Federal Resources

The 15+ Make Time to Listen...Take Time to Talk campaign is based on the premise that parents who talk with their children about what is happening in their lives are better able to guide their children toward more positive, skill-enhancing activities and friendships. The campaign provides practical guidance for parents and caregivers on how to strengthen their relationship with their children by spending at least 15 minutes of daily, undivided time with them and focusing on them.

Based on the lessons learned from the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative, the toolkit cultivates an approach that has left a legacy of success in schools and communities. This toolkit will show you how partnerships with representatives from sectors including education, law enforcement, mental health, juvenile justice, children’s services, families, and faith-based associations can take Three Bold Steps to create positive lasting change among our nation’s students.

This newsletter provides guidance on how to talk to your children about bullying. It also offers a link to a companion pamphlet : Bullying is Not a Fact of Life

This website is targeted at "tweens" with 12 educational, animated "webisodes" featuring characters who are involved in bullying and its prevention. The site describes bullying in language friendly to young people, and includes helpful information for kids and for adults. Web site available in Spanish.

This article provides an overview of bullying and its relationship with suicide. It also presents SAMHSA’s collaborative approach to bullying prevention, highlighting the Media Guidelines for Bullying Prevention, which media outlets can use when developing stories related to bullying to ensure that they reflect balanced and accurate coverage.

Bullying Prevention: 2015 Resource Guide (PDF, 20 pages) provides links to resources, publications, organizations, and programs that focus on bullying prevention. Each resource is accompanied by a link and description, and is organized into one of seven sections of the guide:

1. Organizations and Websites
2. Data, Definitions, and Research
3. Programs, Campaigns, and Toolkits
4. Policies, Laws, and Legislation
5. Publications and Resources
6. At-Risk Populations
7. Bullying and Co-Occurring Issues

A special online supplement from the Journal of Adolescent Health reports on the findings of an expert panel convened by the CDC to better understand the link between bullying and suicide-related behaviors. 

The StopBullying.gov Bullying Prevention Training Center offers multiple resources, including the Bullying Prevention Training Module and Community Action Toolkit and 11 new, audience-specific user guides, developed in collaboration with more than 40 partner organizations. These resources feature relevant statistics and best practices for a variety of readers, including parents, school administrators, and mental health providers.   

The Child Health USA Databook is an annual report of the health status, well-being and service needs of America's children and youth. Coalitions, program planners and policy makers can identify national trends by examining and comparing data from one year to the next. Indicators for youth, or adolescents, cover multiple issues, including childbearing, substance abuse, violence, mental health treatment, and mortality from traffic and firearms injuries. The section, Population Characteristics, provides information about poverty status and school dropouts. Each topic includes a written summary and at least one graph that clearly depicts key statistical facts.

Whitney Dockrey, a 22-year-old senior at Georgetown University, participated as a youth panelist in a bullying prevention workshop convened in April 2014 by the Institute of Medicine. This blog post features her perspective on the importance of building and maintaining supportive relationships as a way to prevent and respond to bullying.

Girlshealth.gov is sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women's Health, and is the "daughter" program of the National Women's Health Information Center (www.womenshealth.gov). Girlshealth.gov provides valuable information about ways girls can achieve a healthy lifestyle helping them to understand their body, mind, and spirit as they grow into adults.

This document provides researchers, prevention specialists, and health educators with tools to measure a range of bullying experiences: bully perpetration, bully victimization, bully-victim experiences, and bystander experiences. Some researchers continue to examine the risk and protective factors associated with bullying experiences. Others are working to design, implement, and evaluate bully prevention interventions aimed at reducing bully victimization and perpetration, as well as increasing prosocial bystander involvement in bullying situations. The ability to measure bullying experiences broadly and completely is crucial to the success of these activities. This document represents a starting point from which researchers can consider a set of psychometrically sound measures for assessing self-reported incidence and prevalence of a variety of bullying experiences.

Published in the American Journal of Public Health, a NIH-funded study found that bullying among students in grades six through 10 declined significantly between 1998 and 2010. A less dramatic decline in fighting among students was also observed. As part of this podcast, the study’s lead author explains the findings and their implications for policy and practice. 

This blog post features the perspective of Thomas, a young person diagnosed with Autism at age two, who experienced bullying throughout elementary and middle school and has used art to express his emotions and encourage and inspire others. 

The SS/HS Initiative is a unique Federal grant-making program designed to prevent violence and substance abuse among our nation's youth, School, and communities.

Created by StopBullying.gov, this Tumblr page features empowering messages that aim to influence teens to join the effort to stop bullying.

This website provides articles, videos, tools, and other resources on bullying prevention.

This blog post illustrates the prevalence of bullying among Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) youth and the work of the AAPI Bullying Prevention Task Force to proactively address bullying in the AAPI community.

This publication from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is one module in a larger initiative to promote healthy child development and prevent youth and school-based violence (15+ Make Time to Listen Take Time to Talk - link to http://store.samhsa.gov/product/15-Make-Time-To-Listen-Take-Time-To-Talk...). It offers a quick description of what bullying is, and then offers signs that your child is a victim of bullying. You can also learn about signs that depict if your child is a bully, and read tips to prevent children from becoming bullies and victims.

A national initiative to prevent youth violence before it starts. STRYVE's vision is safe and healthy youth who can achieve their full potential as connected and contributing members of thriving, violence-free families, schools, and communities. Their website includes training materials focused on understanding youth violence, the public health approach, and creating a plan along with a wealth of other resources and information.

This blog post describes the relationship, as established in research, between bullying others in early adolescence, and later perpetration of sexual harassment and forms of teen dating violence. It also highlights tools and resources, including programs like SafeDates and Dating Matters, and events sponsored by GLSEN, that can help prevent and address bullying and teen dating violence. 

This resource from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention, provides school administrators, teachers and school staff with the most current research findings about the relationship between bullying and suicide among school-aged youth and action-oriented, evidence-based suggestions to prevent and control bullying and suicide-related behavior in schools. 

StopBullying.gov launched two new videos, Labels Don't Define You and Labels Don't Define You 2, and an animated GIF that address the issue of labels and how words can be harmful. This project is a result of regular engagement and collaboration with one of the main audiences for StopBullying.gov: teens. Spread the word by sharing one or all of these animated pieces with your audiences.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the United States government's principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves.

This blog post highlights the important role that medical professionals play in bullying prevention by advocating for new legislation and policies that could address bullying, and collaborating with community leaders and professionals to promote the well-being of children and families. The post also highlights information available from the American Academy of Pediatrics that can help pediatricians integrate violence prevention strategies into their practice and address bullying with their young patients.