Developing a School-wide Trusted Adult Program To Support

Co-Author Information

Meredith Rausch, Associate Professor, Augusta University, College of Education and Human Development

Kristen Dickens, Associate Professor, Georgia Southern University, College of Education

Angela Landers, Assistant Director of Outreach and Community Engagement, Georgia Southern University Counseling Center

Presentation Abstract

Nearly 20% of students report being bullied in schools in the past 12 months. Bullying behavior can negatively impact students in a variety of ways, including attendance (e.g., Berthold & Hoover, 2000), adverse physical health (e.g., Bogart et al., 2014), and increased depression (Cook et al., 2010). In addition to the negative impact of bullying on students, instances of bullying take time to investigate and can even produce a monetary cost to schools (Baams et al., 2017). Addressing this system-wide problem in an effective, efficient manner cannot only protect students from further harm but also save school personnel time and money. This presentation discusses the development and implementation of a school-wide Trusted Adult Program to support victims of bullying in schools. Having a trusted adult in school is protective of physical, psychological and behavioral health, underscoring the importance developing a program to strengthen these ties among youth universally (Weitzman et al., 2021). Efforts should focus on connecting adolescents with trusted adults and training adults who hold positions of authority or experiential knowledge to offer both direct and indirect support (Campus-Castillo et al., 2021). Trusted adults can model and exhibit empathy by taking the concerns of an adolescent seriously, validating their concerns, and recognizing their emotions (Choaibi & Lomas, 2021; Rose et al., 2015). Using the taxonomy laid out by Pringle and colleagues (2019) this presentation discusses five aspects of an effective Trusted Adult Program including, 1) describing the context where the support occurs (formal vs. informal and structured vs. naturally occurring), 2) the nature of support offered by the trusted adult (e.g., materials, instructional and emotional), 3) effective qualities of a trusted adult (e.g., nonjudgmental), 4) skills necessary for offering support (e.g., conversational, active listening), and 5) the actions of functions of the trusted adult (e.g., availability, documentation, reporting). Participants will leave this presentation with a framework for implementing the program.

Conference Program Description

The presentation discusses how a school can implement a school-wide Trusted Adult Program to support students who are victims of bullying. Factors associated with establishing and managing a trusted adult program will be discussed, as well as dispositions and skills that staff acting as trusted adults will need to be effective.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS
 

Developing a School-wide Trusted Adult Program To Support

Nearly 20% of students report being bullied in schools in the past 12 months. Bullying behavior can negatively impact students in a variety of ways, including attendance (e.g., Berthold & Hoover, 2000), adverse physical health (e.g., Bogart et al., 2014), and increased depression (Cook et al., 2010). In addition to the negative impact of bullying on students, instances of bullying take time to investigate and can even produce a monetary cost to schools (Baams et al., 2017). Addressing this system-wide problem in an effective, efficient manner cannot only protect students from further harm but also save school personnel time and money. This presentation discusses the development and implementation of a school-wide Trusted Adult Program to support victims of bullying in schools. Having a trusted adult in school is protective of physical, psychological and behavioral health, underscoring the importance developing a program to strengthen these ties among youth universally (Weitzman et al., 2021). Efforts should focus on connecting adolescents with trusted adults and training adults who hold positions of authority or experiential knowledge to offer both direct and indirect support (Campus-Castillo et al., 2021). Trusted adults can model and exhibit empathy by taking the concerns of an adolescent seriously, validating their concerns, and recognizing their emotions (Choaibi & Lomas, 2021; Rose et al., 2015). Using the taxonomy laid out by Pringle and colleagues (2019) this presentation discusses five aspects of an effective Trusted Adult Program including, 1) describing the context where the support occurs (formal vs. informal and structured vs. naturally occurring), 2) the nature of support offered by the trusted adult (e.g., materials, instructional and emotional), 3) effective qualities of a trusted adult (e.g., nonjudgmental), 4) skills necessary for offering support (e.g., conversational, active listening), and 5) the actions of functions of the trusted adult (e.g., availability, documentation, reporting). Participants will leave this presentation with a framework for implementing the program.