Dealing with bullying can be one of a parent’s greatest challenges. Queen’s University bullying expert Wendy Craig (Psychology) and two other leaders in the field have released a new book to help parents prevent bullying.

Bullying Prevention: What Parents Need to Know explores bullying myths, including the ideas that children grow out of bullying, that only a small number of children have problems with bullying, and that reporting bullying will only make the problem worse.

“When a child is bullied or is bullying others it is challenging and difficult to deal with as a parent,” says Dr. Craig. “This book is about providing parents with strategies they can use to prevent bullying from happening, to understand how they can support their child when it does happen, and to work effectively to stop it. Bullying is wrong and our children need our help when it happens.”

The book provides age-specific advice on what to do when bullying happens, whether it occurs in school or online in the form of cyber-bullying. Specific chapters focus on why parents should worry about bullying, bullying in pre-school, and dealing with electronic bullying.

Dr. Craig is the scientific co-director of PREVNet (Promoting Relationships and Eliminating Violence Network), a network launched in 2006 that is devoted to the study and elimination of bullying in Canada. She has worked with the World Health Organization, published over 80 scientific articles and regularly speaks about building healthy relationships to parents, educators and professionals who work with young people.

Her co-authors, Debra Pepler and Joanne Cummings, both of York University, are also directors of PREVNet.