Giving Compass' Take:

• A new study published in the Educational Researcher journal found that there is an increase in student bullying in counties that supported Trump during the 2016 election. Contrastly, the rate of bullying stayed the same in counties that supported Hillary Clinton. 

• The researchers don't suggest that all of the blame is on President Trump and his rhetoric throughout the campaign. Another factor that they believe impacted bullying is how students' parents viewed and talked about the election to their children.

• Read about a previous school bullying study that shares more details on the "Trump Effect." 

Following a heated presidential election in 2016, educators and advocacy groups observed a troubling phenomenon that became known as the “Trump effect.” On the campaign trail and beyond, President Donald Trump employed divisive rhetoric to appeal to his base — behavior, educators noted, that students mimicked to bully their peers.

Now a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Educational Researcher has grounded the issue in hard numbers. In Virginia, researchers found, school bullying incidents spiked after the election in counties where Trump was victorious while they remained stagnant in areas that Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton won.

So is Trump to blame?

That’s a question the report does not answer conclusively. Although the bullying spike in right-leaning corners of Virginia correlates with the presidential election, Cornell said, it’s more difficult to pinpoint whether the presidential election caused the change — though anecdotally, several reports have highlighted instances in which kids used Trump’s statements to target their peers. Nonetheless, Cornell called the findings troubling.

“We found, to our shock, that bullying increased specifically in the districts that supported President Trump and little changed in the districts that supported Clinton.”

Although there’s little research exploring how national events like a presidential election affect student bullying, the report notes, there is evidence of a “trickle down” effect, suggesting it’s more likely the behavior of adults — such as parents — that is affecting children. Students could also be reacting to information from social media, Cornell said.

Read the full article about post-election student bullying by Mark Keierleber at The 74