Can Emotional Intelligence Help Stop Bullying?

Can Emotional Intelligence Help Stop Bullying?

Years ago, the W.T. Grant Foundation funded a large-scale study of prevention programs that ranged from anti-bullying curricula to the war against drugs, dropouts, you-name-it. The study found that while many of these programs were effective in lowering rates of the targeted problem, many did not.

All those that worked had in common a core of active ingredients: they taught kids self-understanding, how to manage their emotions and impulses better, how to empathize and get along with other kids. In other words, they taught emotional intelligence.

In the years since that report was published, and as I was writing the book Emotional Intelligence, I became a co-founder of the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning, or CASEL. This organization has catalyzed the spread of what are called “social/emotional learning” programs in tens of thousands of schools. These programs teach kids the basics of emotional intelligence from kindergarten through high school.

And they work. A meta-analysis of studies involving more than 270,000 youngsters found that these programs lower anti-social behavior like bullying by 10 percent on average – and more in the schools that need it the most.

If you’re trying to get your local school or district to adopt these programs, CASEL can help you find the right one and make the case for it.

I also recommend the recordings of the Bridging the Hearts and Minds of Youth conference, which offers educators and counselors practical approaches to introducing mindfulness and emotional intelligence-based skills in schools.

author: Daniel Goleman

Emotional Intelligence author, Daniel Goleman lectures frequently to business audiences, professional groups and on college campuses. A psychologist who for many years reported on the brain and behavioral sciences for The New York Times, Dr. Goleman previously was a visiting faculty member at Harvard.