14 DAY TRIAL // For many years, researchers looking into the behaviors and practices that underlie the practice of bullying in schools have determined that most of the kids that get rejected or bullied tend to have problems with other aspects of their lives as well. Now, a team of researchers from the United States believes it may have found at least three of the factors that make children more likely to experience these negative repercussions from their group, while at school.
The most important aspects of interpersonal relationships that children who got bullied seemed to fail to understand related to reading and processing nonverbal cues, understanding and acting based on their social meaning, as well as a lack of ability in coming up with solutions for resolving a social conflict. During the free play time, at school or kindergarten, kids are left to negotiate their own relationships, in very much the same way they will do for the remainder of their lives.
“The number one need of any human is to be liked by other humans. But our kids are like strangers in their own land,” child social behavior expert Richard Lavoie says. The scientist was not involved in the new study, which was led by Rush Neurobehavioral Center specialist Clark McKown. “It really is an under-addressed public health issue,” the lead researcher reveals. Both experts add that, most of the times, the children that are being bullied don't even know that their behavior is inciting negative responses in other children. In other words, they don't do it on purpose, LiveScience reports.
Parents and teachers have a chance to help their children here, the new research shows. The experts believe that, if authority figures present these cases of bullying to their victimized children as a learning opportunity, rather than a reproach, then they could accomplish much more in terms of giving the youngsters a clue as to why this happened. “Most kids are so desperate to have friends, they just jump on board,” Lavoie believes. Details of the work appear in the latest issue of the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology.