Christina Salmivalli | |
---|---|
Born | 18 September 1967 |
Nationality | Finnish |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of Turku |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Psychology |
Sub-discipline | Educational psychology Developmental psychology |
Institutions | University of Turku |
Christina Salmivalli (born 18 September 1967) [1] is a Finnish professor of psychology and the deputy head of the INVEST research flagship at the University of Turku in Finland. Salmivalli is recognized as an expert on peer relations and school bullying.
In 1992,Salmivalli completed a master's degree in psychology from the University of Turku. [2] She earned her doctoral degree in psychology from the University of Turku in 1998. [2] Her research,on social and personality factors of school bullying, [3] won the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters doctoral dissertation award in 1999. [1]
Salmivalli joined the psychology faculty at the University of Turku as an adjunct professor in 2001,becoming a full professor of psychology in 2004. [4] She has held several visiting professorships,including positions at the University of Stavanger in Norway;at Edith Cowan University in Perth,Australia;and at Shandong Normal University in Jinan,China. [2] [4]
In 2020,amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Finland,the Prime Minister's office appointed Salmivalli to lead a 13-member science panel to advise on efforts to mitigate the long-term effects of the pandemic. [5]
Salmivalli conducts research within the fields of developmental psychology and prevention research,focusing on children's and adolescent's peer relations and evidence-based interventions to prevent peer adversities such as school bullying. [4] She has published widely on the role of the peer group in bullying and on interventions aiming to change the peer dynamics contributing to bullying. [6] [7]
In 2006,Salmivalli began leading a team of researchers tasked by Finland's Ministry of Education and Culture to develop and evaluate a bullying intervention program. [8] The resulting program,named KiVa (short for "kiusaamista vastaan",Finnish for "against bullying"),includes lessons on emotions,healthy relationships,and bystander responses to bullying. [8] The program also outlines a specific protocol for school staff to follow when they encounter incidents of bullying. [8] [9]
KiVa is Finland's national bullying prevention program; [10] as of 2016,it had been implemented in over 2,300 Finnish schools. [11] It is also used at schools in more than countries around the world,including the Netherlands,Chile,Italy,the United Kingdom. [12] [13]
KiVa's effectiveness has been evaluated in a number of longitudinal studies. One study of more than 7,000 Finnish students found significant improvements among students' bullying and mental health at schools involved in KiVa,compared to control schools. [10] A large-scale replication in the Netherlands,led by Gijs Huitsing and RenéVeenstra,found also evidence of the effectiveness of the KiVa program. [14]
Salmivalli was named Psychologist of the Year by the Finnish Psychological Association in 2009. [4] In 2017,the Minister of Education and Culture,Sanni Grahn-Laasonen,presented Salmivalli with the Finnish Science Prize,worth €100,000. [4] [13]
Conduct disorder (CD) is a mental disorder diagnosed in childhood or adolescence that presents itself through a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior that includes theft, lies, physical violence that may lead to destruction, and reckless breaking of rules, in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate norms are violated. These behaviors are often referred to as "antisocial behaviors." It is often seen as the precursor to antisocial personality disorder, which by definition cannot be diagnosed until the individual is 18 years old. Conduct disorder may result from parental rejection and neglect and can be treated with family therapy, as well as behavioral modifications and pharmacotherapy. Conduct disorder is estimated to affect 51.1 million people globally as of 2013.
The bystander effect, or bystander apathy, is a social psychological theory that states that individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim in presence of other people. First proposed in 1964 after the murder of Kitty Genovese, much research, mostly in psychology research laboratories, has focused on increasingly varied factors, such as the number of bystanders, ambiguity, group cohesiveness, and diffusion of responsibility that reinforces mutual denial. If a single individual is asked to complete the task alone, the sense of responsibility will be strong, and there will be a positive response; however, if a group is required to complete the task together, each individual in the group will have a weak sense of responsibility, and will often shrink back in the face of difficulties or responsibilities. The theory was prompted by the murder of Kitty Genovese about which it was wrongly reported that 38 bystanders watched passively.
Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception of an imbalance of physical or social power. This imbalance distinguishes bullying from conflict. Bullying is a subcategory of aggressive behavior characterized by hostile intent, imbalance of power and repetition over a period of time.
Anger management is a psycho-therapeutic program for anger prevention and control. It has been described as deploying anger successfully. Anger is frequently a result of frustration, or of feeling blocked or thwarted from something the subject feels is important. Anger can also be a defensive response to underlying fear or feelings of vulnerability or powerlessness. Anger management programs consider anger to be a motivation caused by an identifiable reason which can be logically analyzed and addressed.
School violence includes violence between school students as well as attacks by students on school staff. It encompasses physical violence, including student-on-student fighting, corporal punishment; psychological violence such as verbal abuse, and sexual violence, including rape and sexual harassment. It includes many forms of bullying and carrying weapons in school. The one or more perpetrators typically have more physical, social, and/or psychological power than the victim. It is widely believed by society to have become a serious problem in recent decades in many countries, especially where weapons such as guns or knives are involved.
Relational aggression, alternative aggression, or relational bullying is a type of aggression in which harm is caused by damaging someone's relationships or social status.
Peer support occurs when people provide knowledge, experience, emotional, social or practical help to each other. It commonly refers to an initiative consisting of trained supporters, and can take a number of forms such as peer mentoring, reflective listening, or counseling. Peer support is also used to refer to initiatives where colleagues, members of self-help organizations and others meet, in person or online, as equals to give each other connection and support on a reciprocal basis.
Sibling abuse includes the physical, psychological, or sexual abuse of one sibling by another. More often than not, the younger sibling is abused by the older sibling. Sibling abuse is the most common of family violence in the US, but the least reported. As opposed to sibling rivalry, sibling abuse is characterized by the one-sided treatment of one sibling to another.
School bullying, like bullying outside the school context, refers to one or more perpetrators who have greater physical strength or more social power than their victim and who repeatedly act aggressively toward their victim. Bullying can be verbal or physical. Bullying, with its ongoing character, is distinct from one-off types of peer conflict. Different types of school bullying include ongoing physical, emotional, and/or verbal aggression. Cyberbullying and sexual bullying are also types of bullying. Bullying even exists in higher education. There are warning signs that suggest that a child is being bullied, a child is acting as a bully, or a child has witnessed bullying at school.
Bullying and suicide are considered together when the cause of suicide is attributable to the victim having been bullied, either in person or via social media. Writers Neil Marr and Tim Field wrote about it in their 2001 book Bullycide: Death at Playtime.
Peer victimization is the experience among children of being a target of the aggressive behavior of other children, who are not siblings and not necessarily age-mates.
Dorothy Espelage is an American psychologist. She is the William C. Friday Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of North Carolina, and an international expert in bullying, youth aggression, and teen dating violence. She has authored several books including Bullying in North American Schools, Bullying Prevention and Intervention: Realistic Strategies for Schools, and Handbook of Bullying in Schools: an International Perspective.
Bullying is abusive social interaction between peers can include aggression, harassment, and violence. Bullying is typically repetitive and enacted by those who are in a position of power over the victim. A growing body of research illustrates a significant relationship between bullying and emotional intelligence.
Kenneth Dodge is the William McDougall Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. He is also the founding and past director of the Duke University Center for Child and Family Policy and founder of Family Connects International.
School-based prevention programs are initiatives implemented into school settings that aim to increase children's academic success and reduce high-risk problem behaviors.
Debra Pepler is a Canadian psychologist known for her research and advocacy within the field of childhood aggression and bullying. She is currently a distinguished research professor at York University in Toronto, Ontario.
Deborah A. Prentice is a scholar of psychology and a university administrator. She serves as the vice-chancellor at Cambridge University. She previously served as provost at Princeton University and Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs.
Wendy Marion Craig is a Canadian clinical-developmental psychologist known for her research and advocacy in the field of childhood bullying. She is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Queen's University at Kingston in Ontario, Canada.
Dan Olweus was a Swedish-Norwegian psychologist. He was a research professor of psychology at the University of Bergen, Norway. Olweus has been widely recognized as a pioneer of research on bullying.
René Veenstra is Professor of Sociology at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He is the scientific director of the Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology (ICS). The ICS is a joint graduate school of the sociology departments of the University of Groningen, Utrecht University, the Radboud University Nijmegen, and the University of Amsterdam.