Bullying in American Schools: A Social-Ecological Perspective on Prevention and Intervention

Much of our knowledge about bullying behaviors comes from research conducted over the past several decades in Europe, Australia, and Canada. Until the past decade, research in the United States has lagged behind our European, Australian, and Canadian counterparts. This book seeks to fill this void by forwarding research on bullying across contexts conducted with American participants. This book is an exciting compilation of research on bullying in school-aged youth conducted across the United States by a representative group of researchers, including developmental, social, counseling, school, and clinical psychologists. As such, it presents a picture of the complexity of bullying behaviors and offers suggestions for using data-based decision-making to intervene and reduce bullying behaviors in our nation's schools.

Given the complexity of bullying and victimization, this book gives guidance for schools as they develop prevention and intervention programming for bullying. Providing a source through which school administrators can utilize the research findings, the book is divided into five parts. Part I illustrates the importance of individual characteristics across bully-victim subtypes. Part II addresses how peer groups relate to bullying across the school years. Part III explores how teachers and classrooms influence bullying and aggression during the school years. Part IV implicates ecological systems in fostering and maintaining bullying in schools. It also highlights the potential for these systems to work in combating bullying. Part V focuses on specific aspects of prevention and intervention planning.