Building Resilience in Children to Prevent Social Aggression: The Principles of Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

Most anti-bullying programs today are punitive. They rely heavily on schools enforcing procedures based on reporting, investigating,
punishing, and labeling bullies. This paper challenges the notion that bullying behavior can be regulated effectively by legislative
bodies and policymakers. Schools are communal ecosystems featuring unique social norms and behaviors. For example,
in school, a student reporting a classmate to authorities may be labeled a ‘snitch’ because ‘tattling’ violates accepted social norms.
Furthermore, the current legal definitions of bullying are confusing and complicated. In many cases, even trained lawyers have
difficulty identifying acts of bullying. We suggest, the better approach to preventing bullying in schools, even the workplace, is
to ground interventions using psychological frameworks to strengthen children’s social and emotional competence. We contend
that social development models provide the psychological frameworks society needs to develop emotionally stable children and
adults while providing them with the internal fortitude to bounce back effectively from adverse situations like bullying.