Date/Time
Date(s) - Thu 29 June
18:00 - 19:30
Location
Wholly Bagels, Knights Road, Lower Hutt
Bullying isn’t just something we grow out of—Victoria University of Wellington Professor Vanessa Green argues that bullying spans a lifetime, and occurs in many different contexts. In her presentation, Vanessa will outline what makes bullying a community issue and what needs to be done to address New Zealand’s very high levels of bullying.
The recognized definition of bullying is: it is a harmful act towards another, there is a power imbalance and it is repeated. This last point is particularly relevant because regardless of whether bullying is repeatedly targeted at one person, or is one person targeting a number of others, it is damaging yet another generation of New Zealanders and it is helping to fuel our appalling statistics for youth suicide, domestic violence and child abuse.
She suggests that there is a need for a socio-ecological approach to bullying to be able to understand its complexity and appreciate that it’s a community issue that needs a community response.
“As humans, we tend to stand back and let things happen. There is evidence that shows the larger the group of bystanders is, the less likely someone is to step in and help. When adults are asked about their school experiences of bullying, one of the most consistent themes is victims felt angry that, although there were often many witnesses, no one helped – not even the teachers. Why do we stand by? Why don’t we step in to help another person in trouble? Perhaps it is because we have never been taught how.”
Vanessa will reference the New Zealand KiVa anti-bullying programme, including its principle that it takes a bystander in a bullying situation to help to defend someone from others. Vanessa will argue that despite people growing and adapting, our core values do not change over time, so to address bullying behaviour it requires both adults and children being educated on how to stop it, and how to intervene.
Vanessa is a graduate of Waikato University and Queensland University of Technology. Her academic appointments have included the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Tasmania before joining VUW in 2008. She has been a registered psychologist for nineteen years, and has spent her academic career focusing on children’s social development, developmental disabilities, and gender role development.