The pervasive nature of childhood bullying has led to many attitudes and myths about its severity. One of the most common is that bullying is a ‘normal part of growing up’. These dismissive attitudes can overlook the significant and lasting impact that childhood bullying has on an individual’s mental health and wellbeing.
Practitioners in health and social services settings can play a vital role in strengthening a child’s social and familial networks to protect them from the effects of childhood bullying. They can also support children and families to develop an understanding of bullying as a significant issue impacting children’s wellbeing. In turn, these understandings may help children to feel more confident to disclose bullying involvement. They may also help adults to respond to children’s disclosures in more supportive and appropriate ways.
This episode is the second in a two-part series on childhood bullying and mental health. In this episode, Nicole Rollbusch continues the conversation with Dr Lesley-Anne Ey, a senior lecturer and researcher at Education Futures and the Australian Centre for Child Protection at the University of South Australia. Dr Ey broadens the scope from part one to focus on the common attitudes and myths about childhood bullying that exist in Western society. She explains the significance of a child’s context to their experiences of bullying, the role that health and social service professionals can play in responding to bullying, and the importance of supporting children if they make a disclosure of bullying involvement.
In this episode you will learn:
- common attitudes and myths about childhood bullying and their influence on practice [01:43]
- why you should consider the child’s context – the importance of family, school and peers [06:02]
- the role health and social service practitioners can play in responding to childhood bullying [09:20]
- how to support children with disclosures of bullying involvement [17:48]
Further information and resources
Online course:
Understanding childhood bullying and mental health online course
Practice papers:
Working with families to prevent bullying practice paper
Supporting families to navigate school responses to bullying practice paper
Podcast
Childhood bullying and mental health – part one podcast
Webinar
Working with children who are experiencing or engaging in bullying behaviour webinar