Mizzou researchers awarded $8 million in grants to discover new bullying prevention strategies

(Press-News.org) Students don’t have to be friends, but they should be friendly. In other words, they should learn to be respectful of one another while sharing the same space. For Chad Rose, a nationally renowned bullying prevention expert at the University of Missouri, this idea is central to his efforts to reduce school bullying, and in turn, school violence.

Bullying is a risk factor for violence, said Rose, the director of Mizzou’s Bully Prevention Lab who has spent the past 18 years researching the subject.

“After the Safe Schools initiative was launched in 1999 by the U.S. Department of Education, we began to see that children and teens who have experienced prolonged bullying or victimization have a higher likelihood of responding aggressively to bullying,” he said. “And on the flip side, some who engage in violent behaviors are often labeled as school bullies.”

Now, Rose and his colleagues are continuing their important research to reduce bullying in schools by evaluating the effectiveness of teaching social and communication skills to children. Their latest efforts are supported by two awards totaling $4 million each from the U.S. Department of Education.

“We want to find ways to teach students the important social and communication skills that aren’t always taught, such as responsible decision-making, self-awareness and social awareness,” said Rose, an associate professor in Mizzou’s College of Education and Human Development.

The MU researchers are joined on both grant projects by leading experts in the field of bullying prevention.

The first grant will evaluate the effectiveness of the K-5 Second Step Program, one of the most widely used commercially available social-emotional learning programs in the United States. The researchers will follow groups of students in 36 schools throughout Wisconsin, Louisiana and North Carolina.

The second grant is a continuation of a previous grant that created an interactive professional development program to help teachers learn how to recognize, respond and report to bullying incidents. It will involve 12 schools in the southeast United States.

“Bullying impacts a large portion of students in America,” Rose said. “When we look at the people who are involved, we start to see that those with disabilities or who struggle with social and communication skills are more likely to be bullied. We’ve had good results with the original program, and we’re grateful to be able to expand it into more schools with this funding.”

Warning signs Rose pointed out some key warning signs that parents and teachers should watch for to help prevent school violence. They are:

Marked changes in behaviors Changes in eating or sleeping habits. Pulling away from friends. Being more withdrawn at home and talking less with parents. Displaying signs of increased depression, withdrawal or anxiety. More trips to school nurse. Reluctance to go to school. Parents should use these signs as a reason to talk more with their children, Rose said.

Teacher resources There are many tools that teachers can use to help prevent school violence, such as helping students improve their social skills. The challenge is making sure teachers have easy access to these resources, Rose said.

“I’d suggest schools use a multi-step approach,” he said. “This begins by having clear rules, routines and expectations that everyone in the school follows. It helps ensure that all teachers and staff are on the same page and speaking the same language.”

Rose hopes the new grants from the U.S. Department of Education will help find better ways to reduce and create positive school environments.

“We believe that by directly teaching and reinforcing age-appropriate social and communication skills, we can provide students with important life-long skills, while reducing bullying among school-aged youth,” Rose said. “Mizzou is on the leading edge of expanding upon that idea to improve the lives of students across the U.S. We want everyone to feel comfortable going to school every day.”

Co-investigators on the grants include Dorothy Espelage, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Anna Long, Louisiana State University; Kyle Nickodem, University of Minnesota; and Phil Poekert and Cathy Cavanaugh, University of Florida.

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