Know the Signs of Bullying and Conflict

Kids go to school to learn and to social­ize with friends and peers. Unfor­tu­nately, some kids refuse to go to school because they fear they will be bul­lied. Bul­ly­ing recently has been blamed for some young peo­ple tak­ing their own lives and because of these tragedies; the word “bul­ly­ing” has taken a whole new meaning.

The Olweus Bul­ly­ing Pre­ven­tion Group, a leader in bul­ly­ing pre­ven­tion, defines bul­ly­ing as: “When some­one repeat­edly and on pur­pose says or does mean or hurt­ful things to another per­son who has a hard time defend­ing him or her­self.” Keep­ing this def­i­n­i­tion in mind, some inci­dents of one child being mean to another child does not always con­sti­tute an act of bul­ly­ing. Bul­ly­ing occurs when the behav­ior is an aggres­sive, con­tin­u­ous pat­tern repeated over time and there is an imbal­ance of power or strength. If these ele­ments are not met, then the inci­dent would be con­sid­ered a con­flict and not a bul­ly­ing incident.

Chil­dren involved in a con­flict may dis­play the same types of behav­ior as a child who is being bul­lied. They may not want to attend school or may go out of their way to avoid the per­son with whom they are hav­ing a con­flict just sim­ply to avoid any fur­ther prob­lems. Because these behav­iors can be sim­i­lar, par­ents some­times worry their child is being bullied.

Chil­dren who are being bul­lied or are involved in a con­flict should seek adult inter­ven­tion. Chil­dren should be encour­aged to report any inci­dent to a trusted adult so the adult can deter­mine if the inci­dent is bul­ly­ing or a con­flict and can take the appro­pri­ate action to help resolve the issue. Many chil­dren will not report they are being bul­lied or involved in a con­flict for fear of ret­ri­bu­tion. Both bul­ly­ing and con­flicts can cause tremen­dous stress on a child and try­ing to deal with the inci­dent alone can cause even more stress. Encour­age your chil­dren to talk to an adult if they feel they are being bul­lied or they are involved in a con­flict and help keep our kids safe.

Keep­ing Our Kids Safe is brought to you by the Delaware Police Depart­ment and School Resource Offi­cer Rod Glazer.

Posted by Rod Glazer on Sep 30 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.