‘Addressing power in bullying is about gender and income inequality’: Wendy Craig, PhD, April 18, 2023, University of Buffalo

I’m looking forward to attending an online presentation by Wendy Craig, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Scientific Co-Director of PREVNet and BRNet, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada.

The presentation is hosted by the Alberti Center for Bullying Abuse Prevention, Graduate School of Education, University of Buffalo.

A description of her presentation (I’ve added paragraph breaks) reads:

A core feature of bullying is an imbalance of social power. The majority of research has focused on the role that individual and interpersonal factors play in establishing social power. For example, research has found that using power as a foundation for aggression, as established in childhood bullying, can have long-term impacts through adolescence and into adulthood. For children who bully, there are increased risks for involvement in other forms of aggression that combine the use of power and aggression such as dating violence, sexual harassment, and involvement in gangs.

The need to understand the developmental origins of power and its exploitation goes beyond the schoolyard. The social-ecological perspective highlights the importance of many factors, such as families, schools, and structural factors (e.g. privilege, discriminatory policies, and systemic oppression) in shaping access to and use of power. Youth’s access to resources and experiences of structural bias/discrimination lead to the amount of social power they hold.

This social power also shapes experiences of bullying, as some children are granted power simply because of the privileges they experience in larger society. This presentation will explore through a series of studies how power is manifested within societal structures such as gender and income inequality, and is related to experiences of bullying and victimization, especially when inequality is experienced in early life.

Implications of these inequalities for intervention will be discussed, as well as several educational resources that can be implemented in the classroom to address structural biases and discrimination.

Previous posts about bullying

Click here for previous posts about bullying >

Over the years as a volunteer I’ve presented workshops about bullying at conferences and events; in preparing for each workshop, I’ve used PREVnet as a resource. I have learned many things about bullying, coercion, and life in general just as a result of preparing for and delivering such workshops.

My most recent workshop was online in November 2020; here’s a draft of a video I prepared for the latter event: