CONTENTS

About This Course

Table of Contents

1. School Bullying: What It Is and Why It Hurts
2. The Role of Bullies, Victims, and Witnesses
3. Factors Contributing to Bullying and Violence
4. Screening and Assessment
5. Treatment For Children and Adolescents
6. Prevention and Intervention
7. Legal and Ethical Issues

Supplements
Case Studies
Fact Sheets
References
Resources

The ABCs of Bullying
Addressing, Blocking, and Curbing School Aggression

Depression

It is increasingly important for all school personnel and administrators to be aware of possible depression in children who are targets of bullying. Olweus found in his research that being bullied in middle school is predictive of low self-esteem 10 years later. He also found that by age 23, children who were bullied in middle school were more depressed and had lower self-esteem than their peers who had not been bullied.ref In the general population, roughly 2.5 percent of children and up to 8.3 percent of adolescents suffer from depression.ref

Research is showing that the onset of depression is occurring earlier than in past decades. Not only is depression occurring earlier, it seems to persist and recur through adolescence and into adulthood.ref Awareness of depression is critical when working with elementary and middle school children because children's behavior and the factors that affect their behavior will determine their success later in life. Depression in children may have a hereditary link, but the school environment plays a big role in shaping a child's mental health as well. For example:

• Students receive an average of 213 verbal put-downs per week, or 30 per day.ref
• Ten percent of students who drop out of school do so because of repeated bullying.ref
• Ninety percent of all students felt that bullying caused social, emotional, or academic problems for those students who were bullied.ref

The diagnostic criteria and key defining features of major depressive disorder in children and adolescents are the same as for adults. However, depression in children is often harder to recognize and diagnose, and symptoms differ depending on developmental stages.ref^, ref Children have a harder time verbally expressing how they are feeling and describing their moods. Unless parents are aware of some of the signs of depression in children, they are often unable to see a child's behavior for what it is.