Bullying and Victimization Among Students With Disabilities

Abstract

Bullying has come to be recognized as a pervasive problem in schools today. Frequently bullying is not immediately recognized or viewed by classroom teachers as problematic behavior. As more students experience bullying, questions arise as to how well teachers understand the bullying dynamic and are aware of strategies for intervening when those behaviors occur. This article is designed to give teachers, administrators, and researchers a fundamental understanding of bullying behavior and strategies for intervening in schools and classrooms.

Bullying and Students with Disabilities: The Untold Narrative

“…Therefore, understanding bullying among students with disabilities is more complex than making a dichotomous distinction between students with and without disabilities or placing students into arbitrary groups based on a common characteristic ( e.g., observability, severity, class placement; Rose, 2010;Rose, Allison, & Simpson, 2012;Rose & Monda-Amaya, 2012). Students are traditionally identified with a disability through a referral and assessment process whereby a multidisciplinary team evaluates current levels of academic and/or behavioral functioning and makes a disability determination based on specific diagnostic criteria (Overton, 2009).…”

“…While any number of variables could serve as risk factors, research suggests that students with disabilities are at an increased risk due to physical attributes, personal characteristics, and school-related factors (Horowitz et al, 2004;McLaughlin et al, 2010;Rose & Monda-Amaya, 2012). Therefore, these factors are central to understanding the overrepresentation of students with disabilities who are involved in bullying.…”

“…Regardless of ability, bullying prevention and intervention programming needs to target ALL students. School personnel should consider ways programming can be modified for students with disabilities at the school, classroom, and individual levels (Espelage et al, in press;Lane, Kalberg, & Menzies, 2009;Rose & Monda-Amaya, 2012). For example, an interpreter can be provided for any assembly or play; closed captioning can be used for videos; braille and enlarged type can be used for students with visual impairments; social stories can be used to increase social skill acquisition; structured cooperative learning groups can be used for behavioral modeling; specific, concrete, and less abstract concepts can be used with students with intellectual disabilities; and examples that include students with disabilities can help make antibullying messaging more relevant for all students.…”

Bullying: The impact of teacher management and trait emotional intelligence

“…We also know that if a one‐off bullying incident is neutralized at the outset by a determined and efficient intervention from the teaching staff and the victim receives all the support they need, the bullying usually stops and the effects of victimization are minimized (Rivers, Brackett, Reyes, Elbertson, & Salovey, ). However, appropriate measures are rarely taken when there is no awareness of the problem (Rose & Monda‐Amaya, ), and teachers’ ideas about bullying condition the way they help their pupils deal with the problem (Kochenderfer‐Ladd & Pelletier, ). There is consequently an ongoing need for teacher training to reduce bullying (Corcoran & Mc Guckin, ).…”

Parental mediation, cyber victimization, adjustment difficulties, and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder

“…Adolescents with autism spectrum disorders have not received much attention in the cyberbullying literature. It is important to understand adolescents with autism spectrum disorders' involvement in bullying because they are twice as likely to be victims of these behaviors (Rose & Monda-Amaya, 2011).…”