Muriel Vandepol wrote

I'm in need of assistance and felt this was a good forum for excellent
feedback. I'm working with a school council conmmittee on
harassment/bullying in the K-8 grade level. We have viewed the individual
school report data on the "Region of Waterloo's Youth Survey 1997"
prepared
by The Waterloo Region Community Safety and Crime Prevention Council. The
individual results showed a pattern of high percentages of affirmative
responses to the question "Has someone ever made fun of you?" in the
class,
halls outside etc.
This committee wishes to rework this question to get a better/more
specific
idea of what is involved in "being made fun of" and if we are looking at
childhood bantering (a sample survey had some written responses brushing
off
the "being made fun of" as "no big deal")  vs a hurtful impact.
 Our dilemna is this; How do we formulate a good survey question to get at
whether we are dealing with an issue of significant proportions or not. We
will be drafting surveys for primary(1-3),junior(4-6), senior(7-8),staff
and
parents.
I appreciate any and all suggestions to assist this energetic group of
parents/school personnel to promote a healthy school climate.


Muriel

The London Family Court Clinic has some excellent info on bullying and
has documented a model program called ASAP: A School-Based Anti-Violence
Program. Check out their website at
http://www.1on.hookup.net/~family/bully.htm.  You might want to contact
someone there.

Also, Alan King and colleagues asked several questions related to
bullying in the 1994 Cross National Survey on young people (conducted for
the WHO). I got the report with is titled The Health of Youth: A
Cross-National Survey from Health Canada.  Not sure where Alan King is
now (he used to be at Queens) but his questions would have been well
validated.

Hope this helps

Peggy Edwards