- my iParenting
- quick clicks
- preteenagers today articles
- preteenagers today q&a
- teenagers today articles
- teenagers today q&a
- community & groups
- research baby names
- prepare a birth plan
- content channels
- ip channel rss feeds
- read birth stories
- read parenting stories
- recommended books
- e-newsletters
- safety recalls
- ip diaries
- ip store
- mom of the month
- dad of the month
- editor's letter
- letters to the editor
From Our Sponsors
- e-newsletters
- Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters
- award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Words Will EVER Hurt Me
Girls as Bullies
By Kelly Burgess
Simmons, who has worked with both Wellman and Wiseman, thinks that both the Ophelia Project and the Empower Program are good approaches, simply because there is nothing else out there. At this point, both programs are experimental, and only time and research will tell which method, or which combination of methods, is most effective in combating relational aggression.
Wellman has plenty of evidence that an on-site mentoring program can make a difference. In 1999, the Ophelia Project initiated a pilot program called "How Girls Hurt Each Other" to test peer strategies for dealing with relational aggression. Recruiting high school girls from Erie's McDowell High School, Wellman and her staff trained them as mentors to conduct workshops in middle schools. Using role-playing and small group activities, the mentors' task was to make these young girls aware of their conduct and how potentially devastating their actions were.
Ellen Anderson was one of the first volunteers. "At first I wasn't sure it was doing any good, and the stories we were hearing from these girls were just heartbreaking," Anderson says. "Then I started to hear things from some of the girls as I ran into them outside of the workshops. They would come up and tell me that thanks to us, someone had written them a note of apology and were no longer targeting them or had realized they were a bully and had stopped. I realized that we were really helping a lot."