Specialist bullying supports needed in schools, committee hears

Specialist emotional counselling and therapeutic supports are needed in primary and secondary schools to address bullying, the Oireachtas Education Committee has heard. Picture: iStock

Specialist emotional counselling and therapeutic supports are needed in primary and secondary schools to address bullying, the Oireachtas Education Committee has heard.

The committee has continued its discussions on bullying in schools and its impact on mental health, hearing from international experts on the topic.

Bullying is an issue of trauma, which can lead to anxiety, depression, impact on physical health and self-harm, according to Dr Paul Downes, the director of the Educational Disadvantage Centre at Dublin City University.

Bullying can lead to anxiety, depression, impact on physical health and self-harm. File picture: PA / ChildLine

“It is also an adverse childhood experience, so it needs a serious sustained specialist, emotional counselling and therapeutic support in schools, which we do not have in Ireland today.

Victims of bullying tend to engage in cycles of self-blame, self-hate, a sense of hopelessness, a sense of fatalism. 

"We need to stop these cycles of despair, with early intervention through these emotional counselling and therapeutic supports." 

Research indicates that negative parenting practices and violence in the home have an impact on bullying engagement, he added.

"Our report for the European Commission highlights a range of legal and psychological concerns with the active bystander approach to encourage bystanders to actively stand up to the bullying." 

"This is concerning from a legal perspective because it is reasonably foreseeable that the bully may act back against that 'peer defender' and place them at risk of being bullied," he added. 

Social status

Bullying emerges within very complex social networks with social status being a key motivating factor, according to Professor Shelley Hymel of the University of British Columbia. 

Educators need training to understand the group dynamics that underlie bullying and how they can best support the vulnerable students. 

"Until recently, teacher education programmes have not provided this training, focusing primarily on academics." 

There is growing recognition of socio-emotional education as a bullying prevention strategy, Professor Carmel Cefai of the University of Malta told the committee. Socio-emotional education includes 'life skills' and comes under social, personal and health education (SPHE) here, he added. 

"There is strong international evidence that these competencies earned at schools when supported by contextual processes are key for personal development to challenge a culture of violence and bullying in school."