Dr. Leslie Echols, associate professor in the School of Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences, researches kids’ peer relationships, with a particular focus on the dynamics of bullying and victimization. “I’m a former elementary school teacher,” she says. “When I taught, I was always drawn to kids who were getting picked on or struggling to fit in.”

Powering Up

Recently, Echols partnered with her doctoral studies advisor, Dr. Sandra Graham, distinguished professor in the human development and psychology division of the University of California, Los Angeles’ department of education. Graham is an expert on attribution theory, which looks at how people assess the causes of negative events in their lives.

“For example, if you fail a test, you might think it happened because you didn’t study or because the test was too hard or because you’re not capable of succeeding,” Echols says. “Each of these explanations puts you on a different trajectory and influences your motivation to try again.”

Attribution theory is often applied to academic motivation; Graham wondered if it might also apply to the social interactions of school-aged children. Echols’ scholarship and teaching background made her a natural fit for this research question. Together, they created Powering Up, an intervention program to address bullying and victimization. Powering Up focuses on individuals, and it differs from some common approaches that hinge on schoolwide assemblies or signs.

“In many schools, you might see a banner with something like ‘We have zero tolerance for bullying,'” Echols says. “As developmental psychologists, we recognize that bullying is likely to happen, particularly during middle school, where it peaks. We’re not saying that we should normalize it or that we shouldn’t try to stop it — just that kids need tools to help them handle bullying when it happens.”

Graham and Echols proposed Powering Up to the U.S. National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Social Psychology Program. NSF granted funding to pilot the program in selected middle schools. So far, they’ve been able to bring the program to four schools, and they have enough funding to work with two more schools this year.

Why Power

To help kids understand and cope with bullying events, Graham and Echols designed three sets of outcomes.

The first set, called “Why Power,” draws on attribution theory to help reshape victims’ thinking about what causes bullying. The program directs victims away from fixed, self-blaming attributions, such as “This happened because one likes me,” in favor of circumstantial explanations. Echols says this approach helps demystify the experience of being bullied, which can feel too upsetting to discuss.

“We’re pretty good at talking through negative academic experiences with the assumption that they can be changed, but there is more of a taboo around bullying,” Echols says. “If kids don’t talk about bullying, they’re more likely to blame themselves if it happens to them. They might feel shame about it or fear that it could happen again.”

Why Power helps direct students past self-blaming attributions. It also includes lessons on coping skills. “We approach coping from a resources vs. demands perspective and help students recognize all the resources they have to cope with peer victimization,” Echols says. “One lesson focuses primarily on physiology — how our bodies are designed to help us deal with stressful situations.”

“If kids don’t talk about bullying, they’re more likely to blame themselves if it happens to them. They might feel shame about it or fear that it could happen again.”

—Dr. Leslie Echols

Peer Power and Friend Power

Other components of the program, Peer Power and Friend Power, help students shape the norms of their school and develop healthy social infrastructure.

“Part of the taboo around bullying is students’ fear that if they intervene when they see it happening, they’ll become the next victim,” Echols says. “The data suggests that the more we educate them about bullying and victimization, the less salient those fears are.”

And through one-on-one activities, the program helps victims make friends. “It only takes one friend,” Echols says. “Having even one friend makes a huge difference in social and emotional adjustment during middle school.”

“It only takes one friend. Having even one friend makes a huge difference in social and emotional adjustment during middle school.”

—Dr. Leslie Echols

Outcomes and Next Steps

In schools where Powering Up has been piloted, Echols conducts social network analysis, which reveals social connections between kids in the same school. Throughout the program, she and Graham have seen positive movement in social connections between victims and peers. “Victims are increasing their numbers of friends, and their social position is changing across the program timeline,” Echols says.

They’ve also seen significant decreases in self-blaming attributions for bullying events — “exactly what we’re targeting,” as Echols puts it. Other preliminary outcomes include an increase in kids’ willingness to intervene when they witness bullying and more confidence in their ability to handle it.

With these promising findings, Graham and Echols hope to scale the program up. They’re in the process of writing a mid-phase grant to support the expansion of this work. With collaborators across the country, they hope to put Powering Up in a wide range of schools, which will help them understand how it best serves kids from different geographic, socioeconomic and environmental backgrounds. “We want to make this something that can work for kids in any school district in the U.S.,” Echols says.

They also hope to work with a new group of students: bully-victims, who both experience and perpetrate bullying behavior. Because these kids have a history of bullying, they can’t participate in Powering Up’s original programming — even though they’ve also experienced victimization. This separation ensures that Powering Up’s environment is safe and comfortable for victims.

But as Powering Up expands, Graham and Echols would like to serve separate cohorts of bully-victims with distinct curriculum. They’re working on a new version of Why Power that’s designed to help kids with this profile. “Bully-victims are often acting out — reacting to aggression they’ve experienced. But when they retaliate, it only worsens their reputation, which makes them vulnerable to further bullying,” Echols says. If they can learn healthier attribution styles, they might escape this cycle of reactive hostility.

The goals are big, and for Echols — who, as a teacher, was always drawn to kids who needed social support — the motivation feels personal. “It’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done,” she says.

Around Campus…

Chelsey Giles, director of institutional research, was elected to the Board of Directors of the Mid-America Association for Institutional Research (MidAIR), a regional organization serving institutional research professionals in six states.

Dr. Egon Heidendal, associate provost for institutional effectiveness, says she’s a great addition to MidAIR’s board.

“Chelsey’s extensive experience and dedication to data-driven decision-making make her an excellent fit for this role,” he says. “Her leadership will not only benefit MidAIR but also enhance our commitment to institutional effectiveness and continuous improvement. We’re proud to have her represent Missouri State with this service.”