McKay School of Education > News > Student Research Tackles Bullying in Utah schools
Student research tackles bullying in Utah schools
School bullying is not new or unusual. Almost 30 percent of youth in the United States participate in bullying either as a bully, a target of bullying, or both. Of the 70 percent of students not involved in bullying, all have seen or heard of someone they know being bullied.
Studies on the effects of bullying show that being bullied can disrupt a child’s ability to concentrate in class and even lead the child to avoid attending school. The National Education Association estimates that 160,000 children miss school every day because they fear an attack or intimidation by other students. When continuously bullied, a child can suffer extreme and sometimes long-term effects including social isolation, depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem. Despite such detrimental effects, bullying in schools sometimes goes unpunished–not at the fault of teachers or administrators, but because the act can be hard to catch or even recognize.
In their research with School Tipline, a Web site created to anonymously report bullying, Maren Dennis, a senior in English education, and Ashlee Villordo, a senior in special education, have learned a lot about the culture of bullying. “I didn’t realize how prevalent bullying was and the different forms of bullying,” remarked Villordo. Bullying isn’t always physical. While males are more likely to report being hit, slapped, or pushed, females are often bullied in more subtle, emotional ways, such as rumors, sexual comments, gossip, or exclusion.
So far Dennis and Villordo’s research has focused on bullying among junior high students. “Junior high is the worst time for bullying, so we started there,” Dennis said. The surveys they distributed to students asked where and when bullying takes place in their school, how they prefer to report bullying, and why they wouldn’t report bullying.
Dennis has found it interesting that school personnel are not the first to know about bullying. “Most students feel safe, but when they are bullied, they don’t report it to teachers, administrators, or other faculty,” Dennis said about the students they surveyed. “They usually tell a parent or a friend.” This might be because many students don’t know to whom they should report. “I was surprised how many schools didn’t have a bully reporting system,” Villordo asserted.
Even when a reporting system is in place, students do not report bullying because of fear or social pressure. Referring to School Tipline, Villordo said, “Having a Web site is a simple but novel idea for middle school students; there is no shame in reporting.” Dennis added that since School Tipline allows students to remain anonymous, it has the potential to take some of the fear and social stigma away from reporting.
Dennis and Villordo recently presented their research at the National Paraprofessional Conference. Presenting to paraprofessionals was beneficial to the researchers because paraprofessionals see a lot of bullying. Dennis suggested this might be because students don’t always think of paraprofessionals as teachers or may consider them as having less authority than a teacher or administrator. Also the paraprofessionals’ job description often has them monitoring hallways or playgrounds—places where bullying is common. Some paraprofessionals are assigned as mentors or aides to children with special needs, allowing them to see more bullying from their vantage point in the classroom than a teacher who is busy at the front of the room teaching 25 or more students. Dennis thinks the paraprofessionals’ role could be an advantage in that sometimes students feel safer talking to them than to a teacher; however she hasn’t researched this possibility.
The perspective of the paraprofessionals, teachers, and administrators at the conference also helped Dennis and Villordo know how they can use the knowledge they’ve gained to help schools reduce bullying. Villordo explained that part of their goal is to provide practical applications to help schools enhance their school climate and reduce bullying. In one of these applications, school administrators are given a pie graph showing when and where the majority of bullying takes place. If the pie graph shows that 60 percent of the bullying takes place in the hallway after school, the administrators can increase hall monitoring after school.
The researchers are hopeful that the combined efforts of their research and School Tipline will reduce bullying in the participating schools and create safer learning environments for students.
Learn more about the effects of bullying here.
26 October 2009