In my quest to find good anti-bullying programs, I ran across a survey analysis concluding that family resilience factors may help.  We know from other studies that if our children have suffered numerous Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), they also have a high likelihood of becoming a bully or a victim of bullying.  This analysis shows some ways in which we might be able to counteract those ACEs.

Researcher presented their findings at the 2019 conference of the National Academy of Pediatrics.  They analyzed data from the 2016-2017 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), an annual e-mail and web-based survey conducted by the Census Bureau.  The 2016 survey included more than 364,000 families.  The AAP researchers analyzed data about bullying and compared it to questions about family resilience.  They found that “family resilience had a significant association with a lower rate of bullying others in children with up to 3 ACEs. It also had a significant protective effect against being bullied in children with up to 2 ACEs.”  

The 2016 NSCH study measured family resilience by asking parents how likely they were to respond to problems with each of the following coping mechanisms:

(a) talk together about what to do;
(b) work together to solve our problems;
(c) know we have strengths to draw on; and
(d) stay hopeful even in difficult times.

Although the NSCH suffers the weakness of relying on self-reporting, its sheer size offsets that problem to some degree.  The AAP analysis of how parents might be able to help prevent bullying is in line with other studies showing that children with engaged parents and supportive schools show more resilience in overcoming ACEs.  

These family resilience studies show correlation, not direct line causation, but they still offer ideas that we can use to help our children.  We can encourage communication and model the positive coping skills in our own live.  Communication, working together as a team, and staying hopeful are important tools that we can offer to our children.  It may be that the best bullying-prevention program available is establishing good relationships with traumatized children and helping them learn how to communicate and be positive.

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Debbie Ausburn

Helping foster parents and stepparents learn how to be the person who is not supposed to be there.