Bullying & State Law: Examining Associations Between Anti-Bullying Statutes & School Safety Outcomes for Students

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: Bullying has increasingly become recognized as a serious social issue that impacts youth well-being. It has been linked with PTSD and is shown to be a significant risk indicator for suicide attempt. As a result, many state legislatures have addressed this issue through some form of anti-bullying legislation. However, there is wide variability in terms of the types and strength of anti-bullying provisions that are included in each state’s statutes. This study analyzes state statutes for the presence and strength of various anti-bullying legal provisions. It then examines associations between these provisions and the probability of a high school student being bullied, cyberbullied, and missing school due to safety concerns. The study provides a snapshot of the landscape of state anti-bullying laws as of September 2018, as well as some evidence regarding the types of legal provisions that appear most effective in terms of protecting students from bullying and other detrimental outcomes. This study finds that a protective definition of bullying, inclusion of all types of bullying, staff reporting requirements, counseling requirements, prohibitions on retaliation, publicly available data, and training for school staff are significantly associated both with a decreased probability of a student being bullied as well as cyberbullied.

Author	Mendez, Vitto
Thesis advisor	Koski, William
Department	Public Policy Program
Degree granting institution	Stanford University

Subject	Bullying
Subject	Cyberbullying
Subject	Anti-Bullying Laws
Subject	Bullying in schools > Law and legislation
Subject	Anti-Bullying Legal Factors
Subject	Bullying > Law and legislation
Subject	State Anti-Bullying Laws
Subject	State Bullying Laws
Subject	Bullying Protective Factors
Subject	YRBSS
Subject	Stanford University
Subject	Humanities and Sciences
Subject	Public Policy Program
Genre	Text
Genre	Thesis

DOI	https://doi.org/10.25740/kq793ry0381
Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/kq793ry0381

Use and reproduction: User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY).

Preferred citation: Mendez, V. (2022). Bullying & State Law: Examining Associations Between Anti-Bullying Statutes & School Safety Outcomes for Students. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/kq793ry0381

Stanford University, Public Policy Program, Masters Theses and Practicum Projects

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