Using social norms to reduce bullying: A research intervention among adolescents in five middle schools

Group Processes and Intergroup Relations

Volumn 14, Issue 5, 2011, Pages 703-722

  Perkins, H Wesley ^a   Craig, David W ^a   Perkins, Jessica M ^b  

^a HOBART AND WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES   (United States)

^b HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

adolescents; bullying; middle schools; misperceptions; norms; peers; perceptions; social norms; students; violence

Indexed keywords

EID: 80052254989     PISSN: 13684302     EISSN: 14617188     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1368430210398004     Document Type: Article

References (79)

1. Ajzen, I. (2001). Nature and operation of attitudes. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 27-58.
2. Ajzen, I. (2002). Perceived behavioral control, self-efficacy, locus of control, and the theory of planned behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32, 665-683.
3. Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
4. Ajzen, I., & Madden, T. J. (1986). Prediction of goal-directed behavior: Attitudes, intentions, and perceived behavioral control. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 22(5), 453-474.
5. American Psychological Association (APA). (1996). Reducing violence: A research agenda. A Human Capital Initiative report. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
6. Asch, S. E. (1956). Studies of independence and conformity: A minority of one against a unanimous majority. Psychological monographs, 70(9), 1-70.
7. Bewick, B. M., Trusler, K., Mulhern, B., Barkham, M., & Hill, A. J. (2008). The feasibility and effectiveness of a web-based personalised feedback and social norms alcohol intervention in UK university students: A randomised control trial. Addictive Behaviors, 33(9), 1192-1198.
8. Bowes, L., Arseneault, L., Maughan, B., Taylor, A., Caspi, A., & Moffitt, T. E. (2009). School, neighborhood, and family factors are associated with children's bullying involvement: A nationally representative longitudinal study. Journal of American Academic Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 48(5), 545-553.
9. Brunstein Klomek, A., Marrocco, F., Kleinman, M., Schonfeld, I. S., & Gould, M. S. (2007). Bullying, depression, and suicidality in adolescents. Journal of American Academic Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 46(1), 40-49.
10. Carlyle, K. E., & Steinman, K. J. (2007). Demographic differences in the prevalence, co-occurrence, and correlates of adolescent bullying at school. Journal of School Health, 77(9), 623-629.
11. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2008, August 11). Youth violence: Risk and protective factors. Retrieved June 10, 2010, from http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/youthviolence/riskprotectivefactors.html
12. Cialdini, R. B., Reno, R. R., & Kallgren, C. A. (1990). A focus theory of normative conduct: Recycling the concept of norms to reduce littering in public places. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58(6), 1015-1026.
13. Clemens, H., Thombs, D., Olds, R. S., & Gordon, K. L. (2008). Normative beliefs as risk factors for involvement in unhealthy weight control behavior. Journal of American College Health, 56(6), 635-641.
14. Dake, J. A., Price, J. H., & Telljohann, S. K. (2003). The nature and extent of bullying at school. Journal of School Health, 73(5), 173-180.
15. DeJong, W., Schneider, S. K., Towvim, L. G., Murphy, M. J., Doerr, E. E., Simonsen, N. R., ...Scribner, R. (2006). A multisite randomized trial of social norms marketing campaigns to reduce college student drinking. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 67(6), 868-879.
16. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). (2001). Youth violence: A report of the surgeon general. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
17. Eder, D., Evans, C. C., & Parker, S. (1995). School talk: Gender and adolescent culture. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
18. Elias, M. J., & Zins, J. E. (Eds.). (2003). Bullying, peer harassment, and victimization in the schools. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press.
19. Fabiano, P. M., Perkins, H. W., Berkowitz, A., Linkenbach, J., & Stark, C. (2003). Engaging men as social justice allies in ending violence against women: Evidence for a social norms approach. Journal American College Health, 52(3), 105-112.
20. Finkelhor, D., Ormrod, R., Turner, H., & Hamby, S. L. (2005). The victimization of children and youth: A comprehensive, national survey. Child Maltreatment, 10(1), 5-25.
21. Hahn, R., Fuqua-Whitley, D., Wethington, H., Lowy, J., Crosby, A., Fullilove, M., ...Liberman, A. (2007). Effectiveness of universal school-based programs to prevent violent and aggressive behavior: A systematic review. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 33(2), S114-S129.
22. Haines, M. P., & Spear, S. F. (1996). Changing the perception of the norm: A strategy to decrease binge drinking among college students. Journal of American College Health, 45(3), 134-140.
23. Haines, M. P., Barker, G. P., & Rice, R. (2003). Using social norms to reduce alcohol and tobacco use in two Midwestern high schools. In H. W. Perkins (Ed.), The social norms approach to preventing school and college age substance abuse: A handbook for educators, counselors, and clinicians (pp. 235-244). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
24. Hansen, W. B., & Graham, J. W. (1991). Preventing alcohol, marijuana, and cigarette use among adolescents: Peer pressure resistance training versus establishing conservative norms. Preventive Medicine, 20(3), 414-430.
25. Hughes, C., Julian, R., Richman, M., Mason, R., & Long, G. (2008). Harnessing the power of perception: Exploring the potential of peer group processes to reduce alcohol-related harm among rural youth. Youth Studies Australia, 27(2), 26-35.
26. Janssen, I., Craig, W. M., Boyce, W. F., & Pickett, W. (2004). Associations between overweight and obesity with bullying behaviors in school-aged children. Pediatrics, 113(5), 1187-1194.
27. Johnson, S. L. (2009). Improving the school environment to reduce school violence: A review of the literature. Journal of School Health, 79(10), 451-465.
28. Juvonen, J., Graham, S., & Schuster, M. A. (2003). Bullying among young adolescents: The strong, the weak, and the troubled. Pediatrics, 112(6), 1231-1237.
29. Kilmer, J. R., Walker, D. D., Lee, C. M., Palmer, R. S., Mallett, K. A., Fabiano, P., & Larimer, M. (2006). Misperceptions of college student marijuana use: Implications for prevention. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 67(2), 277-281.
30. Klomek, A. B., Sourander, A., Kumpulainen, K., Piha, J., Tamminen, T., Moilanen, I....Gould, M.S. (2008). Childhood bullying as a risk for later depression and suicidal ideation among Finnish males. Journal of Affective Disorders, 109(1-2), 47-55.
31. Klomek, A. B., Sourander, A., Niemela, S., Kumpulainen, K., Piha, J., Tamminen, T. ...Gould, M. S. (2009). Childhood bullying behaviors as a risk for suicide attempts and completed suicides: A population-based birth cohort study. Journal of American Academic Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 48(3), 254-261.
32. Kuntsche, E., Knibbe, R., Engels, R., & Gmel, G. (2007). Bullying and fighting among adolescents - Do drinking motives and alcohol use matter? Addictive Behaviors, 32(12), 3131-3135.
33. Kuntsche, E., Pickett, W., Overpeck, M., Craig, W., Boyce, W., & de Matos, M. G. (2006). Television viewing and forms of bullying among adolescents from eight countries. Journal of Adolescent Health, 39(6), 908-915.
34. Linkenbach, J., & Perkins, H. W. (2003). Most of us are tobacco free: An eight-month social norms campaign reducing youth initiation of smoking in Montana. In H. W. Perkins (Ed.), The social norms approach to preventing school and college age substance abuse: A handbook for educators, counselors, and clinicians (pp. 224-244). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
35. Lintonen, T. P., & Konu, A. I. (2004). The misperceived social norm of drunkenness among early adolescents in Finland. Health Education Research, 19(1), 64-70.
36. Lipsey, M. W., & Derzon, J. H. (1998). Predictors of violent or serious delinquency in adolescence and early adulthood: A synthesis of longitudinal research. In R. Loeber & D. P. Farrington (Eds.), Serious and violent juvenile offenders: Risk factors and successful interventions (pp. 86-105). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
37. Lund, R., Nielsen, K. K., Hansen, D. H., Kriegbaum, M., Molbo, D., Due, P., & Christensen, U. (2009). Exposure to bullying at school and depression in adulthood: A study of Danish men born in 1953. European Journal of Public Health, 19(1), 111-116.
38. Martens, M. P., Page, J. C., Mowry, E. S., Damann, K. M., Taylor, K. K., & Cimini, M. D. (2006). Differences between actual and perceived student norms: An examination of alcohol use, drug use, and sexual behavior. Journal of American College Health, 54(5), 295-300.
39. Mattern, J. L., & Neighbors, C. (2004). Social norms campaigns: Examining the relationship between changes in perceived norms and changes in drinking levels. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 65(4), 489-493.
40. McAlaney, J., & McMahon, J. (2007). Normative beliefs, misperceptions, and heavy episodic drinking in a British student sample. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 68(3), 385-392.
41. Mouttapa, M., Valente, T., Gallaher, P., Rohrbach, L. A., & Unger, J. B. (2004). Social network predictors of bullying and victimization. Adolescence, 39(154), 315-335.
42. Murray, M. E., Guerra, N. G., & Williams, K. R. (1997). Violence prevention for the 21st century. In R. P. Weissberg & T. P. Gulotta (Eds.), Healthy children 2010: Enhancing children's wellness (pp. 105-128). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
43. Nansel, T. R., Craig, W., Overpeck, M. D., Saluja, G., & Ruan, W. J. (2004). Cross-national consistency in the relationship between bullying behaviors and psychosocial adjustment. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 158(8), 730-736.
44. Nansel, T. R., Overpeck, M., Pilla, R. S., Ruan, W. J., Simons-Morton, B., & Scheidt, P. (2001). Bullying behaviors among US youth: Prevalence and association with psychosocial adjustment. Journal of the American Medical Association, 285(16), 2094-2100.
45. Nansel, T. R., Overpeck, M. D., Haynie, D. L., Ruan, W. J., & Scheidt, P. C. (2003). Relationships between bullying and violence among US youth. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 157(4), 348-353.
46. Neighbors, C., Larimer, M. E., & Lewis, M. A. (2004). Targeting misperceptions of descriptive drinking norms: Efficacy of a computer-delivered personalized normative feedback intervention. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 72(3), 434-447.
47. Neighbors, C., Walker, D. D., Mbilinyi, L. F., O'Rourke, A., Edleson, J. L., Zegree, J., & Roffman, R. (2010). Normative misperceptions of abuse among perpetrators of intimate partner violence. Violence Against Women, 16(4), 370-386.
48. Page, R. M., Ihasz, F., Hantiu, I., Simonek, J., & Klarova, R. (2008). Social normative perceptions of alcohol use and episodic heavy drinking among Central and Eastern European adolescents. Substance Use and Misuse, 43(3-4), 361-373.
49. Page, R. M., Ihasz, F., Simonek, J., Klarova, R., & Hantiu, I. (2006). Cigarette smoking, friendship factors, and social norm perceptions among Central and Eastern European high school students. Journal of Drug Education, 36(3), 213-231.
50. Perkins, H. W. (1997). College student misperceptions of alcohol and other drug norms among peers: Exploring causes, consequences, and implications for prevention programs. In Designing alcohol and other drug prevention programs in higher education: Bringing theory into practice (pp. 177-206). Newton, MA: Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention.
51. Perkins, H. W. (2002). Social norms and the prevention of alcohol misuse in collegiate contexts. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Supplement 14, 164-172.
52. Perkins, H. W. (2003a). The emergence and evolution of the social norms approach to substance abuse prevention. In H. W. Perkins (Ed.), The social norms approach to preventing school and college age substance abuse: A handbook for educators, counselors, and clinicians (pp. 3-18). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
53. Perkins, H. W. (2003b). The social norms approach to preventing school and college age substance abuse: A handbook for educators, counselors, and clinicians. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
54. Perkins, H. W. (2007). Misperceptions of peer drinking norms in Canada: Another look at the "reign of error" and its consequences among college students. Addictive Behaviors, 32(11), 2645-2656.
55. Perkins, H. W., & Berkowitz, A. D. (1986). Perceiving the community norms of alcohol use among students: Some research implications for campus alcohol education programming. International Journal of Addiction, 21(9-10), 961-976.
56. Perkins, H. W., & Craig, D. W. (2003). The imaginary lives of peers: Patterns of substance use and misperceptions of norms among secondary school students. In H. W. Perkins (Ed.), The social norms approach to preventing school and college age substance abuse: A handbook for educators, counselors, and clinicians. pp. 209-223. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
57. Perkins, H. W., & Craig, D. W. (2006). A successful social norms campaign to reduce alcohol misuse among college student-athletes. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 67(6), 880-889.
58. Perkins, H. W., Haines, M. P., & Rice, R. (2005). Misperceiving the college drinking norm and related problems: A nationwide study of exposure to prevention information, perceived norms and student alcohol misuse. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 66(4), 470-478.
59. Perkins, H. W., Meilman, P. W., Leichliter, J. S., Cashin, J. R., & Presley, C. A. (1999). Misperceptions of the norms for the frequency of alcohol and other drug use on college campuses. Journal of American College Health, 47(6), 253-258.
60. Perkins, J. M., Perkins, H. W., & Craig, D. W. (2010a). Peer weight norm misperception as a risk factor for being over- and underweight among UK secondary school students. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 64(9), 965-971.
61. Perkins, J. M., Perkins, H. W., & Craig, D. W. (2010b). Misperceptions of peer norms as a risk factor for sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among secondary school students. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 110(12), 1916-1921.
62. Poteat, V. P., & Spanierman, L. B. (2010). Do the ideological beliefs of peers predict the prejudiced attitudes of other individuals in the group? Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 13(4), 495-514.
63. Resnick, M. D., Ireland, M., & Borowsky, I. (2004). Youth violence perpetration: What protects? What predicts? Findings from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Journal of Adolescent Health, 35(5), e1-e10.
64. Reuter-Rice, K. (2008). Male adolescent bullying and the school shooter. Journal of School Nursing, 24(6), 350-359.
65. Salmivalli, C. (1999). Participant role approach to school bullying: Implications for interventions. Journal of Adolescence, 22(4), 453-459.
66. Salmon, G., James, A., & Smith, D. M. (1998). Bullying in schools: Self reported anxiety, depression, and self esteem in secondary school children. British Medical Journal, 317, 924-925.
67. Sawyer, A. L., Bradshaw, C. P., & O'Brennan, L. M. (2008). Examining ethnic, gender, and developmental differences in the way children report being a victim of "bullying" on self-report measures. Journal of Adolescent Health, 43(2), 106-114.
68. Schultz, P. W. (1999). Changing behavior with normative feedback interventions: A field experiment on curbside recycling. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 21(1), 25-36.
69. Schultz, P. W., Khazian, A. M., & Zaleski, A. C. (2008). Using normative social influence to promote conservation among hotel guests. Social Influence, 3(1), 4-23.
70. Sherif, M. (1936). The psychology of social norms. New York, NY: Harper.
71. Sherif, M. (1937). An experimental approach to the study of attitudes. Sociometry, 1(1/2), 90-98.
72. Smith, P. K., & Myron-Wilson, R. (1998). Parenting and school bullying. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 3(3), 405-417.
73. Social Norms Surveys Online. Retrieved January 17, 2011, from http://www.socialnormsurveys.org/
74. Sourander, A., Helstela, L., Helenius, H., & Piha, J. (2000). Persistence of bullying from childhood to adolescence - A longitudinal 8-year follow-up study. Child Abuse and Neglect, 24(7), 873-881.
75. Spriggs, A. L., Iannotti, R. J., Nansel, T. R., & Haynie, D. L. (2007). Adolescent bullying involvement and perceived family, peer and school relations: Commonalities and differences across race/ethnicity. Journal of Adolescent Health, 41(3), 283-293.
76. Srabstein, J. (2008). Deaths linked to bullying and hazing. International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health, 20(2), 235-239.
77. Srabstein, J., Joshi, P., Due, P., Wright, J., Leventhal, B., Merrick, J., ...Riibner, K. (2008). Prevention of public health risks linked to bullying: A need for a whole community approach. International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health, 20(2), 185-199.
78. Srabstein, J., & Piazza, T. (2008). Public health, safety and educational risks associated with bullying behaviors in American adolescents. International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health, 20(2), 223-233.
79. Turner, J., Perkins, H. W., & Bauerle, J. (2008). Declining negative consequences related to alcohol misuse among students exposed to a social norms marketing intervention on a college campus. Journal of American College Health, 57(1), 85-94.