Talking in family life about the importance of being a good bystander is vital to help our children navigate situations that they are likely to find themselves in. Use these scenarios (for both younger children and teens) to initiate discussion about common circumstances where they might find themselves witness to harmful talk, abuse or bigotry and work out how they can challenge it.
There is much that parents can do in family life to help children grow up to be positive bystanders. Instilling strong family values, nudging them to call out behaviours that they don’t agree with and acknowledging that standing up for others can be tough, are all important tips. Find out more here!
This game for children up to the age of 12 focuses on ‘relational bullying’, where young people are unkind to each other in various insidious ways, such as spreading rumours, eye rolling or exclusion. It nudges children to identify these unkind behaviours and then consider how they might make others feel. It also prompts them to think about their values around being kind to others and identify how friends should treat one another.
Relational aggression is an insidious type of bullying. Rather than causing physical harm, relational aggression is intended to hurt someone’s personal relationships or social standing. It can take on many different forms and can often be subtle and hard to recognise. In this exercise, we encourage you and your teen to consider different types of relational aggression and reflect on your family values when it comes to kindness and how to treat others.
Relational aggression is an insidious type of bullying. Rather than causing physical harm, relational aggression is intended to hurt someone’s personal relationships or social standing. It can take on many different forms and can often be subtle and hard to recognise. In this exercise, designed for use in secondary or senior school, we encourage pupils to consider types of relational aggression across different social scenarios.
Staff can use this presentation as a springboard for discussion and consider how to proactively use some of the resources within the Tooled Up library that are related to this topic. Links to all resources mentioned by Dr Weston are listed underneath the video.
Relational aggression, or social aggression, is a type of bullying often seen in adolescent friendships. Its indirect nature can often make it challenging to address. However, there are some ways teachers can address this type of bullying in their classrooms. These have been suggested by researcher, Tanya Manchanda.
In this interview, Dr Weston talks to Professor James O’Higgins Norman about bullying. Professor O’Higgins Norman is the UNESCO Chair on Tackling Bullying in Schools and Cyberspace at Dublin City University, where he is Director of the fantastic National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre. We chat about what bullying looks like in 2022, how schools can best tackle it and the importance of reducing bystander behaviours. Professor O’Higgins Norman also lets us know about some innovative games and websites that can be used by parents, teachers and young people. A must-listen for both parents and anyone who works in a school.
Leading psychiatrist, Professor Tamsin Ford, joins us to answer your top questions about anything and everything related to raising children. This open and honest interview draws on both Professor Ford’s expertise and her personal experiences and covers topics as diverse as aspiration, the school assessment system, adoption and gender. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
Our researcher of the month, Dr Larisa McLoughlin, talks to Dr Weston about her recent paper which examines whether or not social connectedness is a protective factor against cyberbullying’s negative impact on mental health and wellbeing. They chat about what social connectedness really is, the best ways to approach conversations about cyberbullying with young people and how schools can support strong social bonds.
