(An item from the ISHN Member information service)  The news stories we identified this week included a story about an American forum organized by the White House to "rethink school discipline". The news release stated "The U.S. Departments of Education and Justice are hosting teams of superintendents, principals, and teachers from across the country today for "Rethink Discipline," a day-long conference at the White House on creating positive school climates and implementing effective discipline practices. The conference seeks to advance the national conversation about reducing the overuse of unnecessary out of school suspensions and expulsions and replacing these practices with positive alternatives that keep students in school and engaged in learning, but also ensure accountability." According to data released at the Forum , the number of US students losing critical learning time due to out of school suspensions and expulsions is staggering. Over 3 million students are suspended or expelled every year. A number of excellent actions were also announced, including policy, planning and profession al guides, a clearinghouse/web site and a public awareness campaign. The initiative was also linked to other US initiatives on racism, gender equity and similar policy directions. The search for meaningful alternatives to suspension are real and laudable. But do these various actions address the core dilemma for teachers; namely, if one or a few students continually disrupt the order and learning of other students, or if they break defined rules in a significant manner, what is the disciplinary pathway to follow. Particularly if the pathway is made more difficult and complicated by various administrative needs, family and neighbourhood factors and more? Read more>>

(From the ISHN Member information service)  An systematic review in Issue #1, 2015 of Journal of Quantitative Criminology concludes that Restorative Justice Conferencing is effective in preventing repeat offending. The reviewers note that "an exhaustive search strategy that examined 519 studies that could have been eligible for our rigorous inclusion criteria, we found ten that did. Included studies measured recidivism by 2 years of convictions after random assignment of 1,880 accused or convicted offenders who had consented to meet their consenting victims prior to random assignment, based on “intention-to-treat” analysis. Results Our meta-analysis found that, on average, RJCs cause a modest but highly cost-effective reduction in the frequency of repeat offending by the consenting offenders randomly assigned to participate in such a conference. A cost-effectiveness estimate for the seven United Kingdom experiments found a ratio of 3.7–8.1 times more benefit in cost of crimes prevented than the cost of delivering RJCs. Read more>>

(From the ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #1, 2014 of Child Development Perspectives reviews the research and broadens our understanding of why and how teachers respond to bullying. The analysis shows how teacher beliefs about bullying (being normative or not), their own sense of self-efficacy in delving into complex, private lives of their students and parents, their perceptions about emotional vs physical abuse/bullying and many other factors suggest that the issue and process is very complex. The article "provides a conceptual framework for examining the role of the teacher in the life of a child victimized by peers and for reviewing research. Central to this model is the teacher, who comes to the classroom with beliefs and experiences that affect teaching practices and relationships with students [3, 4]. A bidirectional arrow between the teacher and the victimized child depicts their unique dyadic relationship and the socialization processes that can occur within that relationship [5]. The intrapersonal characteristics of the child being victimized, in turn, shape how the teacher addresses the victimization. The teacher's ability to aid the victimized child also depends on interactions with the children engaging in the aggression, in part, driven by the characteristics of the aggressive children, their motivation for aggressing, and their modes of aggression. The actions of the teacher and children contribute to, and are influenced by, the larger classroom and school climate, including the quality of relationships among and between students and staff, norms for behavior, clarity and fairness of policies, organizational structure, and emphasis on academic success." Read more>>

(From the Guardian Newspaper Blog) From KiVa in Finland to police collaboration in America, Rebecca Ratcliffe explores how schools and educators across the globe are tackling bullying If a headteacher says that there's no bullying among their students, they're probably in denial. Almost half (46%) of English children and young people say they have been bullied at school at some point in their lives, according to a 2010 report by the National Foundation for Education Research. But how are schools tackling the problem?At the moment, all state-funded schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are required by law to have an anti-bullying or behaviour policy – Scottish schools are also encouraged to develop an anti-bullying policy. This should contain a definition of bullying, procedures to follow if problems arise and details of appropriate sanctions. Under the previous Labour government, schools were offered detailed advice about confronting bullying. But the coalition is far less directive, says Fran Thompson, who has researched the use and effectiveness of anti-bullying strategies in schools across England. Read more>>

(An item from the ISHN Member information service) Several articles in the Supplementary July 2013 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health discuss the relationship between bullying, cyber bullying and adolescent suicide. One article notes that suicide does  not affect only the victims: "  Suicidal thinking or a suicide attempt was reported by 22% of perpetrators only, 29% of victims only, and 38% of bully-victims". Another article notes that cyber-bullying may be more harmful than other bullying.A third article reports that it is very important to specifically address homophobic bullying in anti-bullying policies, noting that " Lesbian and gay youths living in counties with fewer school districts with inclusive anti-bullying policies were 2.25 times (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.13–4.49) more likely to have attempted suicide in the past year compared with those living in counties where more districts had these policies". Other articles emphasized that bystanders and bullies themselves were prone to suicide as well as the victims. Read More>>

(An item from the ISHN Member information service) Three articles in the June 2013 issue of the Journal fo School Health help us to understand how teacher concerns, their perceived efficacy and their normative beliefs will determine their responses to student bullying. The first article describes how teachers in conflict prone urban schools employed a number of strategies associated with resilience, such as prayer and seeking support from family and colleagues, but also engaged in some avoidance strategies, such as emotional withdrawal and avoiding difficult students. The second study of reported that perceived threat and efficacy were associated with teachers' likelihood of intervening. For less experienced teachers, perceived efficacy, but not perceived threat, was strongly associated with likelihood of intervening. For more experienced teachers, both perceived threat and perceived efficacy were significantly associated. The third article notes that teacher normative beliefs about sexual harassment reduced the likelihood of intervention. Read more>>

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #5, 2012 of Prevention Science uses ecological analysis to identify the bullying prevention interventions that are more effective in the school context. The researchers report that" Data for this study are drawn from the School-Wide Information System (SWIS) with the final analytic sample consisting of 1,221 students in grades K – 12 who received an office disciplinary referral for bullying during the first semester. Using Kaplan-Meier Failure Functions and Multi-level discrete time hazard models, determinants of the probability of a student receiving a second referral over time were examined. Of the seven interventions tested, only Parent-Teacher Conference (AOR = 0.65, p < .01) and Loss of Privileges (AOR = 0.71, p < .10) were significant in reducing the rate of the reoccurrence of bullying and aggressive behaviors. By using a social-ecological framework, schools can develop strategies that deter the reoccurrence of bullying by identifying key factors that enhance a sense of connection between the students’ mesosystems as well as utilizing disciplinary strategies that take into consideration student’s microsystem roles. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) Intervention strategies, such as educational policies, programs, and a supportive environment that improve the social climate for LGBT students in secondary schools and universities are discussed in an article in Issue #4, 2012 of the Jpurnal of LGBT Youth. The authors note that "no studies have compiled and synthesized existing research to show the exclusively positive effect safe school interventions and supportive environments have on LGBT youth. This article presents a summary of the various intervention strategies, examines the strengths and limitations of the existing body of knowledge, and makes recommendations for future research". Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) Most of the attention in bullying prevention has focused on bullying, some of which seeking to explain the relationship between the bully and the school. An article in Issue #17, 2012 of the Journal of Interpersonal Violence examines the subsequent bonds between victims of bullying and their schooling. The authors note that " Using a sample of 10th-grade students from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, HLM models were developed to explore the relationship between school-based victimization and the adolescent’s social bond to school. The results suggest that school-based victimization has a negative association with three elements of the adolescent’s social bond to school: attachment, commitment, and belief." Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An intriguing article in Issue #6, 2012 of Crime & Delinquency uses a criminology theory to examine if strained relationships with parents or teachers as well as anger can explain the propensity to bully. This South Korea study reports that there is no such correlation and therefore "strain theory" does not explain bullying behaviour. The authors note that "Using longitudinal data on 2,817 South Korean youth, the current study attempts to fill the gaps by examining whether general strain theory can explain school bullying. As the theory suggests, youth who experience victimization by peers and conflict with parents are more likely to engage in bullying. However, there is limited evidence of the expected interaction effects between strains and conditioning factors. Inconsistent with general strain theory, parental attachment and positive relationships with teachers do not condition the effects of strains, and anger is not a mediating variable". Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) With a recent teen suicide in Canada causing significant concern, similar concerns and even legislation in Iowa and Facebook launching a campaign to prevent bullhying, an article in Issue #6, 2012 of The Journal of Adolescent Research, written by Canadian researchers, is both timely and saddening. The descriptive study helps us to understand how teen learn from their mistakes in disclosing personal information online and offers throughts on relevant education programs. The authors note that: "In a sample of 256 adolescent Facebook users, the authors explore the relationship between having a negative experience, privacy knowledge, and behavior. Their reports of bad experiences on Facebook are categorized as bullying/meanness, unwanted contact, exposure/unintentional disclosure, and misunderstandings. Adolescents who report having a bad experience are more likely to protect their privacy, and this relationship is mediated by knowledge of the privacy settings. Participants who experience negative consequences are more aware of the risks of online disclosure and how to protect themselves, which results in greater information control. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #4, 2012 of Social Development explores the impact of two different cultures (Italy & Singapore) on teen bystander reactions to bullying. The researchers report that: "Participants were 1031 school-age children from two culturally diverse settings, namely Italy and Singapore, which are similar on several dimensions (e.g., quality of life, child welfare) but dramatically differ on other aspects, such as individualism—collectivism orientation. Multilevel analyses showed that country and participants' gender moderated the relations between individual predictors and behavior during bullying episodes. In particular, although individual attitudes were a stronger predictor of Italian students'—especially girls'—behavior, perceived peer expectations were more strongly associated with behavior of Singaporean participants. Read more.