Download Presentation - SRSG on Violence Against Children

EXPERT CONSULTATION ON BULLYING AND
CYBERBULLYING
9 – 10 May, Florence
Michele Ybarra MPH PhD
Center for Innovative Public Health Research
Roadmap

Define and be consistent about what we mean when we say “bullying” so that
policy makers are clear what topic they are being asked to bring focus to.

Let’s use the word “bullying” to refer to all types, whether online or inperson.

We need to help policy makers to support early intervention so that we may
stop the potential trajectory to worse forms of violence

We need to look to evidence-based solutions that have been evaluated
rigorously

Policy makers need to increase the funding for the development and
evaluation of prevention and intervention programs.
Bullying: It starts with a definition

We need to *define* what we are talking about
because otherwise, we will be using the same word to
mean lots of about different things (e.g., “sexting”,
dating abuse, exposure to deleterious content such as
pro-ana sites, online)
Bullying: It starts with a definition

In the USA, the definition most commonly used is the one first articulated by
Olweus and recently refined by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention:

Intentional and unwanted

Differential power

Repetition or the threat of repetition
Olweus D. Bullying at school. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing, 1993.
Gladden RM, Vivolo-Kantor AM, Hamburger ME, et al. Bullying surveillance among youths: Uniform
definitions for public health and recommended data elements, version 1.0. Atlanta, GA: National Center
for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Department of
Education, 2013.
Differential power and repetition matters
70%
65%
60%
53%
50%
50%
General peer aggression
48%
Bullied + Differential
power + frequently
40%
29%
30%
21%
20%
10%
0%
11%
6%
Interference with
school work
3%
Interference with
friendships
17%
15%
Interference with
parental relationships
7%
Very/extremely upset Belief bullying is just a Don't believe people
by the bullying
part of life
can protect youth from
bullying
Online is but one space and place where youth are bullied
100%
90%
80%
1%
3%
0%
2%
12%
60%
88%
89%
0%
2%
11%
Every day / almost every day
50%
30%
1%
1%
8%
22%
70%
40%
0%
2%
10%
85%
69%
Once or twice a week
86%
Once or twice a month
20%
Less often
10%
Never
0%
School
Online
Text
messaging
To and from
school
Somewhere
else
And it is not the most distressing place youth are bullied
100%
15%
90%
80%
33%
38%
70%
Very/extremely upset
60%
Less upset
39%
37%
61%
63%
To and from
school
Somewhere
else
50%
85%
40%
30%
67%
63%
20%
10%
0%
School
Online
Text
messaging
Bullying is not equally distributed across all groups
10.0
Relative odds of bullying experiences by sexual
identity among 12-18 year old youth in the USA
4.6
5.5
4.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
Online bullying
0.7
In-person bullying
Heterosexual
Gay, lesbian, queer
Bisexual
Queer, unsure, other
0.1
2.8
0.8
Bullying is related to, and may be a precursor, to
other types of violence – particularly sexual
violence
Espelage, Basile & Hambuger (2012) found that bullying
perpetration predicts the subsequent emergence of sexual
harassment among middle school students
 Ybarra and Thompson (under review) found that sexual
harassment perpetration predicts the subsequent emergence of
sexual assault as well as attempted rape perpetration; sexual
harassment victimization predicts sexual harassment and
attempted rape perpetration

Espelage, D. L., Basile, K. C., & Hamburger, M. E. (2012). Bullying perpetration and subsequent
sexual violence perpetration among middle school students. Journal of Adolescent Health, 50(1),
60-65. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2011.07.015
Ybarra & Thompson (under review). Predicting the emergence of sexual violence in adolescence
Much work needs to be done in terms of
prevention science

KiVa is the only bullying prevention program that has student-reported
reductions in bullying (Salmivali et al)

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports is associated with teacherreported reductions in behavior problems, particularly office discipline
referrals (Bradshaw et al)

Second Step (Espelage et al) does not affect student-reported bullying
behavior (but it may impact sexual harassment and homophobic name-calling)

The results of a rigorous evaluation of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program
have not been published in a peer reviewed journal

Salmivali, Kärnä & Poskiparta (2011), “Counteracting bullying in Finland: The KiVa program and its effects on different forms of
being bullied”. International Journal of Behavioral Development. 35(5):405-411

Bradshaw, Waasdorp, Leaf (2012). Effects of School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports on Child Behavior
Problems. Pediatrics. 130(5)

Espelage, Low, Polanin, Brown (2015). Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. Volume 37, March–April 2015, Pages 52–63
Take-aways and policy implications

Define and be consistent about what we mean when we say “bullying”

Cyberbullying is but one place bullying occurs. We should talk about bullying
holistically rather than online vs. all other types of bullying

Bullying is but one type of youth violence. Given emerging evidence that there
may be a progression of violence perpetration, we might well consider violence
prevention programs more generally rather than bullying prevention programs
specifically

Evidence-based solutions that have been evaluated rigorously need to be
prioritized for dissemination

More funding is needed to support the development and evaluation of
bullying/violence prevention programs, both in schools and in non-school
environments.