By: Ryan Adams, assistant professor of pediatrics for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and lead researcher on the Girls Guide to End Bullying curriculum’s development.
Across the country, children, parents and teachers are getting ready to head back-to-school. This year, Secret Mean Stinks in support of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital would like to invite schools to implement the Girls Guide to End Bullying, a web-based, anti-bullying curriculum for girls. Many anti-bullying curriculums exist, but this is the first model with evidence of decreasing bullying that is easily accessible by individual students and teachers.
Through a study of 251 girls, we were able to show that Girls Guide to End Bullying curriculum decreased the experiences of being bullied (5%) in general and was especially effective for those girls who were experiencing high-levels of bullying before exposure to the curriculum (11%). These changes in rates of bullying are due to the increases in knowledge about bullying and in confidence in utilizing effective anti-bullying strategies outlined in the curriculum.
The curriculum targets five types of bullying that has been shown to be important for high school girls: physical verbal, sexual, relational and cyber. Each section provides a lesson with information on recognizing bullying, consequences of bullying, specific actions to do and not to do when bullying is happening around your or if it’s happening to you. The curriculum was designed to be usable by individuals, making it great for young girls to go through on their own or with their teacher utilizing the teacher manual. As a parent you can also walk through the curriculum with your daughter and encourage them to check out everything that Secret Mean Stinks is doing to bring an end to girl-to-girl bullying. Overall, the curriculum is comprehensive in the information and strategies provided with the idea that individuals can pick and choose what works best for them when addressing the issue of bullying.
As the new school year approaches, I hope you take the opportunity to use the Girls Guide to End Bullying to educate your daughter on the many types of bullying and the proper ways to handle bullying. As the first proven curriculum to decrease bullying, you can help Secret Mean Stinks and Cincinnati Children’s in our joint mission to bring an end to girl-to-girl bullying.
