The role of teachers in school violence and bullying prevention

A variety of aggressive behaviors among students seems to manifest in different forms ranging from extreme cases of school shootings and physical attacks to verbal threats and social exclusion. Empirical studies have also documented that these different types of conflicts are observed across developmental stages (see Dodge et al., 2006, for review). With a consistent finding that both perpetrators and victims of aggressive behaviors exhibit concurrent and future maladjustment, a lot of efforts have been geared toward a better understanding of individual markers of perpetrators and victims. Social cognitive characteristics, social skills deficits, emotional dysregulation, and peer acceptance have been heavily investigated (see Hinshaw & Lee, 2003, for review). Obviously, a clear understanding of complex interactions among these characteristics associated with different types of aggressive behaviors is an important step toward effective prevention efforts as well as an early identification of students who are likely to engage in aggressive behaviors.