How to Help Kids in the Digital Age

Apr 29, 2014, 12:31 AM

The Social Network Show welcomes back, Dr. Elizabeth Englander, a professor of psychology and the director of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center at Bridgewater State University. The Center offers anti-violence and anti-bullying programs, resources and research for those in Massachusetts. Dr. Englander is also the author of Bullying and Cyberbullying: What Every Educator Needs to Know (Harvard Education Press; October 2013).

Dr. Englander continues to educate us on how to teach kids appropriate behavior online and off. Listen to the show and hear her talk about the overuse of the terms "bullying" and "cyberbullying" and what terms may be better to use; the review of the 9-second response; hear her thoughts on how to change social behaviors and how bystanders influence behavior; and importantly, what parents can do to help the school if their child is a target.

Dr. Elizabeth Kandel Englander graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with Phi Beta Kappa and High Honors, and completed her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Southern California as an All‑University Merit Fellow.  After being awarded a National Institute of Mental Health Research Service Award to study at the University of New Hampshire, she started teaching in the State University system in Massachusetts and is now a professor of Psychology. She was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to found and direct the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center, which delivers free anti-violence and anti-bullying programs, resources, and research to K-12 Education. Dr. Englander’s research and publications are nationally recognized and she was named Most Valuable Educator of 2013 by the Boston Red Sox because of her work in technological aggression and how it interacts with peer abusiveness in general. She was the Special Editor for the Cyberbullying issue of the Journal of Social Sciences, and has authored about a hundred articles in academic journals and books.  She is the author of Understanding Violence, and of Bullying and Cyberbullying: A Guide for Educators, recently released by Harvard Press. She has written three research-based curricula and many educational handouts for communities and professionals. Reflecting her interest in educating laypeople, Dr. Englander has answered questions in a column for the New York Times (online edition), and she writes the column Bullying Bulletin Board, which is syndicated by Gatehouse Media in hundreds of newspapers nationwide.