Articles
- Do Top Dogs Rule in Middle School? Evidence on Bullying, Safety, and Belonging – Schwartz/Stiefel/Rothbart
- Preventing Adolescent Social Anxiety and Depression and Reducing Peer Victimization: Intervention Development and Open Trial Annette M. La Greca, Jill Ehrenreich-May, Laura Mufson, Sherilynn Chan
Synthesis
The two peer reviewed articles I read highlight the problems that bullying can create. Bullying can create many problems for students in schools such as social anxiety, mood swings, depression, and feeling isolated. There is a lot of research that goes into this topic of bullying because it is such a far-reaching topic, I wanted to examine how bullying is being researched on a tangible-program level and on a more theoretical and phenomenon based level. The studies both showed that bullying is a problem that needs to continue to be battled against. It also reveals my level of optimism, albeit the depressing nature of bullying, because the research shows tangible evidence that this is an issue that continues to exist.
The first article, “Do Top Dogs Rule in Middle School? Evidence on Bullying, Safety, and Belonging” looks to explain the Top Dog, Bottom Dog phenomenon and whether or not it is applicable to NYC public schools. The researchers used over 90,000 students across 500 schools and focused on grades 6-8. Furthermore, the researchers examined the NYC School Survey, which is a response to over 60 questions regarding student experience, environment, and nonacademic outcomes. The researches agreed after compiling the research that bottom dogs experience higher levels of victimization, delinquent peer influences, and feelings of anonymity. Bottom dogs are the youngest and often times the shortest students, whereas top dogs are the 8th grade students. There was a finding that top dog status improves a student’s learning environment. Top dogs, in addition, are less likely to report bullying, fights, gang activity. They are more likely to report feeling safe and welcome.
The second article, “Preventing Adolescent Social Anxiety and Depression and Reducing Peer Victimization: Intervention Development and Open Trial” discusses the impact of a modified program called UTalk and to determine whether or not it would provide tangible benefits for adolescents. The authors found significantly positive feedback from the UTalk program and found that potential benefits of these interventions were encouraging. Investigation began after the Interpersonal Psychotherapy Adolescent Skills Training (IPT-AST) was modified into UTalk. This program was designed to help prevent social anxiety disorder (SAD) and to reduce peer victimization (bullying). It was discussed in the article that peer victimization is a strong factor for symptoms of SAD. The program was administered to predominantly Hispanic students in Miami, ages 14-18. The program UTalk is defined as giving adolescents the education about the effects of bullying such as mood swings, social anxiety, and deteriorating interpersonal relationships. The leaders of the programs lead 10 sessions to help these students learn about relationships with peers and how to develop intervention goals.
Both articles look to highlight bullying and the importance of recognizing the effects it can have on the youth of our urban school system. The idea that bullying is no longer a problem is far from the truth and having this belief undermines the health of students. The goal of the researchers in both articles is to have change occur – to eliminate the Top Dog, Bottom Dog phenomenon and to develop and modify programs that can lower the risk of victimization. Due to the increasing awareness on bullying, it is important that work continues to progress. It is not a time to stay passive.