Advice to prevent bullying as kids return to school

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) – As a new school year begins, students will be back around their teachers, friends and peers. That also means the risk of bullying and cyberbullying goes up for children.

“Bullying can take a lot of different forms; it can be relational, it can be verbal, it can be physical,” Robin Kowalski, professor of psychology at Clemson University, said.

Kowalski said that kids are affected by bullying at all ages, but it’s likely to start around elementary school.

“Kids who bully typically bully kids who are at the same age or younger than them,” Kowalski said.

While bullying can happen over a lot of different reasons, Kowalski said three common reasons are looks, appearance and speech.

Some bullying warning signs include withdrawal from social activities, changes in mood or behaviors, or, in the case of cyberbullying, they aren’t enjoying being on their phones anymore.

To combat the effects, Kowalski recommends parents get involved with the school, have conversations with their children, and pay attention to their online activity.

“Kids don’t want their parents looking over their shoulders with all their online activities, but we did focus groups several years ago, and what the kids said to us, and this is their phrase, not mine, but they said they wanted supervision, not ‘snoopervision,'” Kowalski said.

Kowalski said her top advice for both parents and educators is to make sure kids know they matter.

“If we want to make kids feel like they matter, then we need to be paying attention,” Kowalski said.

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