Bullying prevention in European schools - the Network
How to coordinate anti-bullying actions and develop a common strategy against this problem at European level?
More and more children, teenagers, adults, parents and teachers struggle with bullying almost every day in the home, in the playground, in the classrooms, on the internet, within communities and beyond. Bullying is not a recent phenomenon, but one that has existed for generations in a variety of forms. A person is being bullied when he/she is exposed, repeatedly over a period of time, to negative actions from one or more people. Negative action is when a person intentionally inflicts injury or discomfort upon another person, through physical contact, verbal abuse or in other ways (Olweus, 1993). It includes physical bullying (e.g. pushing, hitting, or kicking), psychological bullying (e.g. spreading false rumors), verbal bullying (e.g. calling names and verbal harassment), cyber-bullying, racial bullying and sexual bullying. Even though the majority of cases of bullying occur during school years, it leads to serious long term consequences for the victim and/or the victimizer. In fact, in some cases it creates emotional, psychological and physical harm that may scar the victims and the bullies for their rest of their lives.
Over the past decades, confronted with the harsh reality of bullying, the world academic and psychology community have been both investigating the phenomenon from different perspectives and various and important projects on bullying have been implemented at an EU level. A recent study performed in the framework of the EU funded programme “European Campaign against Bullying” shows that 51% of students have experienced bullying in Lithuania, 50% of students in Estonia, 43% in Bulgaria, 31% in Greece, 25% in Latvia and 15% in Italy. The numbers are astounding and indicative of the growing dimension of bullying phenomenon in EU communities today.
However, most of studies on bullying tend to focus only on one aspect of the problem and therefore do not result in a common response towards addressing the problem in its various forms.
The European Antibullying Network (EAN) aimed at filling in this gap and providing a unified European approach through the cooperation of 17 partners from 12 EU Member States with extensive experience in the field. The overall objective of the research related part of the Antibulllying Network is the processing, evaluating and using results and best practices of ongoing actions against bullying in order to develop a common European strategy to be implemented through the establishment of EAN.
To achieve this goal a Comparative Study was produced to include all results of researches conducted on the topic, focusing on projects funded by the DG Justice DAPHNE Program. The result obtained a single scientific documentation of contemporary forms of limiting the phenomenon, as experienced in different European countries and contexts.
Bullying data in Italy (English)
General about bullying and cyberbullying in Italy
Legislation about bullying and cyberbullying in Italy
In detail, the project deliverables are the following:
- A Good Practice Guide will incorporates a selection of past examples of good practice in bullying within member states and at European level;
- An interactive application for Smart Phones that will provide online access to all available resources and tools to deal with the phenomenon;
- A TV documentary in 7 European languages (Greek, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, English, German and French) which will raise awareness among the public and the actors involved in the problem;
- Recommendations aiming at the development of a common European strategy against bullying based on the mapping of national legislation and various studies and surveys on the phenomenon at national and European level.
Learn more:
EAN - European Antibullying Network
[su_tabs active="1" vertical="yes"]What does it support [su_tab title="Objectives"]
- Development of a comprehensive, scientifically documented and cohesive European platform against bullying
- Selection, processing and dissemination of best practices that work towards combating bullying
- Establishment of a European Antibullying Network to effectively address the phenomenon
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[su_tab title="Activities"]
- Mapping the European organizations to be reached, plus existing state policies and recent researches
- Implementing a Pan-European Campaign “Making One Day in Europe, Every Day for children” that focuses upon highlighting the need for coordinated actions against bullying at a European level and the establishment of a European Anti-bullying Day
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[su_tab title="Results"]
- The Campaign for the establishment of the European AntiBullying Day
- Online Petition for the establishment of the European Anti-bullying Day”
- Creation of a TV spot One Day in Europe Everyday for Children
- European Guide of Anti-bullying Good Practices
- Establishment of a European Anti-bullying Network
- European Anti-bullying Network, ‘Conference Report’
- EAN Strategy, ‘Position Paper’
- Public national event The effectiveness of the local and European network in the prevention of bullying
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[su_tab title="Partners"]
- Coordinator: The Smile of the Child (Greece)
- Villa Montesca, Centro Studi e Formazioni (Italy)
- Merseyside Expanding Horizons (United Kingdom)
- Cooperativa sociale COOSS, Marche onlus (Italy)
- Youth European Social work, YES Forum (Germany)
- Direct Association (Romania)
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[su_tab title="Info & contacts"]
Follow the project IN ACTION
Date of project: 01/10/2012 - 01/07/2014
DG of reference: DG Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, DAPHNE III Programme JUST/2011-2012/DAP/AG
Contact:
CESIE: luisa.ardizzone@cesie.org
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