The Importance of Recreational Activities to Assess and Prevent Bullying

Abstract

This chapter reviews the literature on bullying, exploring important aspects of its definition, as well as its consequences, followed by a discussion on the importance of recreational activities to identify bullying involvement, and to intervene in the problem. Bullying negatively impacts emotional, social, and academic development, as it is associated with mental health problems, psychosomatic complaints, interpersonal difficulties, and poor academic performance. Recreational activities have an important role in child development, as toys and games allow children to acquire different skills associated with healthy pro-social relationships. Thus, recreation has an educational as well as a social function, in the sense that it is a source of learning, favouring socialization. Several studies report the association between lack of friendships and bullying, indicating that bullying victims have fewer friends, or no friends at all, and are less involved in multiplayer games. Furthermore, children who do not participate in extracurricular activities have more chances of being a bullying perpetrator. Therefore, investigations into targeted recreational activities may not only provide clues on bullying occurrence, but can also be a resource to attenuate or eliminate the problem. In this context, recreational activities may be an important strategy to reduce violence among students, due to the acquisition of social skills, peer appreciation, increase in well-being of participants, expression of positive feelings, and negative ones, which could deter aggressive behaviours. Thereby, the importance of recreational activities in the school context is highlighted as one of the main strategies to intervene in bullying prevention. Studies that present recreational strategies to prevent bullying will be described, as well as the description of promising low-cost activities developed by the authors in Brazil, such as board games and classroom folders, along with the evidence that they encompass positive strategies to prevent bullying.