For Educators
State Mandated Training, (5 states) — Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, and Wisconsin
Overview: As stated by the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, “the movement to adopt anti-bullying policies reflects schools’ appreciation of their important responsibility to maintain a safe learning environment for all students.” Recent media reporting of suicides that appear to be linked with student experiences of bullying have brought this issue to the forefront, and on August 11-12, 2010, the first Federal National Bullying Summit was held in Washington, DC. Sponsored by the Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention Steering Committee, the summit brought together over 100 representatives from federal, state, and local agencies, nongovernmental organizations, researchers, 1010 Vermont Avenue, NW, Suite 408 Washington, DC 20005 Phone: 202-449-3600 Fax: 202-449-3601 SPAN USA is a division of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention www.afsp.org youth, and corporate leaders who discussed the extent of the bullying problem, prevention efforts, and the development of a national strategy to end bullying. Recent campaigns such as “Love is Louder” and “It Gets Better” have garnered anti-bullying support from celebrities and government officials, including President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, although the effectiveness of these campaigns has yet to be determined. President Obama, the Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Human Services hosted a day-long Conference on Bullying Prevention at the White House on March 10, 2011. Approximately 150 students, parents, educators, nonprofit leaders, policy makers, and administration officials were in attendance to discuss the challenges posed by bullying, to highlight successful efforts to combat bullying, and to send the message nationwide that bullying is a collective concern for all Americans. Most recently, the U.S. Department of Education held a “Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention Summit” on September 21-22, 2011 in Washington, DC. AFSP has reached out to the U.S. Department of Education to begin a dialogue on bullying and suicide and also submitted comments in response to a request in July-August, 2011 regarding the Department’s analysis of state anti-bullying laws and policies.
What the Research Shows: Research shows that persistent bullying in youth contributes to feelings of loneliness and isolation, and can have serious mental health consequences, including depression and anxiety. Elevated rates of depression, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts have been found in youth who are bullied and also in those who bully others. Recent research findings show that involvement in bullying in the absence of other risks does not predict later depression or suicidal behavior, and that this holds true regardless of whether students are victims, bullies, or both (“bully-victims”). On the other hand, students who experience bullying together with problems that indicate they are at-risk for suicide are, years later, more depressed, have more substance problems, and are more functionally impaired than those at-risk youth who do not experience bullying behaviors. These findings point to that, while bullying alone does not cause suicide, it may put youth who are already vulnerable at an increased risk for self-harm.
It is difficult to compare research findings across studies, however. The reason for this is the same reason why there is such a wide variety in the different estimates of overall bullying prevalence — a lack of consensus as to how bullying is defined. Some researchers allow youth to define bullying for themselves by asking generic questions such as “Have you been bullied?” while others ask respondents about specific behaviors such as, “Have you been hit or kicked?” or “Have rumors been spread about you?” Also, some researchers base their prevalence rates on one incident of bullying, while others look for repeated incidents. Researchers also ask questions based on different time frames. For example, “Have you been bullied in the past month?” may produce vastly different results than, “Have you been bullied in the past year?” Therefore, rates of bullying have been reported as low as 5% and as high as 76%.
The CDC is currently undertaking the task of creating a uniform definition of bullying to help measure prevalence and incidence of bullying and to track changes in bullying behaviors over time. This universal definition will help researchers, practitioners and groups measure and track the scope of the bullying problem and respond accordingly. The CDC began by soliciting feedback and guidance from bullying Updated 11/22/2011 AFSP State Anti-Bullying Laws Overview Page 2 of 8 experts, researchers, and practitioners by convening a 12-person expert panel to work on the definition and associated data elements in May 2011. The panel then collected feedback and drafted a definition at the 2011 Bullying Summit. The final step in the process, which is what is currently in progress, is the soliciting of expert feedback on that draft, to be completed by December 2011.
Enumerated Characteristics: Due to the recent headlines linking bullying of students who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual with attempted or completed suicides, the idea logically follows to recommend anti-bullying laws include provisions that specifically prohibit bullying directed toward these and other vulnerable populations. Indeed, many organizations are lobbying for anti-bullying laws to include provisions that specifically prohibit bullying directed toward vulnerable populations, such as students with disabilities or students who identify as LGBT (commonly referred to as “enumerated characteristics”). Some enumerated clauses also include protection for students who associate with those who posses one or more of the distinguishing characteristics listed in the clause.
