Date of Award

8-2020

Document Type

Dissertation - Campus Access Only

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Discipline

Juvenile Justice

Abstract

Past research on bullying focused on the causes of the behavior, such as home dysfunction and being bullied prior to becoming a bully, as well as the effects that bullying incidents have on victims such as extended consequences like mental health issues. A large body of research aimed at preventing bullying concentrated on the roles that each person in the school environment has to prevent the behavior. Previous studies of bullying have not consistently investigated the impact that school policies have on bullying prevention.

This research study is a qualitative analysis of student code of conduct handbooks and bullying policies for nine of the largest school districts in the United States. Using content analysis, this study sought to answer questions such as how school districts define bullying, their reporting procedures, if provisions for holistic care are incorporated in the policies, and what prevention strategies are in place to combat bullying. The findings revealed that school districts were clear in defining the behavior they want to prevent and their policies outlined some procedures for reaching that goal. However, school districts were not utilizing the most effective prevention strategies to combat bullying. Therefore, this study fills a gap in the existing literature on bullying.

Committee Chair/Advisor

Myrna Cintron

Committee Member

G. Solomon Osho

Committee Member

Sesha Kethineni

Committee Member

Camille Gibson

Publisher

Prairie View A&M University

Rights

© 2021 Prairie View A & M University

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Date of Digitization

11/22/2024

Contributing Institution

John B Coleman Library

City of Publication

Prairie View

MIME Type

Application/PDF

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