Bullying Seen as Big School Problem, But Experts Find Disagreement on, and Sometimes Resistance To, Stopping It

(HealthDayNews) -- Daniel Scruggs hanged himself in his bedroom closet on January 2, 2002. He was 12 years old and had been bullied so badly at his school in Meridien, Connecticut, that he had missed 44 days of classes that year.

This may be a particularly tragic example of that classic school-age behavior, bullying, but more and more people are viewing bullying as a serious problem that needs to be fixed.

A study that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2001 surveyed more than 15,000 sixth-to-tenth graders and found about 30 percent reported being involved in "moderate or frequent" bullying either as a bully, or being bullied, or both.

"Bullying is very prevalent in U.S. schools and is often invisible," says Dr. Robert Bidwell, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Hawaii School of Medicine. "We didn't know that until a couple of years ago."

Bidwell presented on the subject of bullying November 2 at the American Academy of Pediatrics annual National Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans.

Contrary to the popular belief that "boys will be boys" and "girls will be girls," Bidwell adds, bullying is harmful. Both bullies and targets have higher rates of depression and suicide. Bullies are more likely to engage in other risk behaviors such as substance abuse, while people who are continually targeted have higher rates of physical complaints such as headaches, stomachaches and even infectious problems such as colds.

All of this is compounded by the fact that most schools do not have effective policies or programs to address bullying, Bidwell adds. Many have no programs at all.

Part of the problem is that schools (and others) disagree on whether bullying is even a problem. For those who agree it's a problem, there's disagreement on how to solve it. Some want to punish the bullies. Others want to remediate them.

Over the years, Bidwell has realized that few teachers are trained to deal with the issue. He has even encountered teachers who hear one child calling another a "faggot" in the back of the classroom and yet do nothing. Either they don't know what to do, are afraid they will be labeled themselves, or fear the administration won't be behind them.

"What's really needed is a lot of teacher and administration training about the nature of the issue," Bidwell says. "I don't think [teachers] are getting the skills to recognize or address bullying. Often, they don't feel supported by the schools when they stand up. As a society we don't all agree that bullying is a bad thing."

"School interventions can help children learn appropriate ways of resolving conflict," agrees Susan Swearer, an assistant professor of school psychology and supervisor of the Child and Adolescent Therapy Clinic at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "Prevention efforts can also target the bystander, the kids who observe bullying but typically don't intervene."

Having a set procedure in place at the school is a good start. "Children need to be able to report problems about bullying with the knowledge that something's going to get done about it," Swearer says.

Pediatricians may also be able to help, by using the well-child examination to ask questions and possibly refer a child or family to the appropriate mental health counselor, Bidwell says.

Bidwell has gone to schools to talk to counselors and principals on behalf of bullied students and their families. "There have been times that I have been so frustrated that the school didn't think it was a big deal or clearly didn't have a clue of what to do, that the next step was to do consumer education around legal options," he says. "A lot of my activity has been outside of the gates trying to get schools to do what they should do. I've given parents the number of the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] and [fruitfully] sometimes because schools are afraid of controversy. That's always a last resort, but it's totally professional and totally OK."

Unfortunately, there's no easy solution to the problem of bullying. "There's not a simple answer," Swearer says. "Our interventions have to be complicated. It's not just simply about schools being something or parents doing something or children doing something; all these systems have to interact and work together in order to decrease the bullying."

More information

For more on bullying, do a search at the Safety Zone or check out bullying.org.

SOURCES:
By Amanda Gardner, HealthDay Reporter
Susan Swearer, Ph.D., assistant professor, school psychology, and supervisor, Child and Adolescent Therapy Clinic, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Robert Bidwell, M.D., associate professor, pediatrics, University of Hawaii School of Medicine, Honolulu; April 25, 2001, Journal of the American Medical Association; Nov. 2, 2003, presentation, American Academy of Pediatrics annual National Conference and Exhibition, New Orleans
Last reviewed September 2004
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