Citation

Brion-Meisels G, Garnett BR. Contemp. Sch. Psychol. 2016; 20(3): 240-253.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, California Association of School Psychologists)

DOI

10.1007/s40688-015-0080-8

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Despite an increased interest in bullying prevention programming over the last 10 years, significant gaps remain among theory, research, and practice in this critical area of school psychology. This article argues that the current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) definition of bullying does not fully capture the experiences of many US youth, making it difficult for practitioners to apply theory and research from the field to their everyday work. As an alternative, we introduce the idea of relational youth violence--behaviors (physical, relational, sexual, verbal, or psychological) and policies (formal or informal) that are intentionally or unintentionally harmful to a young person or group of young people, based on real or perceived power imbalances that reflect larger social structures of equity and power. This framework pushes back against a simple categorization of behaviors as bullying, discrimination, and harassment, and asks that educators pay attention to the overlaps in students' lived experiences with these phenomena. In addition, the framework demands that educators consider factors across ecological levels, including larger organizational and sociocultural influences. Finally, by allowing for multiple perspectives and attributions, relational youth violence gives prominence to the role of intersectionality in shaping young peoples' interpretations of harmful experiences. After describing the new construct in detail, we describe how it might help to bridge the gap among research, policy, and practice.

Language: en