Having your child bullied at school is one of the greatest fears of parents – and research shows this fear is well founded. School bullying has been described as the single most important threat to the mental health of children and adolescents. Well-controlled studies show that being bullied in primary school increases the risk of serious mental health problems into adolescence and ongoing depression leading Read more
It started, as is so often does with girls, with a whispering campaign. The gossiping was endless. “Everything I seemed to do was something to talk about. The girls would nudge each other and say: ‘Shhhh, Amelia* is there’.” School felt like a popularity contest. Amelia was asked to name the three prettiest girls in Read more
Parents are one of the most influential factors when talking about bullying – in that they are the most likely to be able to prevent it. The way parents model appropriate interactions and communication to their children (for example, resolve disagreements, be assertive when appropriate) will impact on how their children interact with others – Read more
A few weeks ago a survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that bullying was the number one concern of young people in Australia. Bullying has displaced their concerns about the environment and the importance of healthy eating or owning a computer. This is surprising since the incidence of bullying does not seem to Read more
Ten Florida priests have accused their bishop of being a bully and have forwarded their complaints to the apostolic nuncio in Washington. The priests, in Venice diocese, accuse Bishop Frank Dewane of ruling by “intimidations, the use of fear, shaming, bullying and other non-Christian behaviours”. They accuse Bishop Dewane of “outbursts of rage, use of Read more
Recent publicity about bullying does not reflect what she sees at the school, says Prue Kelly, Bishop Viard College’s interim principal. “It’s easy to sit outside the school and say there’s bullying going on, or one incident is an indicator of general malaise in the place, of things going badly. “That’s not what I’ve found Read more
The principal of Porirua’s Bishop Viard College is on extended leave for the whole of the next term. Board of Trustees Chairman, Alan Holden, confirmed Tuesday evening, it had grated Teresa Cargo’s request. On Tuesday, CathNews reported that Mr Holden described Ms Cargo’s request as “not unwelcome”. There is much comment in the media that Read more
The inevitable has happened. The anti-bullying psychology has finally established a solid bulwark in the home. News of a research study confirming the obvious–that sibling rivalry is an even more pervasive and destructive phenomenon than school bullying–has hit all of the major news outlets, including the most revered of all, The New York Times. Antibullyism Read more