Giving Compass' Take:

• HealthDay News details a new study that shows how close relationships help children intervene in school bullying.

• How might this inform education programs tied to social-emotional learning? In what ways can funders help strengthen the bonds between educators and students?

• School resource officers may help reduce bullying and suspensions as well.

Children with strong family ties and school support are more likely to try to stop bullying when they see it, new research suggests.

The study included 450 sixth-graders and 446 ninth-graders who were asked about their relationships with their family, friends and teachers.

The students were then presented with six scenarios of specific aggressive acts: physical aggression; cyberbullying; social exclusion/rejection by a group; intimate partner violence; social aggression, such as teasing or harmful gossip; and exclusion by a former friend.

The investigators then asked the students to rate the acceptability of intervening in these situations.

"We found that family is very important," said study co-author Secil Gonultas, a doctoral student at North Carolina State University.

"The stronger a student's reported 'good family management,' or positive family relationships, the more likely a student was to deem aggressive behaviors and retaliation unacceptable, and the more likely they were to intervene in either case," Gonultas said in a university news release.

Read the full article about relationship factors that can help stop bullying by Robert Preidt at HealthDay News.