Have you ever been bullied in school? Do you have a child that is being bullied? Bullying is by far one of the worse things you could do to someone.
I’ve always been overweight. I won’t even begin to tell you have mean the kids at school were to me. This went on from elementary school all the way through high school. It was a nightmare!
In my junior year of high school I had a big crush on the captain of the football team (a senior). When his friends found out (to this day I don’t know how they found out) they were hell bent on making my life miserable. They made fun of me every chance they could. Being picked on by the football team, especially being a girl, was a nightmare. 🙁
It doesn’t matter if you are a girl or boy, fat or skinny, smart or an “average Joe” – anyone can be a victim of bullying.
Recently an anti-bullying “curriculum” was developed by Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, with the support of Procter & Gamble’s Secret Deodorant’s Mean Stink’s campaign. Here is some more information on this important “guide”.
In an effort to turn the tide on America’s bullying epidemic, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center – a leader in research on childhood behavioral victimization – through the support of Procter & Gamble’s Secret Deodorant Mean Stinks anti-bullying initiative, developed the “Girls Guide to End Bullying,” an anti-bullying curriculum, uniquely proven to decrease the experiences of being bullied by educating the specific audiences who are affected by it most.
The “Girls Guide to End Bullying” is a web-based interactive curriculum for individual students, teachers or parents, that provide specific tips and advice to girls that they can easily apply to their lives, plus activities that enable them to better understand and overcome each type of bullying. The curriculum has statistically significant proven effectiveness to decrease the experiences of being bullied by 5 percent, with an 11 percent decrease for those girls who were experiencing high levels of bullying before curriculum exposure.
“From my knowledge of the research on bullying, no other previous program targeting individual use has been able to show as significant of an impact in educating and preventing instances of bullying as the preliminary results indicate from our findings,” said Ryan Adams, assistant professor of pediatrics for Cincinnati Children’s and lead researcher on the curriculum’s development. “Through the committed support of P&G and the Secret Mean Stinks program, we’ve been able to develop a curriculum that I’m confident will change the face of anti-bullying education and ultimately make a significant difference in the lives of the young girls who utilize it.”
Bullying Behavior Explored
Two-hundred-and-fifty-one girls from three Cincinnati public high schools (average age: 15) participated in a study to test the effectiveness of the “Girls Guide to End Bullying” curriculum. Each girl completed the online curriculum at her own pace during one class period over three days. Initial findings from the pre- and post-test survey data showed an increase in girls’ knowledge of issues concerning bullying, including being able to identify what girl-to-girl bullying behavior is, and an increase in likelihood that they would respond to bullying in an appropriate manner.
The “Girls Guide to End Bullying” is organized around five types of bullying that are most impactful for teenage girls: physical, verbal, sexual, relational and cyber. Within each section, helpful information based the most current research in the field of bullying is provided for each bullying type including recognizing the behavior, its consequences, and specific actions to do and not to do if the user is a witness to, or the subject of, bullying. To help ensure the curriculum content was as relatable as possible, video modules featuring real girls from Cincinnati-based high school drama classes bring each bullying scenario to life.
Anti-Bullying Education
“Secret Mean Stinks, through a P&G grant, is honored to support Cincinnati Children’s in developing this curriculum with proven effectiveness to decrease bullying,” said Laura Brinker, Senior External Relations Specialist, P&G Personal Care. “The newly developed curriculum is a critical development in anti-bullying prevention that will make a difference in the lives of girls across the country. We’re looking forward to supporting it through our continued mission of helping to end girl-to-girl bullying.”
The curriculum is now available for free access online to individual girls, teachers and parents at www.girlsguidetoendbullying.org. To help ensure the curriculum has the biggest impact to decrease instances of girl-to-girl bullying, Secret Mean Stinks will support its national dissemination in an effort to be implemented for the 2013/2014 school year.
About Cincinnati Children’s
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center ranks third in the nation among all Honor Roll hospitals in U.S. News and World Report’s 2013 Best Children’s Hospitals ranking. It is ranked #1 for cancer and in the top 10 for nine of 10 pediatric specialties. Cincinnati Children’s is one of the top two recipients of pediatric research grants from the National Institutes of Health, and a research and teaching affiliate of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. The medical center is internationally recognized for improving child health and transforming delivery of care through fully integrated, globally recognized research, education and innovation. Additional information can be found at www.cincinnatichildrens.org. Connect on the Cincinnati Children’s blog, via Facebook and on Twitter.
About Secret Deodorant’s Mean Stinks Movement:
Secret Mean Stinks has been committed to bringing an end to girl-girl bullying since the start of the Mean Stinks movement in 2012. In 2012 – 2013, Secret Mean Stinks, along with spokesperson Demi Lovato, inspired girls to “Gang Up for Good” by creating 1.3 million acts of “good” by encouraging girls to take a proactive role in standing-up against bullying and sharing their #NiceAdvice with each other via social media. Thousands of girls across the country took blue pinky swears as a visual reminder and call to action to keep this a “drama free school year.” For more information on the Mean Stinks movement and how girls and schools can get involved and “Gang Up for Good,” join the conversation on Twitter and visit the new Secret Mean Stinks Facebook experience to find out the roles everyone plays in ending mean behavior.
I don’t normally post press releases but I felt the information in this release was VERY IMPORTANT and had to be shared.
In addition Secret’s Mean Stinks wants to empower and educate young girls to rise up about bullying behavior and help put an end to girl-to-girl bullying. Secret is asking girls everywhere – across the country and around the world – to take a proactive stand against girl-to-girl bullying. By taking a proactive stance your daughter and granddaughter can help make this a “Drama Free School Year”.
To show our promise of a “Drama Free School Year,” Secret is encouraging girls around the country to take their Mean Stinks Pinky Swear, by painting your pinky nails blue, in a show of peace and solidarity to keep mean out of their group of friends.
Girls can share their Mean Stinks Pinky Swear on the new Secret Mean Stinks Facebook experience, with additional interactive features including:
- ‘What’s your role in ending girl-to-girl bullying?’ quiz to find out what role you play in ending mean behavior.
- How to spot the different types of bullies.
- The “Drama Free School Year” pledge to take and share to help spread a movement of nice.
Beginning in October, National Bullying Prevention Month, a downloadable Mean Stinks “Gang Up For Good” Kit will be available featuring lessons and a detailed assembly plan for girls, schools and parents.
Join the conversation on Twitter @MeanStinks, #MeanStinks #GangUpForGood. You can also check them out on Facebook and Pinterest.
Do you have any experience with bullying? What have you done about it? Is it a problem in your child or grandchild’s school? Feel free to comment or join in on the conversation.
Kimberly
*I was not compensated for this post. I posted this for the benefit of my site readers. Any opinions expressed are my own unless otherwise noted.
Raine says
So important, I was an outcast back when I was in school, I still remember things that were said/done almost 25 years later. What the most heartbreaking is that my son was bullied so bad we had to change schools, and now my daughter doesn’t want to go to the new high school this year and I think it’s about bullying but I can’t quite get it out of her yet. The school system did nothing!!! It was beyond frustrating, my kids already have had a hard time since their dad died, I felt/feel helpless. I am so glad that companies, bloggers. parents, and especially kids are speaking out more and more and battling this. Thank you again!
Stephanie Larison says
I love this! As my daughter gets older I worry about her being bullied. She says everything is fine, but I’m sure sometimes it’s not. All I ever heard on the news are bad things about kids getting bullied all the time.
Denise Taylor-Dennis says
Bullying is such a sad thing for kids to go through. I just wonder where are the parents of the kids that are doing the bullying? Don’t they know what their kids are doing? I would be mortified if my kid was bullying.
Birdie Skolfield says
I love that Secret has a program but what about the boys its just for girls I wonder if they yhought about that I like their products & any help we parents can get for this bulling stuff that’s going on the better Thx for turning me on to Secret bulling mean stinks … in our house we say NO MEANIES !!!!!!!!!!!!
Tom says
Many parents have no idea that their child is a bully. One of the reasons is because many kids will not report a bullying incident. They worry about retaliation or being made fun of (tattle tale/ snitch/etc).
One goal of every anti bullying program should be to make it easier and easier for kids to report any act of bullying.
Deb E says
I think the more conversations we have about bullying, the greater chance kids will speak up and ask for help about it. Just not right and this program is so helpful.
Kathryn M says
That’s awesome! I love that people are becoming more proactive about bullying. But what about boys? They definitely get bullied too. I hope someone focuses on boys too, because no child should have to deal with being hurt.
Michael Harris says
Really good points in this article!