According to a study by the University of Texas, bullying prevention programs may have the unintended consequence of actually increasing bullying. As the Huffington Post reports, anti-bullying education seems to teach kids not only about the negative effects of bullying, but also how to bully and get away with it.
“The schools with interventions say, ‘You shouldn’t do this,’ or ‘you shouldn’t do that.’ But through the programs, the students become highly exposed to what a bully is and they know what to do or say when questioned by parents or teachers,” study author Dr. Seokjin Jeong said.
The study found higher rates of student victimization in schools with anti-bullying programs and went on to recommend that prevention programs “move beyond individual risk factors and focus on systemic change within the schools.”