Bullying: An innovative intervention programme for the future Dieter Wolke, Sarah Woods, Ruth Aylett

Research Findings Overview : What is bullying? Who are they? Bullying and intervention strategies.

True or False? There is no bullying at my school. True/False? Bullying others toughens you up. Fighting back with the bully is the best thing to do. Ignoring the bullying will make it go away.

True or False? Bullying only happens among boys. True/False? Bullying is part of growing up & you just have to accept it. Bullying only happens in disadvantaged schools. There is more bullying in large classes compared to small classes.

Bullying vs Teasing Everyone has conflicts: What is bullying? What is teasing? Everyone has conflicts: When does it become bullying?

Bullying Characteristics Bullying behaviour is different to teasing & aggression because: Bullying behaviour is repeated over time and does not just happen once. Bullying involves power relationships. The victim feels over powered and intimidated by the bully. Bullying is planned and deliberate and is not just a joke.

What is Bullying? Direct Bullying: A Student is being bullied or victimised when he or she is exposed repeatedly and over time to negative action on the part of one or more others students. (Olweus, 1991) Relational Bullying: The purposeful damage and manipulation of peer relationships and feelings of social exclusion. (Crick & Grotpeter, 1995)

Direct/Physical Bullying This includes behaviours such as: - being hit - being kicked - being punched - being blackmailed or threatened - people being spiteful to you

Verbal Bullying This includes behaviours such as: - Being called nasty names - Having lies spread about you - Receiving nasty or threatening text messages.

Relational Bullying This type of bullying usually involves the people who you hang around with: - Friends deliberately leaving you out - Friends deliberately falling out with you - Friends spreading nasty rumours about you or stories that are not true

Bullying and victimisation % of antisocial behaviour

Bullying Behaviour and Antisocial Behaviour Victimisation decreases but becomes more stable (same children victims again and again). Bullying remains more stable.

‘Pure’ Bullies ‘Pure’ Victims Bully/victims Neutrals Bullying Sub-groups ‘Pure’ Bullies ‘Pure’ Victims Bully/victims Neutrals 2/26/2019

Characteristics Bully Sub-Groups Individual Differences Social Understanding Social/Peer Status Family Functioning

Characteristics of Bully/victims INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: irritable, angry and hot tempered, impulsive, hyperactive, short attention. SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING: +ive attitude to aggression, misinterpret hostile intentions (ambiguous provocation), low-mod social understanding. SOCIAL/PEER STATUS: moderate to high social impact, few friends, highly rejected by peers, reinforcer or assistant. FAMILY FUNCTIONING: experiences of violence in family, inconsistent discipline & parenting, often marital conflict, father often absent, dysfunctional.

Characteristics of Bullies INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: little anxiety, good self-esteem, well regulated. SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING: uses aggression to dominate, ‘cool cognition’ good understanding social situations. SOCIAL/PEER STATUS: high social impact, no. friends, ring leader, popular & rejected. FAMILY FUNCTIONING: harsh discipline, no violence, distant family structure, -ive sibling relations.

Characteristics of Victims INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: withdrawn, anxious, low self-esteem, unassertive, upset easily. SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING: -ive attitude to violence, poor social understanding. SOCIAL/PEER STATUS: low social impact, few or no friends, rejected or neglected. FAMILY FUNCTIONING: over protective mothers, fathers often distant.

Precursors of Bullying Involvement: Bully/victim and Antisocial Child Child Characteristics Neuropsychological: hyperactivity, learning problems temperament: difficult infant Attachment Style insecurely or disorganised attachment Parenting Style and Family inconsistent, poor monitoring, violent, siblings who bully Neighbourhood Contexts: affiliation with antisocial peers

Consequences of Bullying Truancy Decrease in Academic Achievement Psychological Symptoms Physical health Problems Problems in later adult life SUICIDE

Research Findings Overview of research findings: The prevalence of bullying behaviour. The relationship between bullying and behaviour problems. Bullying and intervention strategies.

How big a problem is bullying? UH carried out a research project with schools in Germany and the U.K. between 1996-1998. The major research questions were to find out about any differences in bullying behaviour experienced by German and English children aged 6-9 years old.

The sample of children U.K. Germany Number (N) of children in study Year 2 (N) and average age N: 1072 M: 6.71 yrs M: 8.11 yrs Year 4 (N) and average age N: 1305 M: 8.32 Not applicable

What did the children have to do? Children who took part all had to complete an INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEW. Types of bullying (e.g. names, hit/beaten) Frequency of victimisation Frequency of bullying others Location bullied in (e.g. classroom) Age & gender of bullies Telling adults – teachers/parents The word ‘bullying’ was not used in the interviews

Children Physically Victimised

Children who Physically Bullied Others

Bullying Groups: Physical Bullying

Different Schools & Bullying The relationship between bullying behaviour and school factors (e.g. class size, school size) was investigated. GERMANY: None of the school factors were related to bullying behaviour. U.K: School size Class size Urban/Rural All related to bullying behaviour

What about other studies? Studies worldwide Victimisation Bullying others Primary school (aged 8-12) 8% to 46% 3% to 23% Secondary school (aged 11-16) 4% to 30% 4% to 19%

Bullying and Behaviour Problems among primary school children Dieter Wolke Linda Bloomfield Sarah Woods Lyn Karstadt University of Hertfordshire, Psychology Department

Bullying & Behaviour Problems Previous studies have found: Lower Self-esteem Depression Increased Anxiety Conduct problems & Hyperactivity Victims YES NO Bullies

Research Questions What is the extent of behaviour problems for children involved in direct or relational bullying? Are there any different effects for direct and relational bullying on behaviour problems? Do those children involved in both direct & relational bullying have the most behaviour problems?

Research Instruments Bullying interview: direct bullying (e.g. hit/beaten) Relational bullying (e.g. social exclusion by friends) Behaviour Questionnaire - 5 scales 1. Emotional symptoms 2. Hyperactivity 3. Conduct problems 4. Peer problems 5. Prosocial behaviour Total difficulties

Total behaviour problems in the clinical range *** P < 0.001 significant *** ***

Conclusions Involvement in bullying is related to behaviour problems. Bully/victims both direct and relational may be the highest risk group for life persistent behaviour problems. Relational bullies – low behaviour problems – Are they ‘Cool Manipulators’?

Bullying Interventions There are many different intervention strategies to tackle bullying problems: The no-blame approach The Method of shared concern Peer Counselling ‘Buddy’ programmes ‘Whole-school’ Approaches INTERVENTION APPROACHES HAVE HAD LIMITED LONG-TERM SUCCESS

School Anti-bullying Policies All schools are required by law to have a comprehensive behavioural policy to deal with bullying problems. A recent research study revealed that the content and detail of anti-bullying policies had little impact on the levels of bullying behaviour in schools.

What next?…………….. If bullying strategies to date have had limited success rates, what should be done?

Bullying stories The UH team is currently working with children aged 8-12 to design some bullying stories that can be used for a new bullying intervention initiative (VICTEC). Children working in pairs are provided with a ‘story brief’ and then have an 1h30 to produce a story using a software package called ‘Kar2ouche’. (www.kar2ouche.com/)

The ‘Story Brief’ Children are provided with the following info: The story can have a maximum of 3-4 characters (these could be the b, v, b/v, bystander etc). The environment for the story should focus on the school (e.g. playground, classroom). An introduction should be given about the main characters and some background information.

The ‘Story Brief’ The story should be made up of 3-4 different episodes or characters. The children should think about different coping strategies to deal with bullying. Think about the ending of the story – will it be happy or sad or a mixture?

Physical Bullying Story Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3

Relational Bullying Story Episode 1 Episode 3 Episode 2 Episode 4

New Research……….. Based on the research findings so far, the team hopes to design a new intervention strategy.

What does VICTEC stand for? V: Virtual ICT: Information Communication Technology E: Empathic C: Characters

Who is involved in VICTEC? European Project with partners in the U.K, Portugal and Germany. 3 universities, 1 private research institute, 1 small company The teams have expertise in: Psychology, 3D interactive graphics, Socially intelligent agents, Artificial Intelligence and business enterprise.

Inspired by theatre Use of performance to dramatise the problem Theatre in Education Linked workshops But is not a cheap option In every group some will be bullying others Interaction is limited in conventional performance

Forum theatre (Boal) An interactive form of theatre Sections of audience ‘own’ a character The actor meets them ‘in role’ and discusses actions Can only act ‘in character’ Episodic performance Actor can halt an episode to ask for more advice Hard to manage in school environment

The aims of VICTEC - 1 Implement a virtual Forum Theatre 3D interactive graphics and virtual actors - synthetic characters Individual interaction based on creating empathy with the characters Computer game technology - but NOT a game! Provide a safe environment for children to explore different perspectives on bullying behaviour.

The aims of VICTEC - 2 Evaluate the system Integration Does it affect children’s views on bullying behaviour? Do children actually feel empathy with the characters in the scenarios? Integration How this fits into schools’ social and educational curriculum for issues around bullying and aggression

What are Intelligent Synthetic Characters? A synthetic character is a digital or physical entity with personality that can interact with people in real time. Computer games characters are not very intelligent Do not remember anything about interaction Hard to believe in them as personalities

An Animated Character

How realistic should they be? We want them to be believable Is believability the same as realism? We believe in Mickey Mouse… Characters that are NEARLY realistic may be ‘creepy’ We have high expectations And then they clash with them

Realistic vs. cartoon characters

Realistic vs. cartoon characters

Who plays what? JOHN LUKE MARTINA

Cartoon vs. realistic school

How will we create empathy? The character must be believable No rerun - what happens counts Different scenarios and characters Emerging story as in improvisational drama, not pre-scripted Acting as an ‘invisible friend’. Tamagotchis seemed to evoke empathy Give advice about dealing with the situation and see what happens

Victimisation Scenario (1) Work has commenced towards developing a scenario comprised of several episodes to depict direct victimisation. There will be a maximum of 3 characters per episode (e.g. bully, victim and bystander). The environment to be modelled will focus on the school classroom and playground.

Victimisation Scenario (2) The scenario will begin with an introduction to the main character (victim). A tour of the school and classroom will then be given highlighting some of the schooling history and the other characters. The first victimisation event will then occur. The victim will ask the user what he/she should do?

Victimisation Scenario (3) The user gives advice This will influence the character Repeated - 5 or 6 episodes Similar-but-not-identical incidents but maybe in different locations with slight difference in cast. Child has chance to try out different sorts of advice

Victimisation Scenario (4) Ending the session give the child a summary story (still shots of key moments)from the episodes Use this to promote reflection: Why did this happen? How did each character feel? Educational messages Also at the end: ‘don’t suffer in silence, tell somebody you trust’. Internet addresses and contact no.s will also be supplied.

A Trailer Not the finished software, but how we think it is going to look

Development of Scenarios Several different sources for help here UH Drama Department Children’s Literature Professionals in the bullying arena Kar2ouche Software Package Children’s real life experiences

UH Drama Dept. 8 detailed bullying and victimisation dramas depicting both direct and relational bullying We provided the students with a brief - how many episodes to include, the no. of characters etc. We have since scripted all the plays/dramas and are hoping to use them

Teacher Workshop The project recently hosted a Teacher Workshop to encourage school involvement and generate ideas for scenarios and character design. Schools have since sent in scenarios that have been written by the children themselves.

Virtually friends Event for 400 children in June 2004 at University of Hertfordshire: Virtually friends: Social role-play with robots and agents Questionnaire and interaction with the software Activities with the robots used in research Contact us if you would like to take part!

Storyboard Evaluation Pilot evaluation work has started with schools in the U.K. (Salford & Herts) concerning the bullying storyboards. Children aged 10 were asked about what they liked: The characters (3D or 2D) School environment (realistic vs cartoon) Questions about bullying Questions about empathy with characters

Results of storyboard evaluation Children prefer 3D characters to 2D. Children prefer the realistic looking school compared to the cartoon one. The direct bullying scenario was too ‘dramatic’ and needs to be more realistic. There is some empathy for the characters, children felt sorry for the victim, it made them feel sad, the bully made the children feel angry.

Challenges - 1 There IS no easy answer .No strategy always works Tension between realism and a straightforward message Do we have to present a happy ending? Producing believable characters and varying scenarios Pushing the technology here Especially language for unscripted interaction

Challenges - 2 Cultural differences There is no word exactly equivalent to ‘bullying’ in German or Portuguese School uniform and other differences Where bullying takes place No school dinners in Germany Children unaccompanied to school Now extending work to China...

Contact Details Ruth Aylett (project coordinator) CVE, Business House, University of Salford, Salford, M5 4WT r.s.aylett@salford.ac.uk The project website www.victec.org