| A national study conducted in 2001 indicated that 30% of students in grades 6-10 reported moderate or frequent involvement in bullying, either as a bully or victim (Nansel et al., 2001). With the recent increases in school shootings, researchers have discovered that most of the perpetrators experienced unremitting teasing and harassment by their classmates and viewed themselves as victims (O'Toole, 2000; Vossekuil, Fein, Reddy, Borum, & Modzeleski, 2002). With a national spotlight currently focusing on bullying, 43 states have passed laws to address the issue (Limber & Small, 2003). In addition, research on bullying has drastically increased as a PsycINFO search using keywords bully or bullying discovered 300 published articles within the past 30 years. However, 90% (271) of these articles were published in the past 10 years and over 75% (229) were published in the past 5 years (Cornell, Sheras, & Cole, 2006). A necessary next step aimed at bullying prevention would include the development of a program. Many programs have been created to address bullying, however research indicates limited progress across these programs (Cornell et al.). The objective of this dissertation is to pull from previous research, and to develop a systemic program aimed at the prevention of bullying for children at a therapeutic day school. |
