Bullying a Bigger Problem Than One Bad Kid

Most people see bullying as a one-on-one affair: bully torments victim. But there’s more to it than that, say two experts in a new book. Bullying is a symptom of a malfunctioning social system, not just the behavior of a single troubled individual, write Stuart Twemlow, M.D., and Frank Sacco, Ph.D., authors of Preventing Bullying and School Violence, published by American Psychiatric Publishing, a division of the American Psychiatric Association.

Twemlow and Sacco suggest ways mental health professionals can identify and help children at risk of bullying, work with education systems, and promote positive attitudes and coping skills that are the hallmarks of mental health.

For more about Preventing Bullying and School Violence, see http://www.appi.org/SearchCenter/Pages/SearchDetail.aspx?ItemId=62384.

Information on bullying from the CDC appears in Psychiatric News at http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/46/11/20.2.full.

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