Critical Evaluation of Bullying in Reference to Family Theories Essay

Verbal bullying is becoming a significant problem in many schools especially in secondary schools where students use abusive language to insult, demean, and embarrass another student (Farrell, 2013). Unlike physical bullying, verbal bullying leads to emotional and psychological suffering and sometimes even goes by unnoticed. Most of the students who suffer verbal bullying appear aloof, perform poorly, and have low self-esteem due to the fear of being verbally abused. Family systems theory holds that individuals in the society can be best be understood through part of a family and not individually in isolation. In verbal bullying cases, the inclusion of parents in the fight against verbal bullying can help reduce bullying (Cunningham et al., 2016). This report assesses the effectiveness of including family members such as parents through counselor workshops in reducing verbal bullying in secondary schools. The counselor organized workshops helps evaluate the role of parents as a family unit in fighting against verbal harassment.

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According to Phillips & Cornell (2012), schools are not able to detect bullying through direct observation and students are often reluctant to seek help when they are bullied. In this case, the use of counselor's workshops that involve the parents to tackle verbal bullying is a critical approach based on the family system theory which indicates that an individual assessment can best be done as a family unit. Verbal harassment is usually as a result of lack of tolerance on other people opinions and usually has its roots in families who contribute significantly to the emotional well-being of the student. Promoting the reintegration of the bullies help reduce the counteractive measure that results from the punitive verbal bullying interventions. In this case, the use of the school counselors will educate the students and their families on the best approach to create emotional well-being in the family units which reduces the cases of bullying (Lines, 2005).

Using the counselors to intervene in verbal bullying cases in secondary schools allows the establishment of a holistic approach using a support group and making bullying a responsibility of the teachers, students, parents and the counselors. Through the use of the counselors, the students, teachers and the parents through education and workshops are exposed to the psychological and the emotional damages that are caused by verbal bullying and helps in promoting coexistence and understanding (Smith et al., 2007). The support group verbal bullying approach is in agreement with the use of counsellors to create parent workshops and train the teachers and the students because they are both non punitive and seeks to create conversations that help create awareness and shared responsibility amongst the students, parents and the teachers who are in direct contact with potential bullies and the victims according to Aizkalna (2017).

According to Cunningham et al. it is difficult for the educators to implement the anti-bullying interventions without the inclusion of the parents who makes an emotional unit and have a significant impact on the psychological well-being of the students. The counselors can help to create a self-report approach to identifying both the victims of bullying and the bullies which can be used to determine specific students who need counseling. Using this approach, the counselors can advise both parents and the teachers on the potential victims and the verbally abusive students which helps to holistically assess the students and create interventions such as counseling to help reduce verbal bullying (Phillips & Cornell, 2012). In most cases, the emotional and the abusive traits of the students begin from parenting conditions at home. Using the counseling approach in secondary schools can be used to eliminate verbal bullying by addressing emotional insecurities amongst students (Kolbert et al., 2014). In most cases, how parents relate to the students and their relationship at home contribute to emotional sensitivity and the use of abusive languages against other students (Lines, 2005). The parent's workshops with the counselors can be used to reduce verbal bullying by addressing such problems which are not solved by the punitive school policies that do not address the cause of the problem (Sutton et al., 1999).

The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program found out that the inclusion of the parents the community and the teachers in stopping bullying was more successful compared to other approaches that involve a punitive approach. The inclusion of parents is in agreement with the family systems theory which argues on the importance of approaching individual problems from a family approach or emotional unit. The counselor led parent's workshop, and teacher and students training resembles the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program in that it involves different parties with the aim of creating a more holistic approach to put an end to verbal bullying (Bauer et al., 2007). The counselor led parents workshops just like the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program helps prevent future cases of verbal bullying by addressing the issues before they take place and ensuring that the parents can maintain the emotional well-being of their children. In this case, parents at home and teachers at school help to identify students with emotional and social problems and help them through counseling which helps change behaviors (Olweus & Limber, 2010).

The success of the counselor directed approach to fight to bully in schools depends on the family-centered interventions that are created to address the student's behavior by viewing family unit as a whole (Kolbert et al., 2014). In most aspects of this program, student's behavior can be addressed by creating awareness of verbal bullying and the risk behaviors which makes it easy to identify the at-risk students and the potential bullies for counseling and behavioral therapy. The ability of all stakeholders within the life of the students to work together increase the success level of the counselor mediated verbal bullying solution (Biernesser et al., 2009).

Conclusion

The school counselor led parent's workshops for verbal bullying intervention has proved to be successful from the family theory perspective because it links verbal bullying to the student behavioral and relationships developments both at home and within the school environment according to Aizkalna (2017). The use of counselors to provide awareness of verbal bullying by creating parent workshops that teach the parents on how to identify and intervene in abusive behaviors of their children as well as training teachers and students. At the school level, verbal bullying is hard to identify its root cause and address but using the family approach helps create evidence-based interventions from the family systems theory (Farrell, 2013).

References

Aizkalna, V. (2017). School-related bullying: Analysis of bullying prevention programs and analysis of power from the perspective of social philosophy.

Austin, S., Reynolds, G., & Barnes, S. (2012). School leadership and counselors working together to address bullying. Education, 133(2), 283-290.

Bauer, N. S., Lozano, P., & Rivara, F. P. (2007). The effectiveness of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program in public middle schools: A controlled trial. Journal of Adolescent Health, 40(3), 266-274.

Biernesser, K., Sun, L., & Niebergall, S. (2009). Empowering students: Using data to transform a bullying prevention and intervention program. Professional School Counseling, 12, 413-420.

Cunningham, C. E., Mapp, C., Rimas, H., Cunningham, L., Mielko, S., Vaillancourt, T., & Marcus, M. (2016). What limits the effectiveness of anti-bullying programs? A thematic analysis of the perspective of students. Psychology of Violence, 6(4), 596.

Farrell, L. C. (2013). The role of cyber and face-to-face verbal bullying on adolescent victims. Journal of the Communication, Speech, and Theatre Association of North Dakota, 25, 25-36.

Kolbert, J. B., Schultz, D., & Crothers, L. M. (2014). Bullying Prevention and the Parent Involvement Model. Journal of School Counseling, 12(7), n7.

Lines, D. (2005). A peer counseling service in a secondary school to combat bullying: issues in planning and ongoing management. Pastoral Care in Education, 23(1), 19-27.

Olweus, D., & Limber, S. P. (2010). Bullying in school: Evaluation and dissemination of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 80(1), 124-134.

Phillips, V. I., & Cornell, D. G. (2012). Identifying victims of bullying: Use of counselor interviews to confirm peer nominations. Professional School Counseling, 15(3), 2156759X1201500304.

Smith, P. K., Howard, S., & Thompson, F. (2007). Use of the support group method to tackle bullying, and evaluation from schools and local authorities in England. Pastoral Care in Education, 25(2), 4-13.

Sutton, J., Smith, P. K., & Swettenham, J. (1999). Social cognition and bullying: Social inadequacy or skilled manipulation?. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 17(3), 435-450.