Title V Transformation Tools
Recommendations to Support NPM 9 – Bullying
Jump To: Skills | Knowledge
Significance. The Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant to States Program guidance1 defines the significance of this NPM as follows:
Bullying, particularly among school-age children, is a major public health problem. Current estimates suggest nearly 30% of American adolescents reported at least moderate bullying experiences as the bully, the victim, or both. Specifically, of a nationally representative sample of adolescents, 13% reported being a bully, 11% reported being a victim of bullying, and 6% reported being both a bully and a victim. Studies indicate bullying experiences are associated with a number of behavioral, emotional, and physical adjustment problems. Adolescents who bully others tend to exhibit other defiant and delinquent behaviors, have poor school performance, be more likely to drop-out of school, and are more likely to bring weapons to school. Victims of bullying tend to report feelings of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and isolation; poor school performance; suicidal ideation; and suicide attempts. Evidence further suggests that people who are the victims of bullying and who also perpetrate bullying (i.e., bully-victims) may exhibit the poorest functioning, in comparison with either victims or bullies. Emotional and behavioral problems experienced by victims, bullies, and bully-victims may continue into adulthood and produce long-term negative outcomes, including low self-esteem and self-worth, depression, antisocial behavior, vandalism, drug use and abuse, criminal behavior, gang membership, and suicidal ideation.
Background. The Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grants to States Program has established 15 National Performance Measures (NPMs) for the 2015-2017 grant cycle. In order to effectively address the NPMs, MCH professionals need to think about not only the evidence and strategies to make change, but also the capacity of the workforce to carry out these activities. These lists identify online learning materials, resources, and evidence-based strategies and programs to support the knowledge sets and skills needed to advance each NPM.
Introduction. Six skill sets have been identified by the National MCH Workforce Development Center to support implementation of this NPM: (1) population health; (2) strategic planning and program design; (3) strategic alliances and effective partnerships; (4) consumer engagement and cultural and linguistic brokering; (5) policy and program implementation; and (6) communication.
In addition, two knowledge areas specific to the NPM topic area have been highlighted that are keyed to the evidence base and promising practices: (1) bullying background, recommendations, and guidelines and (2) bullying policies and strategies.
The MCH Navigator, in collaboration with the Center, has developed this crosswalk to guide MCH professionals to online learning opportunities and implementation resources to support these skill sets.
Please click on the Read More buttons below for additional information, learning materials, and implementation resources. You can also email us with suggestions for additions.
Skills
Six skill sets have been identified to support implementation of this NPM:
1. Population Health
A renewed focus on MCH population health is key to achieving the NPMs in the era of health transformation. These skills enable Title V professionals to analyze how program interventions and their related health outcomes are distributed among a state’s MCH population. Population health skills complement all of Title V’s work, including program design and implementation, strategic partnerships and communication.
Skills:
- Ability to conduct surveillance of bullying that allows public health practitioners to understand and repond to disparities in bulling rates
- Skills to effectively analyze all relevant data sources, including school- and county-level data, to identify:
- Sub-groups of children affected by bullying
- Geographic areas with high prevalence of bullying
- Ability to conduct community-wide bullying assessments where data are otherwise unavailable
Learning Materials:
Resources:
2. Strategic Planning & Program Design
Effective strategic planning and program design requires the ability to base programs on defined goals and desired outcomes. Strategic planning should include a monitoring and evaluation system to track and monitor progress and inform program alterations as needed. Program design skills must ultimately be coupled with implementation, where program design is carried out.
Skills:
- Ability to apply the socio-ecological framework to bullying
- Ability to appreciate how bullying prevention efforts fit into the larger framework of youth development
Learning Materials:
Resources:
3. Strategic Alliances & Effective Partnerships
The wide array of stakeholders and partners in the field of MCH, from providers and insurers to women and children, require a set of skills in strategically aligning Title V goals with those of their partners. In the Title V world, there is an increasing interest in engaging unlikely or nontraditional partners to achieve the NPMs. The skills in this category take that into account and include unique partner groups linked to this measure.
Skills:
- Ability to identify and capitalize on mutually reinforcing anti-bullying activities with youth development organizations, safety committees, Girls on the Run and similar programs
- Ability to partner with schools and afterschool programs to support evidence-based anti-bullying programs
- Ability to partner with health care providers and provider organizations to ensure that health care providers screen for emotional distress in youth
Learning Materials:
Resources:
4. Consumer Engagement/Cultural & Linguistic Brokering
Consumers are arguably the most important stakeholders in MCH work, thus skills in consumer engagement and cultural and linguistic brokering are essential to moving the needle for each NPM. In some cases, consumer engagement includes negotiating with other stakeholders on behalf of MCH populations. Closely linked with this skills category are skills in communication and strategic alliances.
Skills:
- Ability to effectively work with youth to integrate evidence-based anti-bullying interventions in their contexts
- Skills to engage youth to support anti-bullying efforts in younger children, including empowering youth to talk about bullying, aggregating stories, and communicating themes
Learning Materials:
Resources:
5. Policy & Program Implementation
These skills ensure that MCH priorities are integrated into all aspects of policy and program implementation, as well as ensuring that policies and programs selected are well-aligned with NPMs and other MCH program goals. Implementing policies and programs with fidelity also requires skills in the implementation science drivers: technical and adaptive leadership; selection; training; coaching; systems intervention; facilitative administration; and decision support data systems.
Skills:
- Ability to support local health departments to participate in anti-bullying activities by sitting on local school and youth development committees to provide input on evidence-based interventions and public health resources
- Skills to support local school efforts to build evidence-based anti-bullying initiatives into school curricula
- Skills to support the development of early screening tools to detect bullying and follow-up tools to monitor youth who have bullied or been bullied to ensure they get to appropriate resources
Learning Materials:
Resources:
6. Communication
Communication skills support the creation and delivery of effective messages between MCH professionals, professional and community partners, and populations served by Title V. Effective communication ensures the delivery of appropriate messages to audiences in the way that they were intended and is key to all aspects of MCH work. These skills are linked closely with skills in strategic partnerships and cultural and linguistic brokering.
Skills:
- Ability to effectively communicate with youth about bullying-related concepts such as reading social cues, understanding differences, and reflecting on their actions
- Ability to promote community-wide anti-bullying public health campaigns for general public/consumers in youth-friendly places like movie theaters
- Ability to effectively work with media regarding bullying as a public health issue
Learning Materials:
Resources:
Knowledge
In addition to skills, each NPM requires a knowledge base that will help Title V progress effectively in the measure. Knowledge should be considered at the foundation of achieving all measures.
1. Bullying Background, Recommendations & Guidelines
- Knowledge of definition of bullying and language used to talk about bullying and adverse childhood events
- Knowledge of prevalence of, and risk factors associated with, bullying
- Knowledge of the protective factors against bullying
- Knowledge of mental and physical health and academic consequences of bullying
- Knowledge of evidence-based programs and strategies to prevent and address bullying
- Knowledge about specific bullying behaviors that violate existing laws
- Knowledge about cyber-bullying and its consequences
- Knowledge about different types of bullying behaviors in the context of development over the life course
Learning Materials:
Resources:
Evidence Base:
2. Bullying Policies & Strategies
- Knowledge of evidence-based anti-bullying strategies, including:
- Addressing the social climate
- Changing attitudes, norms and behaviors
- Using positive adult role models
- Working with parents, teachers, counselors, and youth
- Knowledge about:
- Why there might be variance among outcomes within the evidence-based strategies
- How to match different options to different contexts
- Knowledge of the stakeholders in all systems that address bullying
Learning Materials:
Resources:
See other online learning resources related to health transformation, collected in the Health Transformation Learning Laboratory.
1 Health Resources and Services Administration. 2014. Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant to States Program: Guidance and Forms for the Title V Application/Annual Report, Appendix F, p. 82.