Radio Smart Talk: A closer look at bullying

Transforming Health | 03.22.13

In many people's eyes, being picked on physically, teased verbally, or harassed is a rite of passage -- part of being young. Some have said, "We all go through it."

What it is is bullying and just because many people have experienced it doesn't make it right or acceptable.

In fact, research shows that bullying can have devastating effects on children and adults -- some that may last a lifetime. There are too many stories about young people who have responded to constant bullying by resorting to violence or suicide.

How prevalent is bullying? Every day, about 160,000 children stay home from school because they don't want to be bullied. Who are they and how can they be helped?

Those are a few of the questions witf will address in its Pushed Around project on bullying.

We will focus on signs of bullying, approaches for stopping bullying, the psychology behind bullying, and personal stories of local people impacted by bullying, among other topics.

This episode of Radio Smart Talk serves as a primer for the issue. Appearing to provide background on bullying is Margueruite Ferrara, a health educator at the Susan P. Byrnes Health Education Center in York and Stacy Molnar-Main, a bullying prevention expert who is certified as a school psychologist, counselor and principal. She serves as Strategic Initiatives Manager at the Center for Safe Schools.

Listen to the program:

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Pushed Around is supported by Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital.

Mark your calendar: You're invited to participate in a town hall style forum on March 28th to share your personal experiences with bullying. Click here for more details and to RSVP.

The project will explore what signs to look for, approaches for stopping bullying, the psychology behind bullying, and the personal stories shared by local people, right here in Central PA who have been impacted by bullying. Here are two of them:

Whether you’ve been bullied, you’ve been a bully, you’ve been close to someone who has been bullied or you’ve witnessed bullying, witf invites you to share your own personal story with bullying at the Public Insight Network: