and pieces from a program is not going to make a difference for your youth. Teachers need to create full curriculums with detailed information and lesson material.
2. The program needs to teach new skills. Research shows that this is critical to helping youth change their behavior. Lecture-only programs are not effective in creating long lasting changes.
3. Activities planned must let youth practice these new skills in active ways. The program should include some combination of classroom discussion periods, engaging and thought-provoking activities as well as role-playing.
4. The program needs to take a whole school or community approach to prevention. The program should involve training for parents, school staff and assistance to help the school improve its response to bullying concerns and reports.
What your bullying program should teach:
Schools can teach a bullying specific education programs or a social emotional learning programs (SEL), which teach youth skills necessary to successfully navigate their interpersonal relationships and regulate their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. These skills include but are not limited to: empathy training, effective communication skills, perspective taking, emotion management, problem solving and goal setting. These are not only skills that enable youth to function better in school, but also ones that are valuable life skills.
A strong approach could be to implement both types of programs. Schools can think about SEL programs as a foundation upon which the bullying specific content could be delivered.