Colloquium Series

• Date: Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019
• Time: 11:30 to 12:45 p.m.
• Location: 120 Clemens Hall, University at Buffalo, North Campus

As one of the most common forms of school violence, the negative impacts of bullying victimization on students' social-emotional and psychological outcomes have been well documented. However, research has been inconclusive regarding the association between bullying victimization and educational outcomes. To understand their complex association, this talk will present studies using multilevel approach to examine the role of school climate in promoting and prohibiting youths' school engagement and their resilience towards traditional and cyberbullying victimization across individual and school contexts. It will also discuss other malleable factors that could potentially be targeted in school violence prevention and intervention practices to alleviate the negative impact of bullying victimization and other forms of school violence among youths and other school members, such as teachers and parents. 

• Date: Monday, Feb. 4, 2019
• Time: 3:30 to 4:45 p.m.
• Location: 120 Clemens Hall, University at Buffalo, North Campus

In this talk, Merrilees will discuss her research that bridges developmental models (e.g., social ecologies of violence) with social psychological theories (e.g., social identity theory) to understand the impacts of political violence on youth. She will present multiple advanced models incorporating time and contextual effects using a large dataset of families living in post-accord Belfast. Merrilees will also present more recent work on intergroup bystander behaviors on a primarily white campus. The talk will highlight how these complementary lines of research may inform bullying and violence prevention, with a focus on bystander behaviors.

• Date: Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2019
• Time: 10:15 to 11:30 a.m.
• Location: 280 Park Hall, University at Buffalo, North Campus

Research has demonstrated that adolescents who experience peer victimization are at an elevated risk for internalizing problems, including depression and suicidal behaviors. This is especially problematic given the high prevalence of bullying, both traditional and cyber, among adolescents. Suicidal behaviors are recognized as a significant health concern for adolescents, with approximately 22% of females and 12% of males having reported considering suicide attempts in the previous 12 months (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). Given the recent focus, particularly in the media, on the relation between peer victimization and suicide, it is essential for scholars and clinicians to understand this complex relation among school-aged youth. This session will present research that has examined the link between peer victimization, depression and suicidal ideation. School-based strategies for screening and prevention will also be discussed.

• Date: Friday, Feb. 15, 2019
• Time: 10:30 to 11:45 a.m.
• Location: 479 Baldy Hall, University at Buffalo, North Campus

Recent meta-analyses have revealed that many of the bully prevention interventions implemented in American schools have resulted in moderate to null effects on the rates of bullying among youth. To compound this issue, some subgroups of youth are at escalated risk for bullying involvement due to identity-related factors (e.g., disability status, race, ethnicity, gender) and/or skill deficits (e.g., social skills, communication skills). This presentation will outline a decade of research that has primarily focused on subgroups of youth who are traditionally marginalized, with particular emphasis on youth with disabilities. Specifically, this session will highlight predictive and protective factors associated with bullying involvement among traditionally marginalized youth, skill-based interventions that can be situated within a multi-tiered system of support, legal implications, and future directions in bully prevention research. Session participants will leave this presentation with a greater understanding of school-based bullying, as well as a foundational knowledge of skill-based interventions for addressing bullying among K–12 youth.

• Date: Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018
• Time: 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
• Location: Room TBD, University at Buffalo, North Campus

Entertainment-education is a communication strategy that aims at seamlessly incorporating health and social issues in the entertainment programming to raise audience’s awareness, increase their knowledge, create favorable attitudes, shift social norms, and change overt behaviors. In this talk, Wang will share an initiative called BREAKAWAY that uses an entertainment-education digital game and a youth camp model to prevent gender-based violence in the form of bullying among youth. In addition to program design, she will present her team’s research in Sonsonate, El Salvador as well as here in Buffalo and discuss the lessons they have learned about combining interactive storytelling, digital gaming, and facilitated group activities as an educational approach to bullying prevention.

• Date: Thursday, Oct. 4, 2018
• Time: 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
• Location: 120 Clemens Hall, University at Buffalo, North Campus

Bullying is a serious and pervasive problem in schools. Research has shown that approximately 20-30% of students are directly involved as a bully or victim, but 70-80% of youth serve some other role (Salmivalli et al., 1996). Youth in these other roles are often called bystanders and include assistants (i.e., support the bully), defenders (i.e., support the victim), and outsiders (i.e., ignore bullying). The goal of this session is to increase participants’ understanding of bystander behavior in bullying with a focus on different types of actions youth can take to defend and support victims of bullying. A case will be made that not all youth should be encouraged to directly step into a bullying situation to defend a victim. A more nuanced description of bystander behavior actions will be explored, along with future directions for this area of research. 

• Date: Wednesday, April 25, 2018
• Time: 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
• Location: 120 Clemens Hall, University at Buffalo, North Campus

The purpose of this session is to provide the participant with increased awareness and knowledge about gender diversity and schools; specific strategies participants can employ to support transgender and gender diverse students will be highlighted. Learning will be supported through direct instruction, large- and small-group conversations, and resources that can be employed to facilitate these processes.

Objectives:

1. To enhance participants’ awareness of gender identity and gender diversity matters in schools from multiple perspectives;
2. To introduce tools participants can use not only to assess a system’s readiness to accommodate transgender and gender diverse students but to determine the support and transition needs of individual gender diverse youth;
3. To highlight strategies participants can employ to support transgender and gender diverse students and to improve school climates as they pertain to gender diversity.

• Date: Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018
• Time: 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
• Location:  120 Clemens Hall, University at Buffalo, North Campus

Moderated by: Amanda B. Nickerson, PhD 
Professor, University at Buffalo
Director, Alberti Center

• Robert Dauria
  Member of Students Against Abusive Dating (SAAD) Club
• Sandra Lahrache
  Founder, The Teal Project: Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Through Education
• Jennifer Livingston, PhD
  Research Scientist | UB Research Institute on Addictions

• Caitlin Powalski
  Director of Advocate Program, Crisis Services
• Amelia Schaeffer
  Member of Students Against Abusive Dating (SAAD) Club
• Daniela Wolfe
  Social Worker, Amherst High School