Violence and School Bullying

The Role and Limitations of Teachers in Bullying Situations We discussed the different roles that emerge in bullying situations, as not only the bully and the victim are involved, but there is also a group of bystanders who, even if they play a less active role, still have an important impact on the situation. One key figure that particularly interests me is the role of teachers, as I believe they can have a significant impact and be crucial in addressing the problem, both in terms of stopping an emerging situation and preventing a new one from arising. I have always been quite interested in education, but I often think that acting appropriately in bullying situations can be very challenging. For this reason, I wanted to explore more deeply the exact role and limitations of teachers through an article that examines bullying from the perspective of teachers. The article explains that teachers are often aware that bullying occurs in their classrooms. But on the one hand, they have great ...

  Good afternoon everyone, today I wanted to share with you an article that studies how a storytelling intervention based on the Social Information Processing (SIP) model can reduce aggressive behaviors in schoolchildren. This takes me back to topic 1 of the subject, where we learnt about the different aggressions that can occur in school violence. Since bullying often involves reactive and proactive aggression, the study provides useful information into how we can reduce these aggressive behaviors and also help prevent bullying. This study used the ReactiveProactive Aggression Questionnaire and developed an innovative group storytelling intervention based on the SIP model. The SIP model suggests that reactive and proactive aggression are linked to different cognitive processes (Crick & Dodge, 1996; Dodge & Coie, 1987). In other words, this model explains how children think in social situations. Specifically they go through five steps: noticing social cues, interpreting tho...

When we talk about bullying, we usually talk about cases that happened in childhood. For example, we often hear that bullying happens in elementary or middle school, but bullying also occurs outside of these cases. Adults can also be bullied. This is a topic that many do not pay attention to or do not take seriously. "A survey by the American Osteopathic Association found that 31% of people in the US reported being bullied as an adult and 43% reported that bullying seems to have become more accepted in recent years" (Cuncic 2023). With this blog I want to bring awareness to bullying among adults and provide ways to deal with it. Now let’s take a look first at what defines an adult bully. According to Cuncic (2023), it is a form of aggressive behavior in which someone deliberately and repeatedly causes injury or discomfort to another person. This can be done, for example, through personal insults, mean jokes, physically, threats or public shaming. Bullies come in different typ...

Hello everyone, I wanted to share with you a podcast episode that I think is interesting. You can find this episode on a website called OC87 Recovery Diaries if you want to check it out. The website is an incredible initiative that strives to tell stories about people who deal with mental health problems. It is a platform that encourages people to be able to speak about their experiences and show some light to these stories that a lot of times are hidden from society, helping to reduce stigma. There are many episodes you can find on the website, but the one that I am going to talk about is related to bullying. The podcast explores the impact of bullying on students' mental health, specifically during the high school years. At the start of the episode, Laura Farrell , the podcast co-host, talks about her experience of being both the victim and the bully. Showing us both sides, which I find interesting, because it is a great example of how we can have different roles depending on the...

As we have already heard a lot about the connection between the relationship of parents and whether their kid is a bully or a victim at school, the article I found from Georgiou & Stavrinides (2013) focuses on parent-child dynamics in its focus. Other research often focuses primarily on parenting styles. Here, they found that a parent-child conflict was the strongest predictor of bullying and victimization. Besides that, the more conflict a child had with their parents, the more likely they were to be involved in bullying, either as perpetrator or victim. Another finding was that child disclosure correlated with bullying but not with victimization. Children who voluntarily shared their school experiences with their parents were less likely to bully others. On this point, I thought maybe another variable could mediate this connection, like a relationship. Parental monitoring was not related to either bullying or victimization. Conflict and child disclosure explained a modest but sta...

Hi! Today, I want to share with you a PDF document that includes several activities designed to help students from preschool to primary school connect with their classmates through kindness and empathy, creating a supportive environment that helps prevent bullying. Each activity includes the recommended age group, the materials needed, and clear instructions on how to carry it out. The activities are the following: Empathy with Animals : In this activity, children decorate bear faces that represent different emotions (brave, sad, happy, angry). Then, after listening to short stories, they must identify how the character is feeling and choose the bear face that matches the story. Finally, they are asked questions that encourage them to reflect on and talk about their own feelings. Kindness Bingo : This is a bingo game that can be adapted in two ways. First, it can be played as a traditional bingo game, but instead of numbers, the spaces co...

As we already addressed this topic in other places on this blog and also in class, I found this summary from UNICEF (2025) on understanding, preventing, and responding to cyberbullying for teenagers. First, they explain what Cyberbullying is, then they mention signs to recognize for oneself that a mean or harassing post online is cyberbullying. In this post, they also highlight effects on mental health, like e. g.  anxiety, insecurity, and loss of interests. I like this about that post because here they provide help for people to identify cyberbullying and also to explain some symptoms that they may see in themselves. Further, they introduce a 5-step plan to take action:  1. Talk to somebody,  2. Report the behavior,  3. Collect evidence,  4. Block or mute the bully,  5. Seek professional help.  They also provide some tips on how to support others, like:  1. Listen and offer support,  2. Help them report,  3. Encourage professional help,...

  While walking through the Moco Museum in Barcelona, I stumbled upon this quote by Albert Einstein: “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch and do nothing.” It stopped me in my tracks. Not because it was the first time I had read those words, but because in that moment, surrounded by art meant to challenge perspectives, the weight of the quote hit me harder than ever. Immediately, it made me think about the bystander role,  something I’ve written about before. Maybe I bring it up too often. But honestly? I don’t think we talk about it enough. The bystander role is far too often brushed aside. It’s easy to think, “I’m not doing harm, so I’m not part of the problem.” But silence, passivity, and inaction in the face of injustice are forms of complicity. And that complicity allows harm to continue and grow unchecked. Bystanders have more power than they think. They can intervene, support, speak up, amplify voices, and refuse to normalize ...

  Hello everyone! In this post, I want to focus on the consequences that bullying may have on its victims. During my research, I came across various effects of bullying. Richard Armitage divides them into three categories: educational consequences during childhood and adolescence, health consequences during childhood and adolescence, and all consequences during adulthood (2021). The impact of bullying on its victims is influenced by various factors, such as the intensity, form, or frequency of the bullying ( Armitage, 2021 ). Educational consequences are notable, as bullying is related to negative academic effects such as low performance, decreased motivation, confidence and academic goals (Han, Ye & Zhong, 2025). Moreover, it may increase exam anxiety ( Han, Ye & Zhong, 2025 ). Students who experience bullying, tend to achieve lower test scores and are more likely to skip school than those who do not (Armitage, 2021). In class, we also discussed that not wanting to go to s...

H i everyone! My boyfriend’s mum used to be the principal of a school in Badalona for many years. Her last year there was in 2019, as she’s now retired. The other day, we were talking about school bullying programs, and I was curious to know if they had anything in place at her school back then. She told me she couldn’t remember if there was a specific antibullying program at the time, but she explained that the school did offer several tools and resources to deal with conflict. One of them was an anonymous mailbox where students could leave notes about things they were going through or situations they had witnessed. It was a simple but effective way for people to speak up without having to reveal who they were. But what I found most interesting was the school’s mediation system. There was a mediation team made up of both teachers and students. Students could choose an optional subject called “Mediation”, where they learned tools to manage and resolve conflicts. This subject...

Hello everyone, I want to recommend you a movie I saw a couple of years ago: Wonder , by R.J. Palacio, that you could watch during this holiday week. Also, if you are interested, it's based on a book. It tells the story of Auggie, a boy with a facial difference who starts school for the first time and has to face a lot of difficulties because of how he looks. The film shows really well how bullying goes beyond just physical violence, because Auggie suffers from exclusion, people laughing at him, mean comments, and being treated differently. These are all things we’ve talked about in class, like verbal and psychological bullying, and how it can really affect someone’s self-esteem and feeling of belonging.  In the movie, we can clearly identify the different roles that students take in bullying situations, as described by the Participant Roles Approach. Some students act as bully followers, supporting or encouraging the main aggressor. Others remain silent and do nothing, taking the ...

In recent years, the role of psychology in addressing bullying in Peru has become increasingly important. As awareness about the emotional and social impact of bullying has grown, psychologists have taken a leading role in developing strategies that go beyond punishment, focusing instead on prevention, emotional education, and healthy social development. Schools across the country are slowly shifting toward a more holistic approach, where understanding the root causes of bullying and promoting empathy and positive relationships are key goals. In there, an interesting and very encouraging initiative has been developed to tackle bullying in schools: the School Mistreatment Prevention Program based on Social Competence ( Programa de Prevención del Maltrato Escolar basado en la Competencia Social ). This program was implemented in Chiclayo and focused on something really important when it comes to fighting bullying. Teaching kids how to relate to others in a positive and respectful way. In...

This TED talk abords a question that is rarely talked about: teacher bullying. Teacher bullying can be defined as "an ungly undercurrent of  mean-spirited and disdainful conduct toward students". This conduct constitutes a corruption of the role of educator and does enormous damage to students, colleagues and the public faith in schools. ( Alan Mcevoy, sociologyst Northern Michigan University ). When students are targeted by teachers, they often feel shamed and powerless, for example in Linda's case she refers a really cruel teacher when she was in school. She did an art project and when she handle it for the teacher to submmit the project, the response she get was "you didn't do this yourself, your cheating". Also her mom was aside, she said that they seen her daughter doing the project herself the teacher talks back saying "your defensing your daughter, shame on you". And when she went to school one day despite feeling unwell all that teacher do ...

Hello everyone, today I wanted to share with you a web page about bullying that I have found. The website is called AEPAE which stands for Asociación Española para la Prevención del Acoso Escolar, or the Spanish Association for the Prevention of School Bullying . It is a non-profit Spanish organization made up of a team of psychologists, teachers, social workers, lawyers, self-defense experts, and even parents of bullying victims. All of them are working to prevent and fight bullying in schools across Spain. The website offers information about bullying, cyberbullying, emotional education and the protocol to follow in those cases. It also provides training programs for professionals, workshops and tools for students, parents and teachers. AEPAE focuses on empowering students while also educating the adults around them. In addition, they have done national conferences and campaigns to prevent bullying. Another great feature you can find on the site is that AEPAE organizes free summer ca...

  Staying aware: What students are saying about bullying today Hello everybody, Bullying is a topic that never seems to go away. It evolves with society, adapting to new platforms and trends, and continues to affect students in both visible and invisible ways. That’s why I found the New York Times article What Students Are Saying About Bullying Today (2023) so relevant and important. It doesn’t just present facts or expert opinions, it gives students themselves a voice. Hearing directly from young people about their experiences with bullying gives us insight into how it really feels to be affected by it in today's world. The article is a compilation of student responses to a question posed by The New York Times : “What should adults understand about bullying today?” The answers are varied, honest, and sometimes heartbreaking. One student wrote, “Bullying can be subtle,” pointing out how it’s not always obvious when someone is being hurt (The New York Times, 2023). Another emphas...

Blog 4: Tirza Scheffer When I was in primary school in the Netherlands, we had a programme to help improve our social skills. It was called Kanjertraining (or Herotraining in English). Looking back, I realise how much this method influenced how we interacted with each other in class. There were posters everywhere in the school and we regularly had lessons where we would act out different social situations. Sometimes the teacher would show us an example of someone behaving badly, and then help us think about how the same situation could be handled in a kinder, more respectful way. The method uses four different coloured hats to help children understand different types of behaviour. The white hat, often linked to a tiger, stands for calm, confident, and trustworthy behaviour. The red hat can mean someone is silly or just trying to get attention. The yellow hat represents feelings of insecurity or nervousness, while the black hat can be a sign of a bossy or bullying attitude. The idea is ...

In Germany, the Ministry of Education published guidelines for schools on how to deal with bullying in schools. The following characteristics identify bullying: Intent to Harm, Repetition, Power Imbalance, and Helplessness. If bullying is detected, they provide teachers with 5 steps to follow. First, they should act immediately. This includes halting any aggressive behavior and ensuring the victim is safe. Also, they are obliged to assess if the already mentioned bullying criteria are met. Then, Teachers and school staff need to discuss the situation with colleagues to decide on the best course of action. This might involve engaging the victim and the bully in separate conversations and determining the next steps. Lastly, the victim should be provided with support to offer a safe school environment again In addition to the teacher guidelines, there are also ones for School Leadership Teams. First, they have to ensure that anti-bullying policies are being followed. This includes suppor...