{"id":107846,"date":"2026-02-23T16:38:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T21:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=107846"},"modified":"2026-02-23T17:19:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T22:19:19","slug":"brock-experts-talk-bullying-rates-and-opportunities-for-kinder-behaviour-on-pink-shirt-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2026\/02\/brock-experts-talk-bullying-rates-and-opportunities-for-kinder-behaviour-on-pink-shirt-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock experts talk bullying rates and opportunities for kinder behaviour on Pink Shirt Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

As schools around the country prepare to mark Pink Shirt Day this week, Brock University experts say children aren\u2019t the only ones who need to be reminded about the dangers of bullying.<\/p>\n

Professors in the Department of Child and Youth Studies and the Brock Research on Aggression and Victimization Experiences (BRAVE) group<\/a><\/u>\u00a0say some lesser-known aspects of bullying and aggressive behaviour are also important for parents, teachers and extracurricular organizers to keep in mind.<\/p>\n

Associate Professor Ann Farrell says children in Grades 6 to 8 are most likely to have negative peer experiences associated with bullying. That timing has added significance when accounting for mental health concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at the research on mental health separately from bullying, we see similar developmental trends, where the peak onset of mental health difficulties come around that middle adolescence period, as well,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Although bullying rates are lower during older adolescence, Farrell says the effects of past bullying often persist well beyond the initial incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany young people don\u2019t just grow out of or get over these experiences,\u201d she says. \u201cThe lasting impacts on mental health can be both direct and indirect. For example, if you’re not having a good experience with your peers at school, then maybe you’re more often absent and that will impact your academics, affect choices for post-secondary education, career options and more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farrell says these negative outcomes can follow both those who are victimized by bullies as well as those who engage in bullying as they grow into adulthood.<\/p>\n

“In the long term, what we see is that this behaviour eventually catches up over time and can impact quality of relationships in the future, which can potentially then be related to other negative mental health experiences or outcomes,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

In addition to bullying, Associate Professor Naomi Andrews\u00a0wants parents and teachers to recognize the potential negative impacts of other types of unhealthy peer relationships.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven anti-bullying policies and legislation, teachers may be more attuned to bullying behaviour and may not focus on negative peer interactions that are not bullying,” says Andrews. \u201cBut even behaviours that do not rise to the level of bullying can have detrimental relationship consequences for those involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrews, who recently wrote about teaching in The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/u>, says engaging in bullying isn\u2019t the only way children harm one another.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes teasing can be benign, or even positive and playful, but sometimes teasing itself mirrors bullying,\u201d she says. \u201cWe interviewed undergraduate students who spoke about specific teasing incidents in their childhood that were still painful today. These negative peer experiences can stick with people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrews also studies aggressive behaviour between children and youths who describe each other as friends.<\/p>\n

“Aggressive behaviour between friends is actually quite prevalent,” she says. “These are cases where, despite naming one another as friends, youth also report that they are being victimized by a friend. This type of aggression from someone who is expected to be kind and supportive can be particularly painful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Tony Volk\u00a0says adult role models play an important role in efforts to combat bullying.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdults need to stand up to bullies as well,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

He points to sporting organizations taking a stand against parents bullying young referees as a particularly meaningful example of addressing the problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s increasing evidence in sports like hockey and soccer that adolescent referees are being bullied, verbally abused and threatened at higher rates by parents, either during or after games,\u201d says Volk.<\/p>\n

In response, some organizations have announced penalties for parents who engage in disrespectful or aggressive behaviour, up to and including lifetime bans. Volk calls this “a laudable and serious step forward in trying to model good behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says when organizations stand up for their young referees by reprimanding adult bullies, they prioritize values like sportsmanship and civility for children and shift the balance of power that bullying relies on.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeenage referees have less power than an adult physically, socially and financially, but knowing that there is an authority they can appeal to addresses that power imbalance,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s no longer the referee against the parent, but it\u2019s the parent against the entire organization \u2014 and that\u2019s a much different fight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As schools around the country prepare to mark Pink Shirt Day this week, Brock University experts say children aren\u2019t the only ones who need to be reminded about the dangers of bullying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":107848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4767,1,38],"tags":[3692,45,8485,522,9715,31,3502],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107846"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107846"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107849,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107846\/revisions\/107849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}