Post by The Big PINK One♥ on Aug 5, 2009 13:01:49 GMT -5
{From Yahoo! Shine}
No longer considered "just a part of growing up," bullying has gained new attention from parents, educators, doctors, and legislators. Find out about the latest efforts to stand up to bullying.
By Bonnie Rochman
When East Lansing, Michigan, father Kevin Epling complained about his eighth-grade son being bullied by upperclassmen, police chalked it up to kids being kids. When Pasco, Washington, mom Brenda High lobbied legislators in her state to pass antibullying legislation, she was surprised at how many blew her off. Bullying, they shrugged, was just part of growing up.
No longer. For the first time, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is weighing in on the subject in its official policy on the pediatrician's role in preventing youth violence. This month, the journal Pediatrics calls upon schools to implement comprehensive antibullying programs. In an updated version of the pediatric group's policy statement, the article's authors note that the American Medical Association and the Society for Adolescent Medicine have beaten the AAP to the punch, having already called highlighted the issue of youth bullying. The feds, too, have played a role, raising awareness with a campaign called Take a Stand, Lend a Hand: Stop Bullying Now.
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In 1998, researchers at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development scrutinized data to determine the prevalence of bullying. They found that 30 percent of nearly 16,000 6th- to 10th-graders has either bullied other kids or been on the receiving end of such behavior. Furthermore, studies show that bullies are more likely to cut class or drop out of school and are more prone to smoke, drink, and get involved in fights. Meanwhile, fear of being bullied prompts up to 160,000 students to stay home each day, according to the National Association of School Psychologists. Being bullied can dash a child's self-confidence and trigger depression; it has caused enough children to end their lives that a term has been coined: bullycide.
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"Bullying strikes a nerve in parents," says Marlene Snyder, national director of development for the Olweus bullying-prevention program (named for Dan Olweus, a professor at the University of Bergen in Norway), which is cited in the AAP's policy statement. "As parents we build up our kids, and we don't hand them over to a school system where kids are going to tear them down."
Real Dangers
Bullying, by definition, is a lot more than just bad behavior. It involves intentionally hurting or frightening someone weaker—in fact, experts call it peer abuse. While girls are more likely to bully by excluding or spreading rumors about another girl, boys are often more physical. The aggression doesn't just happen face to face; cyber-bullying notoriously led to the death in 2006 of Megan Meier, a 13-year-old girl from Missouri who carried on an online relationship with a boy who turned out to be a fabrication by the mother of one of Megan's former friends.
Continue reading about school bullying and find out how schools are taking action...
