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Article Excerpt
Initiatives to stop school bullying often prescribe counseling for the bullies. However, specific strategies for the counseling of bullies are not well defined. To succeed in stopping the aggressive behavior of bullies, school counselors must first understand the needs and motivations behind the behavior. This article distinguishes the characteristic type of aggression displayed by bullies--proactive aggression. Type-specific recommendations are presented for maximizing school counselors' effectiveness in their direct efforts to help bullies change.
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Bullying is one of the most widely practiced forms of aggression in American schools. It is broadly defined as the actual or attempted infliction of injury or discomfort by one student on another student that is intentional, abusive, and based on an imbalance of power between bully and victim (Olweus, 1994; Sullivan, Cleary, & Sullivan, 2004). According to the National Center for Education Statistics--2002, almost one third of public schools have reported daily to weekly occurrences of student bullying (Hall, 2006). Research suggests that nearly half of today's students will experience some form of bullying during their education; however, rates of bullying as high as 81% for school-aged males and 72% for school-aged females have been reported in some studies (Casey-Cannon, Hayward, & Gowen, 2001; Charach, Pepler, & Ziegler, 1995; Farrington, 1993, as cited in Sanders, 2004). In a survey by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 1.7 million children (one in five) in grades 6 through 10 admitted bullying their classmates (Cole, Cornell, & Sheras, 2006). On the basis of current statistics, Hall has concluded that school climates nationwide have been dramatically altered by the actions of bullies.
Bullying affects students academically, socially, and psychologically: Bullying victims cannot learn effectively in an ongoing climate of fear. In addition to the possibility, of physical injury, they are at increased risk for absenteeism (Limber, 2006), loneliness (Nansel et al., 2001), and lowered self-esteem (Hodges & Perry; 1996). Bystanders to bullying often fear becoming victims themselves and are further encumbered by conflicting emotions ranging from guilt over not helping bullying victims to lowered image among peers for being a "snitch" if they alert authorities to the problem (Clark, 2002). Bullies face risks of escalating behavior, further emotional injury, and punishment for harm to others unless their aggression is stopped. They are less likely to perform at full potential at school and more likely to engage in criminal behaviors after leaving school (Marsh, Parada, Craven, & Finger, 2004). Students who bully in middle school have been found to be up to four times more likely to be involved in later criminal activity than those who do not (Cole et al., 2006). Left unchecked, bullying attitudes and behaviors in children appear to become more serious and more difficult to prevent and may be carried into adulthood where their potential dangerousness and consequences increase exponentially (McAdams & Lambie, 2003).
Teachers have reported that they feel unprepared to recognize and handle the kinds of bullying that they are encountering in the classroom (Newman-Carlson & Home, 2004). As a result, they feel they are more likely to overlook serious bullying behaviors or to ignore those behaviors they recognize but feel inadequate or afraid to deal with. In a national survey, school administrators reported that a trend toward increasing aggression among students has diminished their roles from educators to disciplinarians and stifled their vision and creativity as school leaders (McAdams & Lambie, 2003). They strongly agreed that bullying has profoundly impaired educational processes and programs at multiple levels.
Serious incidents of school violence have brought national emphasis to the problem of bullying and prompted research initiatives in the areas of bullying prevention and school safety (Pichler, Urban, & Bockewitz, 2005). It is evident in the research and professional literature that counseling for identified or suspected bullies is a necessary component of comprehensive programs aimed at preventing or stopping bullying behavior (Davis, 2006). Less evident in the literature, however, are specific strategies for school counselors to apply in their direct work with bullies. Increasingly, school counselors are apt to find themselves face-to-face with students referred for bullying. To succeed in helping these students stop their harmful aggressive behavior, school counselors must be able to recognize and appropriately address the underlying needs and motivations behind the behavior. Toward that objective, the remainder of this article will distinguish the characteristic form of aggression displayed by bullies--proactive aggression. It then will draw from current understanding of proactive aggression to make seven recommendations for maximizing counselor success and avoiding pitfalls in counseling intervention to help school bullies change.
REACTIVE AND PROACTIVE AGGRESSION
Professional literature distinguishes generally between two types of youth aggression--reactive aggression and proactive aggression. Reactive aggression is characterized as a "hot-blooded," automatic, defensive response to immediate and often misperceived threat (Hubbard, Dodge, Cillessen, Coie, & Schwartz, 2001; Wood & Gross, 2002). Youth exhibiting reactive aggression are characterized as seeking but lacking close interpersonal relationships with significant adults such as parents--relationships they need to learn how to effectively attend to, understand, and take into account others' intentions (Dodge, 1991). Real or perceived rejections in past relationships with caregivers have caused reactive aggressors to maintain high levels of internalized anger and insecurity and rendered them vulnerable to excessively emotional and forceful responses to even minor immediate stressors or personal threats. Once the presenting threat is relieved, reactive aggressors are likely to be remorseful for any harm that was done by their reflexive, violent response. Teachers and caregivers often refer to them as having "a short fuse" because they tend to be intolerant of frustration, easily threatened, impulsive and over-reactive in response to any source of stress or fear, and unpredictable in their tantrums and outbursts (Sterba & Davis, 1999; Vitaro, Brendgen, & Tremblay, 2002).
Unlike reactive aggression, proactive aggression does not characteristically occur as an emotion-laden, defensive response to immediate threat. Instead, it is described as organized, purposeful, and often premeditated rather than automatic (Galezewski, 2005). Aggression for proactive aggressors has, over an extended time, become an internalized means of achieving personal security, competence, and control in their lives (Cottle, 2004; McAdams & Lambie, 2003). In the...
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