Elizabeth Englander on the Importance of Peer Support

Elizabeth Englander is a professor of Psychology at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts

"I like to look at studies that ask children what really helps in these circumstances, and what really helps is the connections that kids make. The more they have a connection with somebody that likes them and cares about them, the less these kinds of problems are significant. So, what kids told us – or, not me, what they told the researchers – was what helped the most was having somebody who came up to them and said, ‘Don’t listen to him, he talks like that to everyone. There’s nothing wrong with you. Why don’t you come and eat lunch at my table? Don’t worry about that.’ Those kinds of people, the kids who are willing to reach out and say, ‘Let’s label this as socially insignificant. Let’s not give this kid the power. Let’s not stand there and admire him while he abuses somebody, but let’s just say, you know, this is not a worthwhile thing. I’m not even going to give it the power of my attention, and I’m going to reassure somebody that’s targeted that it is insignificant.”