How Family Conflict Impacts a Child's Outlook on Bullying

Steve Adubato goes on-location to the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey to sit down with Diane Squadron, Psy.D., CEO, Jewish Family Service of MetroWest New Jersey. They discuss how children who grow up in a high-conflict household may grow up to think bullying is acceptable and how services like JFS's Rachel Coalition help combat this cycle of abuse.

9/26/19 #2246

Excerpt:

"This is Steve Adubato. On location at the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey. It is my honor and pleasure to introduce Doctor Diane Squadron who is CEO, Jewish Family Service MetroWest New Jersey. Yes. Doctor it was great to have you as part of a forum that we just completed here at the... Yes. ...Healthcare Foundation called Breaking the Cycle of Teen Abuse and Bullying. What was your biggest takeaway? It is that this is such a complex issue, and such a multi-layered issue. We talked about schools. We talked about families. Social media? We talked about social media. We talked about social-emotional learning. And I don't think there's any one area that you can pinpoint. I think you have to look at so many different facets of what plays into bullying and what organizations and structures need to play some role in resolving this issue and solving it. Say someone says, "Wait a minute? We have an anti-bullying law in the state of New Jersey...?" Right. And other states do too. We're seen in multiple states. Absolutely. But we focus on New Jersey. Right. Primarily. "We've got a law." You say? Right. Right. So one of the things we... "We're good." Well, one of the things we talked about is that the schools don't always know how to define that law, and they don't know always what to put in place as consequences. So there's... even though there's a law, there hasn't really been a clear-cut sort of way of responding to this issue. So different schools may handle it differently, and there's no clear-cut answer as to what's the best way to handle it, and what schools should do. So there are some schools that are doing amazing jobs implementing social-emotional curriculums that help children learn about their own role and how to step in when they see someone being bullied, but also how to not become a bullier. Sure. But then there are other schools who are still struggling with how to provide that sort of training, and how to provide that sort of engagement for the students. That's why, in so many ways, not-for-profits like yours are so committed to this and involved, and no one entity, no one organization is responsible. Right. Or can fix or deal with it. Jewish Family Services, Rachel Coalition. What does that stand for? Yes. So our Rachel Coalition is actually our domestic violence division, and we provide services in two different areas. We have a counseling service and a legal service for Rachel Coalition. Our domestic violence counseling services provides counseling to both adults and children, predominantly..."