In a study presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in Vancouver, BC, Canada this past weekend, Rashmi Shetgiri, pediatrician and researcher at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre (UTSMC), and colleagues analysed data from the 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health and found that “Improving parent-child communication and parental involvement with their children could have a substantial impact on child bullying.”
One of the observations that really stood out to me was that one parental characteristic that increased the likelihood of child bullying were parents getting angry with their child frequently and feeling that their child often did things to bother them. This goes back to how it is a domino affect many times. A boss gets angry with dad, dad comes home and get angry with mom or the kids, the kids get angry with the dog, sibling, or schoolmate and then it just continues. The anger and frustration becomes bullying.
On the other side though it was found that parents also played a protective role. Those who shared ideas and talked with their child, and those who met most of their child’s friends were less likely to have children who bully. Keeping those lines of communication open are so important to our children. For them to know that they have someone that is willing to listen and hear their concerns and stories is a way of teaching and demonstrating empathy, which is key to preventing bullying and victims of bullies.
