Natalie Spadafora (BA\/BEd \u201913, MA \u201915, PhD \u201921) says she only became an award-winning researcher because she wanted to \u201ckeep the door open\u201d to potential graduate study.<\/p>\n
When the Assistant Professor of Child and Youth Studies signed up to complete an honours thesis with Professor Zopito Marini<\/a>, she was still counting on a career as a classroom teacher.<\/p>\n But Spadafora\u2019s penchant for research led first to a master\u2019s degree, then a PhD, and then postdoctoral fellowships. And thanks to a spike in media interest, her findings on incivility and how it predicts future bullying behaviour has now reached families and educators nationwide, helping parents and educators understand<\/a> how addressing low-level behaviours in early childhood can pay dividends in reducing bullying behaviour in later years.<\/p>\n \u201cIncivility, especially in early childhood, can seem like something we don\u2019t need to act on, but the alternative is waiting until it becomes higher level, antisocial bullying behaviour,\u201d she says. \u201cIntervening with bullying is way harder, and doesn\u2019t necessarily work \u2014 the data on adolescent bullying interventions is pretty mixed.\u201d<\/p>\n Spadafora\u2019s research on incivility, together with her work related to peers defending others being victimized and teacher interventions in bullying situations, was recently honoured with an Early Career Award<\/a>\u00a0from the University at Buffalo\u2019s Alberti Center for Bullying Abuse Prevention.<\/p>\n Spadafora continues to study the development of uncivil behaviour in children and adolescents in relation to other antisocial behaviour through an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), which is funded by the Government of Canada.<\/p>\n She is also a collaborator on a SSHRC Insight Development Grant with Laura Lambe of St. Francis Xavier University examining the use of virtual reality and qualitative methods to better understand peer defending by adolescents.<\/p>\n Through these studies, Spadafora builds on her existing body of work about peer defending, including her frequently cited study on what motivates teens to intervene or stay silent when they witness bullying and the cost\/benefit analysis they engage in to come to their decision.<\/p>\n Spadafora and Lambe\u2019s recent study, currently under review, focused on how when and how young people determine whether their bullying intervention was successful, findings the research team plans to share with teachers and students in the coming year.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really interested in the reasons why people choose to defend or not to defend,\u201d she says. \u201cWe also want to understand how adolescents conceptualize effective defending because it doesn\u2019t seem to always be the same as the way researchers and teachers do.\u201d<\/p>\n Spadafora also wants to understand when and why teachers intervene in different types of aggressive situations. Her most recent publication in the Journal of School Violence<\/em>, \u201cExamining Factors that Influence Preservice and In-Service Teachers\u2019 Intention to Intervene in Cissexist and Heterosexist Victimization<\/a>,\u201d looks at how school culture and previous educator experience may shape responses from teachers when transgendered students are being harassed by classmates.<\/p>\n