Bullying Prevention: Creating a Positive School Climate and Developing Social Competence

Bullying is the most prevalent form of violence in American schools. In their new book Bullying Prevention, authors Pamela Orpinas and Andy Horne bring together years of experience in research and applied behavioral sciences to show how educators, school psychologists, counselors, and other professionals can address the problem of bullying and aggression in schools.
 
Readers will find definitions, statistics, and theories that will help them identify and characterize bullying. They will learn about the authors' School Social Development and Bullying Prevention Model, a blueprint for schools that students, teachers, and parents enjoy being a part of. This model shows how school professionals can prevent and reduce bullying by creating a positive environment and by ensuring all children have the social skills to communicate well and solve problems without aggression. The book has guidance in selecting research-based bullying prevention programs, and steps for assessing a school’s needs and for evaluating a program’s effectiveness.
 
The book also offers practical strategies for helping the children who are targets of bullying, and discusses counseling and family interventions for children who continue to bully despite positive changes in the school and classroom environment. A rich resource section contains a wide range of bullying-related readings, manuals, and tools available on the Internet.
 

Pamela Orpinas, PhD, MPH, is an associate professor in the Department of Health Promotion and Behavior, College of Public Health, at the University of Georgia. She studied psychology at the Catholic University of Chile. Before coming to the United States, she worked in Santiago for 10 years conducting research and treatment programs related to individual and family violence. She received a master's degree in public health from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a PhD from the School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and the focus of her studies switched from treatment to prevention.
 
For over a decade, Dr. Orpinas has worked in several research projects specifically related to the prevention of violence among children and adolescents, including the Multisite Violence Prevention Project, Students for Peace, the I–CARE project, and the ACTIVA project. She has been a consultant in the area of violence prevention in several countries and has worked with national and international agencies to prevent violence. She has published and presented at conferences extensively on this topic.
 
Arthur (Andy) M. Horne, PhD, is Distinguished Research Professor of Counseling Psychology, College of Education, at the University of Georgia. He has been involved in research and treatment programs addressing child and family aggression and violence for more than two decades. During the past years, he has been a principal investigator for the Multisite Violence Prevention Project—GREAT Schools and Families—funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1999–present).
 
He has also been a principal investigator for ACT Early, a program funded by the U.S. Department of Education that examines risk and protective factors affecting children's academic, behavioral, and emotional development; the I–CARE program, funded by the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation to examine effective character development and aggression reduction programs in elementary schools; and the Bully Busters program, developed to evaluate bully reduction programs in elementary and middle schools.