Your Child: Bully or Victim?: Understanding and Ending School Yard Tyranny - Softcover

Despite what many well-meaning adults advise, nothing fans a bully's fire brighter than a victim who tries to "just ignore it." Be it insults, punches, ostracism, or sexual labeling, such misplaced anger requires swift and smart intervention. In Your Child: Bully or Victim?, Peter Sheras examines bullying from many angles and provides thoughtful, practical advice for all parents of school-age children. The study begins with a hard look at childhood aggression. Sheras shows how bullying results from a child's inability to express anger in socially acceptable ways, and how this tendency escalates (and mutates) as the child grows older. When an explosive child connects with a weaker child--one who perhaps has been advised to run, hide, or fight back--the results are quite predictable. Sheras maintains that the parents' duty is not to ignore or belittle these situations, but to arm themselves--and their children--with the means to handle them confidently. Behavioral cues and physical clues that might signal a child's distress; talking points for discussing abuse with children; and guidelines for seeking help from school staff, counselors, and if necessary, legal advisors complete this useful addition to the family library. --Liane Emory Thomas

Peter Sheras, Ph.D., ABPP, is a clinical psychologist and professor in the Curry Programs in Clinical and School Psychology at the University of Virginia. He is associate director of the Virginia Youth Violence Project at the university and director of the local School Crisis Network. As an expert in school intervention and youth violence, he develops and evaluates intervention programs for schools, parents, and communities. He has been in private practice for twenty-five years.