Government of Canada celebrates outstanding achievement in health research


Carleton University’s Tina Daniels, associate professor in the Department of Psychology, is part of a research group, the Walk Away, Ignore, Talk It Out and Seek Help (WITS) Program National Partnership, recognized with a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Partnership Award.  Her colleague Bonnie Leadbeater, University of Victoria, accepted the award. Other members of the partnership included David Smith, University of Ottawa, PREVnet, the Rock Solid Foundation and the RCMP’S National Youth Officer Program. The group has a long history of working on anti-bullying programs and bullying prevention. The recipients receive a $25,000 award in the form of a one-year research grant

“This project was a wonderful opportunity to reach more than 290 schools with a community wide anti-bullying primary prevention program and to evaluate the effect over time,” said Daniels. “This was a huge undertaking but a rewarding one. The partners were all very committed to seeing WITS implemented across Canada and they have all worked very hard to prevent peer victimization among elementary school children and to show adults at school, at home and in the community how to respond effectively to children’s requests for help.”

Their project, a community based research collaboration for the development of the WITS program, designed by teachers and community police officers, received the award in recognition of its efforts in making everyone including teachers, students, law enforcement personnel and parents, active participants in the effort to reduce bullying.

The award, presented Monday by His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, recognizes partnerships between organizations that exemplify excellence by bringing health research communities together to create innovative approaches to research, develop research agendas that are responsive to the health needs of Canadians and accelerate the translation of knowledge for the benefit of Canadians.

About Tina Daniels

Daniels has been studying conflict and aggression for the last 20 years. Her interests are in the area of primary prevention. She has developed, implemented and evaluated conflict resolution programs, social skills training programs, peer mediation programs and anti-bullying programs, both locally and internationally. In the last five years, she has directed her attention to understanding the role social/relational aggression plays within children’s close relationships, in particular girls’ best friendships and peer networks. By better understanding the relational nature of aggression and the relationships that surround and shape children who utilize and experience aggressive strategies, she hopes to be better able to teach children to deal effectively with the conflict they find in everyday life. Daniels helped to found and chaired the Ottawa Anti-Bullying Coalition from 2003 to 2008, a group committed to raising awareness of the negative effects of bullying and to eliminating bullying in all realms of a child’s life. She gives a number of workshops to teachers, parents and children regarding the development and implementation of anti-bullying initiatives each year.

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