How to Fight Bullying: Let Students Take the Lead
Rutgers sociologist says letting well-connected kids -- not necessarily the 'cool' kids -- deliver anti-bullying message is more effective
The way to stop school bullying is to invite certain students – students who are the most influential and socially well-connected in their schools – to take the lead, according to a new study.
Researchers from Rutgers, Princeton and Yale universities report in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science that student conflict was reduced by 30 percent in one year in New Jersey middle schools adopting this approach. The key, according to Rutgers sociologist and co-author Hana Shepherd, is finding the right students to send anti-conflict messages to their peers.
“It’s really important to harness the kids that other students pay attention to,” Shepherd says. “I’m not just talking about the ‘cool kids;’ I’m talking about kids who are leaders of groups, kids that other kids pay attention to.”
Middle school students and adults have different views on bullying. Parents and teachers tend to think that conflict in a school is the work of a small group of problem kids, while students see it as normal and expected behavior.
“There is so much anti-bullying work that is adult-driven, and that has the potential to turn kids off,” she says. “Kids reject the word ‘bullying’ as a description of what happens. Their words vary from school to school, and between genders. Girls often call it ‘drama,’ as in ‘She was starting drama,’ or, ‘I have drama with her.’ Boys say ‘messing’ or ‘playing,’ as in, ‘He was messing with me.’”
The study is innovative because it uses social network mapping to identify students leaders, who aren’t necessarily the most popular kids but have great influence within their social circles.
Shepherd and her co-authors conducted their research in 56 middle schools during the 2012-2013 academic year. About three weeks into the fall semester, they passed out surveys about the social climate of those schools to more than 24,000 students, and asked, as part of that survey, which classmates students spent the most time with. In half the schools, they gathered randomly selected groups of 20 to 32 students to lead the intervention program at their school. In each group, there were students who scored high on their classmates’ lists as people they spent time with, a measure of who the students were paying attention to. The group of randomly selected students met with program coordinators every two weeks to talk about conflicts they had seen or experienced, and about ways to resolve or avoid such conflicts.
Shepherd and her colleagues worked through their selected students to alter middle schoolers’ perception that conflict is normal and expected behavior.
For example, Shepherd says, the students composed short “hashtag” phrases they could use to counter conflict or harassment, such as “#I’ll stand with you,” or “#Don’t be a hater,” posted them on Twitter or Instagram feeds and put them on posters around the school. The intervention group, including the influential students, signed their names on those posters. In addition to discussing and addressing incidents of harassment, the selected students talked about acts of kindness or courage they witnessed, and handed out colored wristbands with the program logo to classmates responsible for those acts.
At the end of the year, the researchers conducted student surveys again, and, using disciplinary data from the schools, found that reports of student conflict had decreased 30 percent in schools where they had intervened. Participating schools were urban, rural and suburban, and located in all parts of New Jersey.
In keeping with confidentiality requirements, Shepherd and her co-authors do not name the schools in their study. Some of the schools continue to use the curriculum developed by Shepherd and her co-authors, Elizabeth Paluck of Princeton University and Peter Aronow of Yale University.
Media contact:: Ken Branson, kbranson@ucm.rutgers.edu; 848-932-0580; cell 908-797-2590