Harm and Impacts

Bullying and Suicide: Are we alarmed enough?

Posted on by Teresa Butler / 0 Comment

CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNING: Suicide

Two years ago we published an article entitled Bullying kills kids. In the article we discussed the concerning link between bullying, depression and suicide, as evidenced by the latest Australian data on the mental health and wellbeing of children and adolescents. Kids are nine times more likely to develop depression if they’ve been bullied. They are three times more likely to commit suicide if they’ve been bullied. These are still the most recent statistics available and the article is still as relevant today as it was two years ago. Sadly, suicide is still the leading cause of death of young people in Australia. More young people in Australia die from suicide than from car crashes, drownings and cancer combined! The rates in many other first world countries are similar. Suicide is an issue of massive global concern.

In the two years since we wrote this piece, we have attended several international bullying conferences where we have heard some academics warn against discussing the link between suicide and bullying. They caution others who work in this field to be mindful of not being alarmist and sensationalist. These are the same researchers who use a definition of bullying that precludes the majority of harmful behaviours that occur in social interactions from being counted in the statistics for bullying.

More young people in Australia die from suicide than from car crashes, drownings and cancer combined!

It is not sensationalistic or alarmist to say that bullying kills kids when a 13 year old boy who is beaten to within inches of his life by his peers, kills himself two days after being discharged from hospital. He died the day before he was due to return to school where he would have to face his tormentors.

It is not sensationalistic or alarmist to say that bullying kills kids when a teenage girl tells a boy who likes her to go and kill himself because she is embarrassed by his crush on her, and he does.

It is not sensationalistic or alarmist because these are not exaggerations. They are true accounts of things that happened right before real children took their lives. Of course suicide is far more complicated than just those factors. But the truth is that those bullying behaviours were preventable actions that contributed to the loss of lives.

So why do the “experts” ask people to exercise caution and not be alarmist when talking about how bullying contributes to suicide?

Is it bullying?

One reason is because restrictive definitions often do not consider the experience of these children to be bullying. There was no evidence that the boy had been tormented repeatedly or with intent. According to his family, it was well hidden; it only became publicly known when he was bashed with a baseball bat leading to hospitalisation. This was considered an incident of assault, not bullying, because there was no record of it being repeated. In the case of the girl telling the boy to take his life, there was no proof she intended to harm him with her words. There was no evidence that she said it to him more than once, or that it was her words that lead to his death. Therefore, by current definitions, this is not considered bullying.

We cannot dismiss these cases as rare and not warranting alarm when almost a third of all youth deaths are attributable to suicide.

To be alarmist is to exaggerate a danger to cause needless worry or panic. To be sensationalistic is to use material to arouse an intense emotional reaction to the subject matter. But these cases should arouse an emotional reaction with a view to alerting people to how easily children can be harmed by others’ behaviour. Because without this awareness, cases like these will continue to occur. We cannot dismiss these cases as rare and not warranting alarm. Almost a third of all youth deaths are attributable to suicide. Indeed, as a society we seem more alarmed by kids drowning, even though drownings in youth are actually quite ‘rare’. (Drownings account for 2% of deaths compared to 30% to suicide). Every child who experiences bullying behaviour is at increased risk. Every life matters.

The rationale for asking people to stop linking bullying to suicide is not because bullying does not contribute to suicide. It is because the contributing behaviour, in many of the cases, is not regarded as “bullying”. It is not counted in the statistics if it does not fit the definition. Therefore it is argued that the link between bullying and suicide is not as conclusive as it appears.

This does not mean that the link is not there. It means that the definition of bullying is wrong – unhelpful at least, dangerous at worst! Problems with definitions of bullying are one of many challenges that limit progress to meaningful change in the anti-bullying field.

Stop focusing on definitions that make things easy to measure and report, and start focusing on taking actions that will actually bring about change to reduce harm.

We do not intend to alarm or cause panic. But we see part of our role as disruptors to bring these impractical research complications to light. We hope everyone who works in the anti-bullying space can shift their focus from definitions that make things easy to measure, to taking actions that will actually bring about change to reduce harm.

The Bullying Revolution

What if a world without bullying is possible?

Posted on by Teresa Butler / 0 Comment

We have been delivering bullying prevention programs, intervention strategies, and postvention counselling treatment services for many years. Some of these involve teaching resilience, social and emotional skills, emotional regulation and conflict resolution programs to children, adolescents, and young people. We also work to educate professionals and parents in what works and doesn’t work, and testing out the latest approaches. In this time, we have seen a mass of research undertaken by a passionate and committed field of academics and practitioners across the globe. We have seen a myriad of approaches come and go. There is a massive challenge in taking these approaches to scale to make a sustainable difference in the incidence of bullying. With over forty years of research and practice in the field, the reported rates of bullying has not significantly improved.

Year after year, the same issues arise. An endless stream of kids affected by bullying move through a system designed to offer quick fix solutions. They require more than just the latest strategies and new approaches. As new generations of damaged kids are subjected to this revolving door phenomenon, it has become apparent that even with the latest innovations in evidence based approaches we are not doing enough to eliminate bullying. We are not even making a significant impact on reducing bullying rates.

We keep building life rafts and sending kids out into tsunamis. We need to do more than build boats to weather a storm; we need to stop the storm.

It is time for a revolutionary change.

We need more than new strategies, approaches, systems and structures; we need a whole new perspective. It is time to approach bullying from a bigger picture perspective. If we step back from the minutiae of prevention programs, intervention strategies, and postvention treatment services; if we look at bullying from a revolutionary position of working to create cultural and societal change – we will see that a world without bullying is possible. We need to look deeper, and focus our energies on developing environments that are able to sustain change.

Interventions and strategies are obviously important, but they cannot be our first or only line of defence. Wouldn’t it be great if they were only needed to catch the cases that fall through the cracks in a world otherwise free of bullying?

When the right intervention strategies are implemented in the context of this belief, we will begin to see revolutionary change. The belief in this possibility is one of the first things that is missing in the field of bullying.

Last year we presented a workshop on creating cultural change at the No2Bullying Conference on the Gold Coast. We shared our approach in a feature article published by the Australian and New Zealand Mental Health Association. You can read the full article here.

This is part of our vision at The Bullying Revolution: to find and connect with a community of people who, like us, believe that a world without bullying is possible if we work together to share what works and learn from each other.

 

The Bullying Revolution

Evolution to Revolution

Posted on by Teresa Butler / 0 Comment

We had been running a series of community workshops when we launched the “I Stand Against Bullying” movement over a year ago. We aimed to educate, inform and share resources among parents and teachers about the strategies and approaches that we believe could help put an end to bullying. To recognise the National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence, we ended these workshops with an opportunity for participants to take a personal pledge to stand against bullying. We invited them to share their pledge on social media.

The pledge took off and our profile grew with media appearances and a presentation at a national bullying conference. We continued to work to enhance the understanding among people in the community and professionals in the field. We shared our approach and our belief that the solution to the bullying issue will be found not in new approaches and strategies, but in creating societal and cultural change.

Our evolution

One of the things we have become aware of through our work and our involvement with other anti-bullying groups is that there are a multitude of approaches to dealing with the global bullying issue. Not all of them are healthy or safe. It has become increasingly important to communicate how our philosophy and approach differs from many other anti-bullying organisations. Bullying is a serious issue that causes incredible harm to all involved in it. And it is often handled in a way that exacerbates this harm. Harm occurs to both to those experiencing the bullying and to those who are accused of bullying behaviour. Zero tolerance and punitive approaches can make things worse. I Stand Against Bullying is not associated with zero tolerance and punitive approaches. We have become aware that this name may be construed as aggressively ‘standing against’. This is not consistent with who we are.

So what does it mean to take a stand?

When we talk about taking a stand against bullying, we define this as making a commitment within ourselves to stand up and say something when we see bullying behaviour. In addition, we commit to doing everything in our power to stop it. We consider that being present and remaining silent or not acting is a form of acceptance and even encouragement of bullying behaviour. Standing up is also about looking within ourselves, and challenging our own behaviours, accepting that bullying is a behaviour that can be educated and changed, rather than demonising it as a punishable offence.

Many approaches to dealing with bullying actually reflect a form of bullying themselves. Thus, to take a stand we must also use alternatives to punitive approaches. We must instead deal with bullying with a compassionate, educational approach. Punishment of bullying behaviour is often the ‘go to’ course of action. It is one of our aims to change this.

Time for a revolutionary change

Our movement has grown. We are no longer just a Facebook page where individuals can pledge their commitment to end bullying. We are a global organisation that has evolved and outgrown its name. And we have learned that to “stand against bullying” is not enough.

We believe a revolution is required. We need a whole new perspective to an age old issue that 40 years of research and a myriad of approaches has not solved. Our aim is to end bullying by educating people and communities on creating cultures where bullying behaviours no longer exist. We seek revolutionary change in the way we look at, define, and approach the issue of bullying. As such, our name no longer accurately or completely captures who we are and what we do. Our new name better reflects us in personality, in philosophy, in action, and in our mission and objectives.

We believe in a world without bullying. Revolutionary change is possible, if this belief is combined with the right prevention and intervention strategies at the right time. Our aim is to find and connect a global community of people who want to join us for this ride.

The Bullying Revolution is here!

Harm and Impacts

Bullying kills kids. Lead by example

Posted on by Teresa Butler / 0 Comment

CONTENT/ TRIGGER WARNING: Suicide

Remember being a kid and being bullied, or watching your friends being bullied? Wasn’t it horrible to see the pain and damage it caused? Today bullying is still globally reported as a major issue of concern by young people. Bullied children are 3 times more likely to suffer depression, and up to 9 times more likely to consider suicide.

Suicide is the leading cause of death in young people in Australia.

Suicide kills more young people than road accidents, drowning and cancer. The rate of bullying in Australia is 50% higher than the reported international rate, placing Australian children in one of the highest risk environments for bullying. Our kids are at huge risk. Bullying is killing our kids.

The largest survey conducted by the Australian government into the mental health of children and adolescents, released last month (September 2015), found that:

  • One third (34%) of 11-17 year olds in Australia reported being bullied in the last 12 months,
  • Almost two thirds (63%) of young people with depression reported being bullied, and
  • Young people with depression experienced more frequent and severe bullying (three times more), compared with their non-depressed peers.

Depression is a complicated illness with no simple answer that fully explains its manifestation. This study shows that bullying has a two way relationship with depression: bullying is a contributing factor to developing depression, and depression is a risk factor for a young person becoming a target of bullying.

Depression and bullying are not the only factors to consider in the issue of suicide, but once a young person develops depression, their risk of suicide is significantly impacted. The survey found that:

Half of all young people with depression have seriously considered suicide in the last year.

Yes, that’s right. Half! Worse, the study reports that over 20% of girls and 13% of boys with depression made an attempt on their lives in the previous year. No matter how these facts, findings and statistics are reported or interpreted, it cannot be ignored that bullying kills our kids. It’s a horrific truth.

So what can we do? Bullying is a serious and significant issue, but the problem is not “bullies”. This may come as a shock to you. Bullying is a behaviour that, like most behaviours, is learned by example in a child’s environment, and is reinforced through feedback, consequences, validation, inaction or unhelpful action by the grown-ups whose example children look to. Yes we need to build our children’s resilience; that is an absolute must. However as parents, adults, teachers and bystanders, we are the ones who are in a position to create real, sustainable and cultural change in the world of bullying. It is not right to expect our children to learn new behaviours while the adults around them unknowingly condone or display bullying behaviours. If we are to protect our children, we need to be the ones to create the change.

Lead by example.

For more than 30 years, traditional anti-bullying strategies have not worked to significantly reduce bullying rates. It is now widely recognised by “anti-bullying experts” that the issue of bullying cannot be solved. It is time for a different approach, an approach we all need to be a part of. The Bullying Revolution’s mission is to create a community of people focused on creating a world without bullying. We aim to do this by educating parents (and their children) on what they can do to recognise, prevent and protect their children from bullying, and to engage their community in a collective approach to creating a bullying solution. Together, what is thought to be impossible, can be made possible. It has to be – our children’s lives count on it.