PREVENTING
BULLYING
Through
Science, Policy,
and Practice
Committee on the Biological and Psychosocial Effects of
Peer Victimization: Lessons for Bullying Prevention
Frederick Rivara and Suzanne Le Menestrel, Editors
Board on Children, Youth, and Families
and
Committee on Law and Justice
Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
Health and Medicine Division
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, DC
www.nap.edu
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
This study was supported by contracts between the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Contract 200-2011-38807, Task Order 26), the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (Contract HHSN263201200074I, Delivery Order HHSN26300072), the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Contract HHSH250200976014I, Delivery Order HHSH25034018T), the Highmark Foundation (Grant 1026727), the National Institute of Justice of the U.S. Department of Justice (Grant 2014-MU-MU-0011), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Grant 72186), the Semi J. and Ruth W. Begun Foundation, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Contract HHSP233201400020B, Delivery Order HHSP23337031). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-44067-7
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-44067-X
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016948504
Digital Object Identifier: 10.17226/23482
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Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2016). Preventing Bullying Through Science, Policy, and Practice. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23482.
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COMMITTEE ON THE BIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOSOCIAL EFFECTS OF PEER VICTIMIZATION: LESSONS FOR BULLYING PREVENTION
FREDERICK P. RIVARA (Chair), University of Washington School of Medicine
ANGELA F. AMAR, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University
CATHERINE BRADSHAW, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia
DANIEL FLANNERY, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University
SANDRA H. GRAHAM, Department of Education, University of California, Los Angeles
MARK L. HATZENBUEHLER, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
MATTHEW G. MASIELLO, The Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh, PA
MEGAN A. MORENO, University of Washington School of Medicine
REGINA M. SULLIVAN, New York University School of Medicine
JONATHAN TODRES, Georgia State University College of Law
TRACY VAILLANCOURT, Faculty of Education and School of Psychology, University of Ottawa
SUZANNE M. Le MENESTREL, Study Director
FRANCIS K. AMANKWAH, Research Associate
ANNALEE E. GONZALES, Senior Program Assistant
KELSEY GEISER, Research Assistant
SALLY S. COHEN, Consultant, Nurse Scholar-in-Residence, Institute of Medicine and New York University College of Nursing (through September 2015)
CHAD ROSE, Consultant, College of Education, University of Missouri
BOARD ON CHILDREN, YOUTH, AND FAMILIES
ANGELA DIAZ (Chair), Departments of Pediatrics and Preventive Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
SHARI BARKIN, Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital, Vanderbilt University
THOMAS F. BOAT, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati
W. THOMAS BOYCE, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia
DAVID A. BRENT, Western Psychiatric Institute and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
DAVID V.B. BRITT, Sesame Workshop (retired)
DEBBIE I. CHANG, Nemours Health and Prevention Services
PATRICK H. DeLEON, F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine and the Graduate School of Nursing Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
ELENA FUENTES-AFFLICK, University of California San Francisco and San Francisco General Hospital
EUGENE E. GARCIA, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers’ College, Arizona State University
J. DAVID HAWKINS, School of Social Work, University of Washington
JEFFREY W. HUTCHINSON, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
JACQUELINE JONES, Foundation for Child Development, New York, NY
ANN S. MASTEN, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota
VELMA McBRIDE MURRY, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University
BRUCE S. McEWEN, Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology, The Rockefeller University
MARTIN J. SEPULVEDA, Research Division, IBM Corporation (retired)
TAHA E. TAHA, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University
NATACHA BLAIN, Director (beginning December 2015)
KIMBER BOGARD, Director (through July 2015)
BRIDGET KELLY, Acting Director (July-December 2015)
COMMITTEE ON LAW AND JUSTICE
JEREMY TRAVIS (Chair), John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York
RUTH D. PETERSON (Vice Chair), Department of Sociology, Ohio State University
CARL C. BELL, College of Medicine and School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago
JOHN J. DONOHUE III, Stanford Law School
MINDY THOMPSON FULLILOVE, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
MARK A.R. KLEIMAN, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University
JANET L. LAURITSEN, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Missouri–St. Louis
JAMES P. LYNCH, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Maryland
DANIEL S. NAGIN, Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University
ANNE MORRISON PIEHL, Department of Economics, Rutgers University
DANIEL B. PRIETO, Washington, DC
STEVEN RAPHAEL, Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley
LAURIE O. ROBINSON, Criminology, Law and Society, George Mason University
SALLY S. SIMPSON, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Maryland
SUSAN B. SORENSON, School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania
BRUCE WESTERN, Department of Sociology, Harvard University
CATHY SPATZ WIDOM, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York
PAUL K. WORMELI, Integrated Justice Information Systems, Ashburn, VA
KATHI LEE GRASSO, Director
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Acknowledgments
The committee thanks, first, the sponsors of this study for their guidance. Support for the committee’s work was provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; the Highmark Foundation; the National Institute of Justice of the U.S. Department of Justice; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the Semi J. and Ruth W. Begun Foundation; and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Many individuals volunteered significant time and effort to address and educate the committee during our public information-gathering meeting (see Appendix A for the names of the speakers) and our site visit. Their willingness to take the time to share their perspectives was essential to the committee’s work. We also thank the many stakeholders who offered input and shared information and documentation with the committee over the course of the study. In addition, we appreciate the generous hospitality of the institution that hosted us and provided space to us on our site visit. In particular, we are immensely grateful for the planning assistance and logistical support for our site visit provided to us by Sharon Kramer.
The committee also expresses its deep appreciation for the opportunity to work with the dedicated members of the staff of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on this important project. We are thankful to the project staff: Suzanne Le Menestrel, Francis Amankwah, Kelsey Geiser, Annalee Gonzales, Cyan James, and Mariana Zindel. The
committee is also grateful to Lisa Alston, Pamella Atayi, and Faye Hill-man for their administrative and financial assistance on this project. The committee gratefully acknowledges Natacha Blain, Kimber Bogard, and Bridget Kelly of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families; Kathi Grasso and Malay Majmundar of the Committee on Law and Justice; Robert Hauser, executive director of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE); Mary Ellen O’Connell, deputy executive director of DBASSE; Dr. Victor Dzau, president of the National Academy of Medicine; Clyde Behney, executive director of the Health and Medicine Division (HMD); and Chelsea Frakes, director of policy of HMD, for the guidance they provided throughout this important study. The committee would like to thank the Office of Reports and Communication staff of DBASSE: Eugenia Grohman, Viola Horek, Patricia L. Morison, Kirsten Sampson-Snyder, Douglas Sprunger, and Yvonne Wise. We also wish to thank Daniel Bearss and Rebecca Morgan for their tremendous research and fact-checking assistance.
We are grateful to Ann Moravick and Tamar Sekayan of Rx4good and Lauren Tobias of Maven Messaging & Communications for their thoughtful work as communications consultants for this study. We are also very appreciative of Sally Cohen’s contributions of her expertise in public health and policy. We thank Chad Rose for his valuable commissioned work. We are appreciative of Robert Katt for the diligent and thorough editorial assistance he provided in preparing this report. We also thank Jay Christian for his skilled and creative design work.
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the Academies. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process.
We thank the following individuals for their careful, considerate, and thorough review of this report: Theodore J. Corbin, Department of Emergency Medicine, Health Management and Policy, and Healing Hurt People, Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice, Drexel University; Dewey Cornell, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia; Wendy Craig, Department of Psychology, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario; Kenneth A. Dodge, Center for Child and Family Policy, Duke University; Elizabeth K. Englander, Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center, and Department of Psychology, Bridgewater State University; Dorothy Espelage, Educational Psychology, University of Illinois, Champaign; Paula Goldberg, Director’s Office, PACER Center, Inc., Bloomington, MN; Julie Hertzog,
National Bullying Prevention Center, PACER Center, Inc., Bloomington, MN; Bruce S. McEwen, Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology, The Rockefeller University; Stephen T. Russell, Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin; Deborah Temkin, Education Research, Child Trends, Bethesda, MD; and Joseph L. Wright, Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Howard University College of Medicine.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Hugh H. Tilson, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, and Alan F. Schatzberg, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine. Appointed by the Academies, they were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
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Contents
Nationally Representative Studies of Bullying in the United States
Existing Estimates of Bullying in the United States by Subpopulation
Disparities in Bullying Prevalence in the United States among Vulnerable Groups
Issues in Developing Estimates of Bullying in the United States
4 CONSEQUENCES OF BULLYING BEHAVIOR
Consequences for Individuals Who Are Bullied
Consequences for Individuals Who Bully
Consequences for Individuals Who Bully and Are Also Bullied
Consequences of Bullying for Bystanders
Multiple Exposures to Violence
Mechanisms for the Psychological Effects of Bullying
Multi-Tiered Prevention Framework
Prevention Programs Specifically Implemented to Reduce Bullying and Related Behavior Problems
Recommended Components and Considerations for Bullying Prevention
Areas for Future Research Related to Bullying Prevention Programming
Overview of Relevant Law and Policy
Impact of Laws and Policies on Bullying
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Boxes, Figures, and Tables
BOXES
4-1 Suicidality: A Summary of the Available Meta-Analyses
4-2 Bullying and School Shootings
4-3 How Do Genes Influence Behavior?
5-1 Who Are the Adult Professionals and Volunteers Who Work with Children and Adolescents?
FIGURES
2-1 Trends in bullying over time as reported by national surveys
2-2 Trends in cyberbullying over time as reported by national surveys
3-2 Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory of development
3-3 Conceptual diagram of equifinality and multifinality
3-4 The Bullying Circle: Students’ modes of reaction/roles in an acute bullying situation
5-1 Mental health intervention spectrum
5-2 An ecodevelopmental model of prevention
5-5 Effect size for each outcome measurement
TABLES
2-1 Comparison of Current National Data Sources on Bullying for School-Aged Children and Adolescents
5-3 Summary of Selective and Indicated Prevention Programs that Address Bullying or Related Behavior
5-4 Summary of Ecological Contexts in which the Selective and Indicated Prevention Programs Operate
7-1 Research Needs to Inform Policies and Programs to Improve Bullying Outcomes
C-4 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Data: 2012-2013 School Year