Danielle Harris Wednesday, September 07, 2011 Literature Article Review A critical Review of Observing Bullying at School: Bullying in schools has become a great concern for local city, state, and national government. The problem with bullying in schools is not only a United States problem but a global problem. Bullying in schools has increased worldwide despite government’s efforts to diminish the problem. This paper will review an article published by the US: Educational Publishing Foundation (2009).In the article published by the Educational Publishing Foundation, Ian Rivers, Natalie Noret, Paul Poteat, and Nigel Ashurst discuss the “effects that bullying has on students who witness it” Rivers I, Poteat P, Noret N.
, & Ashurst N. , (2009). In their research they will attempt to prove whether or not bullying has a negative impact on witnesses. The article is of informative nature, it addresses a problem that is known to most individuals attending a school, and individuals who have attended school, or have someone attending a school.
This article is well organized and it clearly states the problem, the hypothesis, the mode of testing they implicated on their research and their findings. The authors of the article do not define some terms, which gives an impression that they assume the subject is of common knowledge. Clearly bullying is a problem which constitutes some commonly known negative afflictions to its victims. There is however one area of bullying in schools, which has drawn little attention and that, is the issue of “bystanders or witnesses of bullying” (Rivers, Poteat, Noret, & Ashurst 2009).In their explanation of the issue of witnesses of bullying, the authors have provided some strong evidence of negative effect based on previous research.
For example the authors provide the reader interesting facts which reveal the different roles surrounding bullying in schools. (Rivers et al. , 2009). The hypothesis of the article was clearly identifiable which indicated “witnessing peer victimization would be significantly associated with higher reported levels of mental health risk and substance abuse” (Rivers et al. 2009). The team of researchers conducted a correlation study of 2,002 students from 14 different schools, they selected their sample classifications based on the “2001 United Kingdom Census” (Rivers et al.
, 2009). They proceeded to select the samples from schools which did not have a system in place to protect individuals from bullies. This particular area of the study yields to some biases because of the omission of the schools which have an anti bully system in place.Perhaps good knowledge would have been to include the success rates of the schools with systems in place. In my opinion this is a weak area of sample methodology in part because the authors focused primarily on the schools which do not have a system in place. Overall the research was well conducted, the authors proved their two hypotheses.
The material in the article was well presented and well organized. They provide their own critique by providing their study’s weakness and strength. Their reported weakness and strengths are congruent with my critique findings.The authors of the article do offer some Future Direction, one particular area that perhaps is being overlooked is bullying by teachers and sports coaches. Finally the authors provide a solution for the problem and that is implementing anti bullying campaigns in all schools.
Link to Article http://web. ebscohost. com. ezproxy.
fairmontstate. edu/ehost/detail? vid=3&hid=104&sid=a992f1dd-8c10-476a-be78-485bf92d226f%40sessionmgr111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=pdh&AN=spq-24-4-211
