Copyright Malvin Porter, Jr. 2010 - acumen - The University of ...

strong component, which is directed at the cognitive processes of elementary-age children who
are still forming, is not included (Rock, Hammond, & Rasmussen, 2005). The CBVS might be
used to help elementary school age children identify maladaptive reasoning patterns.
Many school-wide programs for children enrolled in elementary schools address three
areas: School policies against bullying, staff training for teaching children how to resolve
conflict constructively, and specific instruction in concepts, skills, and rehearsal of actions that
support a school belief system that bullying is not acceptable and that support of each other is
critical and important to overall school climate (Rock et al., 2005). Instructional strategies
include: perspective taking, communication skills to assist in better expressing children’s
feelings, problem solving, and conflict resolution. Other aspects of the program include behavior
interpretation, emotional and cognitive self regulation, courage to intervene, non-intervention as
a perceived safe intervention, and available social resources. The CBVS could be used as a tool
for children to identify forms of bully victimization and character roles, identify strategies to
regulate emotions, identify appropriate and inappropriate behavioral responses, and identify
justifications that lead to either escalating or reducing incidences of bullying.
Following the work of Kochenderfer-Ladd (2004), an additional measure of children’s
feeling needs to be included as part of the CBVS. This could be done for each story by asking
children how they think the story character feels after being victimized or after witnessing
victimization. Response options could be “afraid,” “embarrassed,” or “angry.” This would be an
important modification that would allow investigators to examine how children’s emotions
mediate their Action Choices and Justification Choices.
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