Looking back and looking forward: implications for making interventions work effectively

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511584466.017

16 - Looking back and looking forward: implications for making interventions work effectively

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2009

Peter K. Smith and

Edited by

Debra Pepler and

Debra Pepler: Affiliation:
Professor of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Canada, and Senior Research Associate at the Hospital for Sick Children
Peter K. Smith: Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths College, New Cross, London SE14 6NW, England, p.smith@gold.ac.uk
Ken Rigby: Affiliation:
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of South Australia, Underdale Campus, Holbrooks Road, Underdale, Adelaide 5032, Australia, Ken.Rigby@unisa.edu.au
Peter K. Smith: Affiliation:
Goldsmiths, University of London
Debra Pepler: Affiliation:
York University, Toronto
Ken Rigby: Affiliation:
University of South Australia

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Summary

This volume represents an unprecedented opportunity to reflect on interventions to address bullying problems at school. The contributors have been generous in their willingness to be part of this collective reflection. We benefit from their honesty in not only sharing the highlights of successful outcomes but also in providing rare glimpses of the challenges and disappointments in their well-crafted attempts to reduce problems of bullying among school children. From this vantage-point, we can look back on the efforts in many countries to address this universal problem, and look forward to sketch out intervention, evaluation, and policy strategies for a more-informed and effective collective effort to reduce bullying problems and support healthy relationships among children and youth.

With ongoing research efforts, the theoretical framework for understanding bullying is constantly being refined; however, developmental and systemic perspectives comprise its essential foundation. These perspectives relate to underlying causes of bullying which may involve individual risk characteristics of children, problems within the family, dynamics within the peer group, and problems within the classroom and larger school climate.

Developmental perspective

By considering bullying problems from a developmental perspective, we can recognise different developmental capacities, motivations, and vulnerabilities, as well as different peer-group dynamics of children at various stages. A developmental perspective also reveals that effective bullying interventions must be ongoing throughout children's school careers.

Developmental differences

There is great variability in the types of children who are involved in perpetrating bullying and being victimised.

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: Bullying in Schools
How Successful Can Interventions Be?
, pp. 307 - 324

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511584466.017 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2004

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