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Theoretical bases about promotion of no violence
1 - Violence
2 - Bullying
1 - Violence
What violence is?:
It is any kind of deliberated action which is able to instigate and instigates physic, psychological and sexual pain. There are two different expressions of violence: reactive and instrumental violence. Reactive violence is that which emerges as an explosion. This happens when the stress or difficult level is present and it is bigger than the ability of the subjects for facing it up. Instrumental violence is that one which uses the power and aggression in order to reach concrete goals.
Kinds of human violence:
The violence can become evidence of different kinds and in different contexts. In fact, depend on the context it can be violence at job (mobbing), at institutions, at school, at sports, in the family, in a concrete social group, etc. Depending on how the violence is appeared, it exists genre violence, childish violence, violence between peers ()
Learning of violence:
As a systemic view, the violence is born as a consequence of a problematic interaction between the subject and its environment. The ecologic model of Brofenbrenner and Belsky says that a subject who is interacting into several systems is very important in order to analyze the learning of the violence.
Microsystem, (it is the central environment of the subject, for instance, the family or school context. ):
Violence usually emerges within the family context. That it to say, the first models, the first social relation constructions and the first expectations about ourselves and about the others are born within the family core. Children who live violence within their families sometimes reproduce the same behaviors when they are interacting in the external context. They do not know other ways to be linked with the others far from violence, thus, their relations use to get damaged. On the other hand, school is usually the context to learn about violence. Ii is essential to develop abilities which allow them to face up to stressing situations and family and school conflicts.
Mesosytem, (it is concerning to the relations who are found into the different contexts where the subject is, for instance, relation between family and school. ):
The lack of communication between school and family, as well as, the lack of social support when personal resources are less than the real necessity can favoring the beginning of violence and its learning. The subject and its family should to find positive relations with other social systems in order to develop the quality and quantity about their social needs to solve problems, to improve their self-esteem, etc.
Exosystem, (it refers to the environment where the subject lives: economical and political system, media, etc.):
The environment affects on the subjects implicitly. The continuous and out of control violence exposition (for instance, exposition to media as TV news, movies, etc.) involves their normalization as well as the assumption that it is the valid, effective and actual way for reaching the interaction. For all of these reasons, it is important the promotion of an appropriate use of new technologies, media selection to favor the information process as well as to reach a greater emotional effect.
Macrosystem, (it makes reference to the society, social structure, culture, beliefs and attitudes.):
Through beliefs, social attitudes and culture habits are supported violence. It is important to develop attitude changes and new options which solve conflicts positively, and remove negative stereotypes, showing them to society, system and official institutions.
Summing up, in order to prevent the violence it is necessary to analyze the actual interaction between subjects and their contexts where violence are happening and to act over them.
2 - Bullying
What bullying is?:
It is the intimidation or coercion between peers, through an extended, continuous and planned violence. It can be physical, verbal and/or psychological and being done by a concrete individual or a group and aimed to a human being who is not able to face up to the situation. This person will turn into a victim.
People who take part:
- Victim: it is the person weaker. It is not able to defend itself in an intimidation situation.
- Aggressor: it is the person who carries out the coercion
- Observer: someone who observe the abusing or damaging situation
Kinds of bullying:
- Verbal: it refers to nicknames, insults, menaces (direct verbal abuses) as well as diffusing false rumors (indirect verbal abuses).
- Emotional: to reject other persons, excluding, humiliating and ridiculing them.
- Physical: this kind of bullying refers to aggressions like pushing, hitting, or pinching (that is to say, direct abuses) and undirected abuses like stealing, breaking or hiding personal belongings.
- Sexual: it happens when there are not wished sexual intercourses as well as inappropriate sexual comments or sexual aggressions.
Which the consecuencies are when somoboby are suffering bullying?:
The effect of the abuses has repercussions on victims, aggressors, and the situation observers.
- On the aggressor: the aggressor gets used to abuse of the victims. This act happens because of the aggressor has not other model of doing something. They always take action with violence in their behavior; they use to implicate themselves in delinquency acts. The violence is the way that they will generalize in every context.
- On the victim: the personal and psychological consequences are high level of stress and constant anxiety, headache and migraine, fatigue, insomnia, nightmares and hyper sensibility; all of these characteristics cause the isolation of the victim. Other symptoms are panic attacks, palpitations, trembling, irritability, low self- esteem, lack of self-trust. On the whole, they suffer reactive depression and sometimes they reach the suicide. All of these consequences become evident at the school that uses to be low academic files and learning difficulties.
- On the observers: the bullying becomes in a habit due to the model learning, it becomes in an approved social behavior. The observers use to respond passively when exist injustices, lack of the solidarity to the rest; they have a wrong model of the personal values and the observers generate sense of guilt because they hide the aggressions between peers.
How can be detected the bullying?:
Signs of alarm:
a) On the victim:
- Signs for the family:
- The child comes back from the school with ripped and torn clothes, with broken books, and violence marks (like bruises or hitting) without comprehensive explanations.
- Going to the school for a not usual way.
- Nobody from the school comes with them at home.
- Having nightmares.
- They have not any friend, and nobody invites them to any party as well as they never prepare a party because they are afraid nobody presents at their celebration.
- They look sad, unhappy, and/or depressed.
- They avoid going to the school because they are afraid. For reaching this goal they use to not eat, to try to become ill, to simulate stomachache.
- They do not show interest and motivation for learning ant the school.
- They use to ask for more money than usually, inclusively they stole it in order to give it to the aggressors.
- Signs for the teachers:
- Usually, the peers make them inappropriate jokes.
- They receive displeased nicknames.
- They are insulted or underestimated.
- They are ridiculed.
- They are manipulated.
- They are denigrated.
- They are threatened.
- They received commands.
- The peers make fun of them.
- They suffer physic abuses and they can’t to defend themselves.
- To be into fights where they are not able to defend themselves.
- The peers take the books away or break them.
- The victims lost money or every staff without a normal explanation.
- They present violence marks (like bruises or hitting) without comprehensive explanations.
- They use to be alone at lunch or break time.
- The peers choose them in the last place for the school games.
- At the break time they prefer to stay with adults.
- They look insecure and with difficulties for speaking.
- They show themselves unhappy, depressed, distracted, and with any motivation for going to the school.
- To show oneself physically very weak.
- They are afraid that somebody make them pain.
- Bad physical coordination.
- They show themselves sensitive, passives, sad, and submissive.
- Low academic expedient.
- They connect better with adults than with peers.
- Low self esteem, they cry usually.
- They don’t know to assert physical and verbally to the group.
The victim can present characteristics associated to traits of personality like:
- Signs for the family and the teachers:
- They go to the school irregularly.
- They are afraid at the school exit.
- They show themselves aggressive without any visual cause.
- They look unhappy.
- As well as, they have high humor sense changes.
- They use to have regressive behaviors like don’t sphincter control, food or sleep disorders.
b) On the aggressor:
- Signs for the family:
- They look stronger physically.
- They want to dominate their peers.
- They feel angry usually.
- Frequently, they use to be impulsive.
- They have low tolerance to the frustration and they desire their opinion will be the only one.
- They use to be aggressive and defiant to the adults.
- They have high self-esteem and they absolutely don’t look anxious and insecure.
- They use to carry out anti social behaviors as vandalism.
- Signs for the teachers:
- They joke inappropriately.
- They insult.
- They intimidate.
- They make up unbecoming nicknames.
- They hit.
- They show negative attitudes to the school.
- They choose weak peers in order to carry out their aggressions or manipulate them.
- Their games end in fights.
- They don’t want to stay with their class mates.
- They like to talk about fight that they are involved.
- They don’t like to do homework from the school.
Bullying evaluation questionnaires:
There are several psychometric instruments in order to evaluate the bullying. Let’s show some examples:
- Avilés Martínez, J.M. (2002). PRECONCIMEI. Cuestionario sobre intimidación y maltrato entre iguales. Valladolid.
- Cerezo, F.(2000) BULL-S. Test de Evaluación de la Agresividad entre Escolares. Cruces-Barakaldo: COHS, Consultores en Ciencias Humanas.
- Olweus, D. (1989). Bully/Victim Questionnaire.
- Olweus, D., & Smith, P.K. (1995). Manual of the Olweus bully/victim questionnaire. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
How to act
When bullying is present, it is important to set up a cooperative method of work and contact coordination between family, school staff, community staff and other academic institutions. As Funes and Anoia (2000) say, the collaborative work refers to accept that the person is a total being and it is difficult to share out in areas, even though the professionals work only a sector of areas. These cooperative tasks consist of sharing goals, to know planning and acting skills, the limits and possibilities of everyone, to have good media as contact system, etc.
Nowadays, it is established that the intervention has to realize in four levels: Individual or group level, Academic context level, family context level and community context level.
Individual or group level:
It is very important the education in values, in personal development based on the teaching in civic values as tolerance, living together pacifically, respecting the differences of other persons and developing skills in order to do optimal personal and social resources in children and teenagers using social competences, expression and creativity. Therefore, the main topics for working are:
- Tolerance development as civic value that it is based on three mainstays:
- Intercultural education: It consists of promoting the integration and a pacifically life with other cultures, promoting the relations between the persons of the different socio cultural groups.
- Education of the conflict: It refers to teach to think as a main skill for the socio emotional problem resolution, role playing, discussion between peers, and learning other constructive skills among the negotiation and mediation.
- Education in democracy and human rights: It consists of working the democratic participation. That it to say, to promote the active, responsible and critique participation goaled to train a plural and committed society.
- Development of social competences. It consists of working the self control, self esteem, assertion, empathy, communication, cooperation and civic behavior, and solving problems.
- Development of expression and creativity as a kind of personal construction among main resources as performances, plays, and creativity. These skills are important in order to develop meaningful and real learning as well as to transmit positive attitudes and values.
When the professionals have to design a bullying intervention it is essential to plan working tasks with the aggressor, the victim, the dyad aggressor-victim and finally the observers.
- Working with aggressors. The main goal is showing to the aggressor that the violence is a non accepted answer in the society. The subject has to be involved in its active attitude change helped by positive models. The professionals have to emphasize the empathy to the victims, that it to say, the aggressors have to know and understand the emotions from the others and their own, too; to analyze their own behaviors thinking critically about their behavior consequences and if these answers are socially accepted. This intervention has to include social competences among the specific techniques. These techniques consist of being aware of anger processes, situations and relations control skills as assertive training, self observation, self registers, self regulation, problem solving and relaxing techniques.
- Working with the victim. The first task to work is to analyze, to think and planning the strategies for solving this situation. These strategies consist of the assumption of the existence of the aggression-victimizing dynamics, the low status respecting the group, the status after solving the problem, etc. In order to solve the conflict situation, it is important to develop their own social competences through techniques like the expression, role playing, cooperative learning, etc. These competences have to give the victims self protection resources for applying them on the group, to create a trusty and freedom expression environment, to do raising the self confidence and the self esteem, to emphasize their abilities, as well as the communication and the assertion. It is important to be in mind the use of a support group and if it is necessary to change the victim to other group.
- Working together aggressor and victim. This work consists of changing behaviors, developing positive attitudes and to integrate positively both member of the dyad. It essential that victim and aggressor will be involved in suggesting the goals for reaching the change. Goals like writing the behavior to change in order of importance; to write an agreement involving both parts; to reward the good actions and model the wished behaviors. To achieve the change in aggressors it is important that they understand the effects that they cause in their victims in order to identify the behavior to change. As well as pinpointing the values to work through academic tasks, playing together, collaborative learning, etc.
The techniques for applying these tasks are verbal expression, inverted roles, comprehension activities, solving problems, to recognize the positive traits in the others, collaborative working, etc.
- Working with the observers. The silences actions of the observers have an influence on the aggressors. It is due to the aggressor assumes its behavior is socially accepted and at the same time this event acts like reward to the aggressors. On the contrary, if the observers have an active attitude and they don’t accept these behaviors, the aggressors´ answers will decrease. The possible activities for working with the observers are discussion, looking for alternative attitudes which point out the group identity and establishing the cohesion. Other group working skills are the role playing, the drama, problem solving, cooperative learning, peer supporting, training the students in order to prevent and righting the developed anti social behaviors.
Academic context level:
It is important the existence of an anti bullying program with 3 mainstays:
- To analyze the center situation supported by questionnaires to students and teachers.
- To establish effective rules to every member of the school, refusing bullying situations.
- To suggest effective support to the victim, to the aggressors, to the observers, to the family and to the teaching staff.
- With the students:
- Talking about bullying with them.
- Don’t consider bullying as a joke.
- To establish rules between every member of the situation.
- To talk about bullying giving solutions all together.
- To develop an individual intervention
- To talk about the situation with all the members.
- To teach in social competences (assertion, empathy, etc ;) giving them social skills.
- To suggest what to do if the students are the victims in a bullying situation:
- To avoid physic or verbal confrontations.
- The victims and the observers should to avoid situations where the aggressors feel provocation in order to save their own security.
- The students no aggressive have to try don’t show themselves annoyed.
- To keep from away places where the aggressors can intimidate them.
- To write into a register every event is happening.
- To look for support in a mediator or an adult.
- With the families:
- To keep a relation with the teacher staff.
- To organize debates about the coexistence model, etc.
- With the teacher staff:
- To asses and teach them about the bullying.
- To show them the skills and techniques of intervention, guides for developing an anti-bullying program, etc;
Family context level:
The parents have to watch their sons in order to notice the bullying and to take part if this is necessary. The professionals have to explain them the importance about the bullying and that it is necessary their implication, their roles in the process. It is essential, the parents report about signs of alarm, they should to learn assertion skills in order to practice with their sons, show them how to bring closer the school, and to provide them of skills in order to solve the conflicts. The families of the aggressors and the victims have to work in the same way and to avoid the confrontation between the families, in order to find solutions all together.
There are strategies to do when the sons or daughters are victims or aggressors:
- When the student is a victim:
- To talk with itself: The parents have to foster their children to think about what they can do when somebody is intimidating, as well as thinking about positive qualities in order to avoid the negative comments.
- To ignore: In short-term bullying episodes, the victim has to learn to avoid the confrontation with the aggressor; for instance, don’t look at him/her, don’t answer him/her, etc.
- The message I am: The children have to express their emotions and feelings effectively. How do they feel, why have they these feelings, and what would they like to change.
- Visualization: To imagine strategies for protect themselves. To visualize that they don’t mind some negative comments and consequently the aggressors understand that weaker don’t accept what they are saying. For example, the victim can imagine he/ she has a shield which protect of mockeries, insults, threat, etc.
- Re-Interpretation about the negative events: Try to change the meaning of the mockery and interpret it like a compliment. If the victims change their perception about the negative events can provoke the contrary effect to the aggressor. That is to say, the aggressor will get confused and this event will avoid the cholera but also the frustration.
- To agree with the mockery: One of the main ways for facing up the mockery consists in accepting it. To show sense of humor with the ridicule.
- To answer to the insults with compliments related to these insults.
- To have sense of humor: Don’t highlight the event more than necessary.
- To ask for helping: If the aggressor keeps the intimidation, ask for helping to an adult.
When the parents detect the , they have to ask them directly what is happening, what is annoying them; to give them support and investigate what is happening; the parent have to ask for how the events are concretely. How, where, and who is annoying them. The adults have to show them the violence is not the right way; they should to looking for pacific solutions and practice self control strategies; to be connected with their peers and putting into practice the non violence actions (pacific solutions, self control strategies, etc.).
There are some recommendations for the students like: to play near the teacher or other students, don’t put on money or valuable things, don’t go alone to the school, to write a diary and annotating what is everyday happing, ask for the student if they would like somebody collect them after school, to work the body expression, assertion skills, self positive affirmation and using the visualization with friends.
But also the family can teach and work other strategies at home in order to face up to bullying:
The parents must to emphasize these strategies when their sons or daughters are the victims. But also, they should to explain the situation to the school, as well as, don’t hide the actions of the bullying (for instance, where is happening, who are implied, who know this situation, etc). The family has to show a cooperative attitude instead of confrontation, to be interested in how the school faces up the bulling and finally, try to know if there is any anti-bullying program and if it is possible to apply it. Summing up, it is important to keep in touch with teacher, other families and try to use the strategies in order to fight against the bullying.
- When the student is the aggressor:
First of all, the parents have to accept their sons/daughters are aggressors. They should to analyze the situation step by step, to know what is really happening, and solve the problem quietly. One of the usual mistakes is to punish the children and don’t ask about the situation. These parents have to talk about the bulling in their families is not accepted; telling them that if they feel angry, aggressive or unsuccessful they can opt for other solution more peacefully. The family can practice the role playing technique showing them the right behaviors. They have to offer their sons/daughters help for solving the situation asking them how they can help or whom to consult at the school. The adults have to advise what will be occur if the aggression continue, which the consequences will be; teach them to recognize feeling from themselves and from others, that is to say, the parents have to favor the empathy with the others.
Anyway, it’s important to pay attention to the children/teenagers behavior, to modify the mistaken family behaviors and show the children they are loved, respected, listened. But also, it’s necessary to keep a relation with them, helping them with the studies, giving them support and self-security.
Community context level
It is essential to imply the community in the bulling intervention. The intervention has to involve the work of several professionals interrelated. These professionals have to be not only school staff, but also administration, social organizations, etc. for instance, social services, public departments of youth, sports, health, safety, etc.
The community intervention refers to get sensitive with the problem of bullying and explain the consequences; to set up a fluid contact/ communication system; to apply a NO TOLERANCE system to the bullying into the community; to be on the alert with possible bullying events and to establish protocols of intervention.
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