8-26-03
PENN STATE ERIE PROFESSOR CO-AUTHORS "GIRL WARS"
A new book by two Penn State professors has some straight answers-and some effective strategies-for every parent whose daughter has been bullied, harassed, and victimized by her peers. Girl Wars: 12 Strategies that Will End Female Bullying (Fireside/Simon & Schuster, 2003) is the result of study and research by Cheryl Dellasega, Ph.D., a nurse-practitioner on the faculty of Penn State's College of Medicine, and Charisse Nixon, Ph.D., a psychology professor at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College.
In addition to their academic strengths, the authors have a special qualification for writing this book: Dellasega is the mother of a teenaged daughter, and Nixon has two young daughters. In addition, Dellasega is the founder of Camp Ophelia, Club Ophelia, and other dynamic programs for girls. Nixon, a board member of the Ophelia Project, has completed years of research on relational aggression, the psychologists' term for the methods girls use to hurt one another.
"Society is becoming increasingly aware of the ways adolescent girls use relationships to harm one another," said Nixon. "This cruel behavior can be so subtle it is missed by adults until it accelerates into major problems. Relational aggression-fighting with words and emotions rather than fists―exists on a continuum from mild to extreme, and unchecked, it will spiral out of control."
Nixon spends much of her time responding to society's request for more information about relational aggression. She recently attended the National Conference of State Legislatures in San Francisco, where she explained her research and its results to representatives from all fifty states who were exploring the effectiveness of programs and policies that address aggressive behavior, particularly programs that target adolescent girls. At the invitation of the Georgia State Legislature, she also addressed Georgia educators, administrators, and researchers on ways to implement anti-bullying programs in that state. According to Nixon, sixteen states already have anti-bullying legislation, and many more are considering it.
"Right now policy and research don't meet," said Nixon. "We need to think in a big-picture way, and we need to use research to make good decisions about the laws we create. Until our lawmakers take a hard line against bullying, the social, cultural, and behavioral change to non-aggression will never trickle down to our schools." Nixon goes even further in citing the need for a paradigm shift not only in the schools, but at home and at work as well.
"Families exist at home, at work, and at school," said Nixon. "Most parents of today grew up in a climate that condoned or ignored aggressive behavior, so it is hard for them to help their girls develop skills to protect them from relational aggression-particularly if they don't see it . Some parents are still victims of relational aggression-look at domestic abuse statistics-and in the workplace, too. We need to teach our community that relational aggression, in any form, is hurtful, has devastating consequences, and should never be tolerated. Relational aggression is not something that adolescent girls (or boys) just do, and it is not something that just 'goes away.' The school context is one place we can really examine our belief systems that promote this type of covert behavior."
Nixon has surveyed more than 1,400 adolescents for her research, giving her a sizeable national database on which to build. And while other books have provided anecdotal evidence of the action and effects of relational aggression, Nixon is more interested in applying the results of her research. She wants to do more than record the problem; her passion is solving it.
To that end, she and other members of the Ophelia Program have created an intervention program named CASS-Creating a Safe Social Climate in Our Schools. Initially implemented in four cities in Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan, and Ohio, this year the program is being expanded to Florida, Indiana, and New York City.
Both Nixon and Dellasega believe that girls and all people are inherently good, but that schools need to give both girls and boys the emotional tools to reframe their thinking.
"Feelings that children don't recognize, such as sadness, loneliness, frustration, jealousy, eventually come out as anger in youngsters," said Nixon, "and result in aggressive behavior. We need to teach children to recognize their feelings and express them in healthy ways."
More information about the Ophelia Project and CASS is available on the Web at www.opheliaproject.org/index.shtml/. Girl Wars is available in local and regional bookstores and at Amazon.com.
Editors: Dr. Nixon is available at 814-898-6082 or by e-mail at cln5@psu.edu.
Contact:
Loretta Brandon
814-898-6063 (O)
E-mail: lzb6@psu.edu