Bullying not taken seriously

To many adults, teasing and taunting among children and teenagers is a natural and inevitable part of growing up. But as a new school year begins, experts say such behavior is anything but normal and should be taken seriously by parents, teachers and school administrators.
“Bullying is a public health problem (tied to) the larger issue of youth violence in this country,” said Joseph Wright, medical director of advocacy and community affairs at Children's National Medical Center. Allowing it to go unstopped, he said, fosters crime and mental health problems that can last into adulthood.

Wright and other child health experts urged parents, teachers and community leaders to give the problem greater attention following the publication this month of a study done in rural Germany that used six months of family therapy sessions to treat 22 adolescent boys who had bullying behavior.
The report, which appears in the journal Pediatrics, is a reminder that the United States lags behind other countries in dealing with bullying, Wright said. “We are really just at the recognition phase (in the United States) ... We have defined the problem and are recognizing the problem and trying to adapt,” Wright said. “This (study) just points out how far behind we are in even accepting bullying as something that's not a normative behavior.”

At least 22 states have passed anti-bullying laws since 1999, some motivated by a 2002 U.S. Secret Service report that found that bullying had played a major role in several school shootings, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Maryland and Virginia passed similar legislation this year.
The intent of such laws is to prohibit intimidation, bullying and harassment in schools, reports the NCSL.
Defining these unacceptable behaviors has been challenging, but guidelines generally consider the length of time threatening behavior has persisted and whether a perceived imbalance of power lets a student or group of students victimize others.
The Pediatrics study described measurable reductions in anger and improvement in quality of life and interpersonal relationships after family therapy.

But several U.S. child health experts said because the study included only families who lived in rural areas, the findings are not likely to be applicable to large, urban school systems in this country.
They also doubted that family therapy by itself could offer a solution and disagreed with the measures used in the study to identify bullies.
U.S. researchers who have studied bullying say part of the problem is that such behavior is often accepted, even encouraged by adults.
There's a real value system around (bullying) that basically teaches kids that it's not just OK — it's more than OK,” said Howard Spivak, a professor of pediatrics and community health at Tufts University in Massachusetts. “Social acceptability of bullying is a consequence of many complex things,” including adults' approval and the influence of television, video games and movies that “teach them that being mean is not only acceptable, but good,” he said.

More than 16 percent of U.S. schoolchildren report having been bullied, according to a 2001 survey of nearly 16,000 students in grades 6 through 10 funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).
An estimated quarter to a third of U.S. students are involved in bullying, either as a victim or perpetrator, according to Spivak.
Research has linked bullying with violent and criminal behavior later in life, as well as emotional, psychological and social problems.

A federally funded study published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine reported in 2004 that bullies and their victims had more health problems and poorer emotional and social adjustment than their peers.

January W. Payne
30 August 2005

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