The Next Wave in Bullying Research and Practice

Together, the two books reviewed here provide a comprehensive, timely, and thought-provoking report card on what is known and not known about school bullying. Contributing authors in each book express the shared conviction that continued progress will oblige researchers to work closely with school professionals, parents, community leaders, and policy makers, who constitute the books' wider audience. Investigators have moved beyond assessing the prevalence of school bullying to grappling with the challenging questions of why bullying occurs, who its victims are, and how to counter it. The books' authors constitute an interdisciplinary group and reading these books fuels positive anticipation that solutions to school bullying will emerge when multiple stakeholders confront the problem. Indeed, both books champion a multidimensional agenda in future research and applications. Espelage and Swearer (see record 2004-00070-000) chose a social-ecological framework as the organizing principle of their book, directing the sequence of chapters accordingly. The paramount message is that every school is a unique social context for children's development. Elias and Zins (see record 2004-00096-000) derive four overarching goals of bullying research. In 11 chapters, the authors set out to expand understanding and assessment of school bullying, and how to use that knowledge to guide prevention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)