Understanding Bullying: An Analysis of Current Literature on Bullying and Prevention Programs

Bullying is an important issue in society today that impacts a large portion of the population. The topic of bullying is one that has been extensively researched over the past decade and it continues to be an important area of focus in the fields of education and psychology. With many different ways that bullying can manifest and the many contexts where is can occur, bullying has become an increasingly widespread problem. Bullying has been shown to have many negative physical and social consequences. The negative impacts of bullying have been associated with increased depression, anxiety, and higher rates of crime. As such, these negative outcomes involve factors within individuals as well as within the community. Due to the many factors at play and the complex nature of the problem, defining bullying in an accurate and reliable way can be challenging. To address all of these issues inherent to the problem, prevention programs have largely followed a social-ecological model. Programs that follow the social-ecological model focus on providing individuals with support by improving their individual skills as well as improving home and community environments. The purpose of this project is to present an analysis of the research currently available on the topic of bullying and on the prevention programs that aim at decreasing this increasingly prevalent problem