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

Clinical Interventions With Children

Increasingly, schools are beginning to adopt approaches to school bullying and violence that involve all relevant players in a child's life. The supplement From Primary Prevention to Treatment of Serious Problems highlights what collaborations are needed to support the goal of helping a child learn and be safe. ref Although the most successful bullying prevention approaches involve the entire school ref^, sometimes children need individual attention with a mental health professional. Specifically, when working with a child who bullies (or is a bully/victim), the professional can ask specific questions, with the answers sometimes determining the course of intervention. These questions include:ref

• Did you plan to (add specific incident: e.g., take the other boy's lunch money) beforehand, or was it a sudden urge?
• Why did you pick on that particular person?
• What were you thinking when you did it? (Example: "I need the money," "I'll look cool.")
• How did you feel when you did it? (Example: excited, thrilled, frightened, powerful)
• How do you think the other boy felt?
• What's happening in your life or in your family that may be upsetting you?

When the professional understands the details of what happened, they can determine how to help the child. Using the example of stealing another boy's money, if the child stole the money because he saw it sitting on a lunch tray and had a sudden urge to grab it, he will need to learn to recognize his impulses and to stop them when they are inappropriate. If he planned to steal the money, pre-selected a victim, and stole because he wanted to look important, he will need to learn positive ways to make friends and gain peer acceptance. ref

Mental health professionals use a variety of therapeutic approaches with children depending on the age of the child and the nature of the problem(s). At times, a combination of different psychotherapeutic approaches may be helpful. In some cases, a combination of psychotherapy and medication may be necessary.