Programs for the Prevention of Adolescent Bullying in the Activities of a Teacher-Psychologist

Prevention of adolescent bullying is one of the leading areas of activity of a teacher-psychologist. Being a widespread issue of the modern school bullying in adolescence demands to be separated from other aggressive behaviors by specific criteria. There are: primary prevention, aimed at pre-venting bullying situations in an educational institution, at forming public unacceptance of aggressive behavior, at creating an active position to stop it; secondary prevention, which implies the containment of provocative bullying factors and the strengthening of protective factors (first of all, the optimization of relationships in the adolescent environment and the dyads “adolescent — adult (teacher, parent)”; tertiary prevention, which is a set of measures of psychological assistance to victims, abusers and witnesses of bullying and their social environment. At each level of preventive work, measures are developed in four main directions: work at the school level in general, work at the school class level, work at the family level, work at the individual level (with an adolescent). In each of these areas of work, a teacher-psychologist, classroom teachers of secondary classes, a social teacher, and deputy director for educational work have their own tasks and responsibilities. They take part in the development of a unified school anti-bullying program as members of a single team. There are specifics in prevention programs — depending on the role of an adolescent in bullying: a victim, an abuser or a witness. The basis for the development of a bullying prevention pro-gram at school is to understand and take into account the main patterns of school bullying identified on the basis of the analysis of the results of scientific research in this area, as well as an analysis of the specific situation in an educational institution and school monitoring data on bullying cases.

Adolescent and Adult Mass Shooters

Understanding why people commit mass shootings in the United States is perplexing and discerning perpetrators' motivations is difficult because there have been a fairly limited number of shootings. In addition, there is incomplete research on mitigating historical evidence about the perpetrators. Thus, this chapter takes a broader approach to understanding why these shootings may have happened by reviewing the empirical literature to identify possible correlations from childhood and adolescent trauma experiences (and subsequent mental health problems) to later adult violence. This review supports a hypothesis that these experiences are potential links to explaining mass shooting outcomes. The trauma experiences that are identified to be most impactful include maltreatment, poverty, witnessing violence, domestic violence, deaths (violent and non-violent) of family and friends, and adolescent bullying.