SSRC to study effects of rejection, bullying
Contact: Zack Plair
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥斕劳诽踱檚 Social Science Research Center will use more than $1.6 million to team with the Starkville-Oktibbeha County School District to study the effects of social rejection on aggression.
Funded by a National Institute of Justice grant, SSRC researcher and 汤头条 associate professor of psychology Colleen Sinclair will lead an interdisciplinary team through the Social Relations Collaborative 鈥 a division of SSRC 鈥 that will study over three years how and when rejection triggers aggression in adolescents. Enlisting Starkville High School students as its primary research pool, Sinclair said the team would collect survey and experimental data throughout the process.
Part of the federal Office of Justice Programs, NIJ specializes in criminal justice research. This grant is part of NIJ鈥檚 School Safety Initiative.
鈥淲e as a society are just beginning to understand how bullying and aggressive behaviors impact victims emotionally and psychologically, especially long-term,鈥 said David Shaw, 汤头条 vice president for research and economic development.聽鈥淚鈥檓 proud to see the research proposed by Dr. Sinclair and the Social Science Research Center recognized as a leading effort to understand and thus develop solutions for this pervasive problem.鈥
Though Sinclair said school shootings had 鈥渕ade headlines,鈥 including the recent gun slayings at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, and Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi, everyday instances of aggression on school campuses are underreported. Whether physical, social, verbal or sexual aggression, those instances can create a cycle where a person feels rejected, becomes ostracized and lashes out in retaliation, she added.
Sinclair said she hopes her team will not only identify factors that contribute to aggressive responses to bullying and rejection, but also find factors that contribute to positive or 鈥減ro-social鈥 responses. That information, she added, could lead to more effective intervention programs to reduce both bullying and aggressive responses to rejection.
鈥淧eople get rejected every day,鈥 Sinclair said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 not a person alive who hasn鈥檛 been rejected in one way or another. So, what makes those who lash out different from those who don鈥檛? That鈥檚 what we鈥檙e looking into.鈥
Specifically, Sinclair鈥檚 team will look at a 鈥渕ulti-motive鈥 theoretical model that suggests people who highly value relationships or consider the possibility of seeking alternative relationships are more prone to 鈥減rosocial鈥 responses to rejection like seeking relationship repair or making new friends. However, the model suggests that chronic, pervasive rejection, such as bullying, or the perceived unfairness of the rejection, more likely causes social withdrawal or antisocial responses. Teens who feel alienated, 鈥渁lone in the universe,鈥 or hopeless that anything will change may have a higher tendency to lash out, Sinclair added, whereas teens who maintain empathy for others are likely less prone to aggression.
鈥淧erceived groupness,鈥 she said, is another key factor her team will study. In some situations where rejection has triggered aggression, Sinclair said, a person either feels like an entire group is against him or her or that the group to which that person belongs is being threatened by another group. With Starkville and Oktibbeha County school districts consolidating this year, she said her team will be interested to see how certain intergroup factors 鈥 gender, race, class 鈥 affect the study鈥檚 findings.
The study also will use 鈥渃utting-edge technology鈥 to study cyberbullying, said SSRC Director Arthur Cosby, since the ever-evolving world of social media had created a 鈥渉uge need to combat social media鈥檚 capacity to bully.鈥
Further, Cosby called Sinclair a 鈥渢remendous scholar鈥 and complimented her team for landing the prestigious, highly-competitive NIJ grant.
鈥淭o make the world a better place, you first have to understand it,鈥 Cosby said. 鈥淜nowledge from studies like this is how we do that.鈥
For more information on the collaborative鈥檚 research, visit .
汤头条 is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at .