Digital Smarts - Can the Cool Kids Stop Bullying?
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A group of researchers from Princeton University, Rutgers University and Yale University has found that when students are the ones to take a stand against bullying – as opposed to teachers or parents – it is significantly more impactful. Schools may have more success curbing incidents of bullying if their most social students take an anti-bullying stance. Over the course of the 2012-2013 school year, 56 New Jersey middle schools armed their most influential students with social media training and various bullying awareness gear, like bright-colored wrist bands, and saw a 30 percent reduction in student conflict reports. Notably, the greatest drop in conflict was observed among the schools with the highest proportion of social influencers, supporting the researchers' hypothesis that these students exert an outsized influence over school climate.