Call for papers: Risk and resilience of bullying across the globe

• November 1, 2026: first submission
• March 1, 2027: revised submission

James Garbarino, PhD, one of world’s foremost experts in violence against children and adolescents, passed away on March 7, 2026. For the past several decades, Garbarino dedicated his career to research focused on the antecedents and impact of violence on children and adolescents. Despite his groundbreaking research, violence against children and adolescents continues to be a serious concern across the globe. There is a call for the international and interdisciplinary perspectives to examine the issue of bullying. In the U.S., bullying affects approximately 20% of children and adolescents nationwide. This percentage is estimated to be higher in several countries. There continues to be an urgent need to develop evidence-based intervention and policies to address bullying. The purpose of this special issue is to pay tribute to Garbarino’s life and dedication to advancing our understanding of violence against children by expanding cross-disciplinary and integrated perspectives on bullying, present a global perspective of bullying, and provide potential legal strategies, policy, and intervention to address bullying. We seek empirical/observational studies on all forms of bullying victimization, perpetration, or both. Some topics might include (but not limited to)

• Testing the applicability of psychological theories on bullying in non-Western countries
• Sex differences in the developmental pathways from bullying to associated outcomes (e.g., drug use, sexually risky behavior, etc.)
• Efficacy of socio-emotional learning on bullying in school

Three types of manuscripts will be considered

• Full-length articles (10,000-word limit)
• Research reports (5,000-word limit)
• Short reports (2,500-word limit)

Manuscripts must comply with the editorial and referencing style of the most recent edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

Deadline

• November 1, 2026 (first submission)
• March 1, 2027 (revised submission)

Timeline

The (tentative) timeline is as follows:

• April 30–November 1: Contributors will work on their paper and submit it by November 1.
• November 1–March 1: The papers will be sent out for a review, and the contributors will hear back by January 1. They will be given two months to make revisions and resubmit. They will resubmit their manuscript by March 1.
• March 2–May 2: The resubmitted papers will be re-reviewed, and a final decision will be made.

Manuscripts should be submitted through the journal’s submission portal. In the cover letter, please indicate that this is to be submitted to the Special Issue, “Risk and Resilience of Bullying Across the Globe: A Tribute to James Garbarino”.

Any queries regarding the special issue should be directed to Jun Sung Hong, Timothy I. Lawrence, and Dorothy L. Espelage.