This (academic) year we will discuss one theme each month. We started in September with the topic "Anti-Bullying". 

Here's an overview of all online activities this month surrounding the theme:

• Anouk Poppelaars wrote a blog on Bullying and Support in a Digital World: https://gemhlab.com/blog/resilience/bullying-and-support-digital-world/
• Elke Schoneveld wrote about two new research projects about bullying at the Open University (one includes the use of a game): https://gemhlab.com/blog/resilience/bullying-game/
• Babet Halberstadt and Anouk Poppelaars made our second Let's Play (GEMH Lab Plays) about the game "Bully": https://gemhlab.com/blog/gaming/gemh-lab-plays-2-bully-scholarship-edition/
• Geert Verheijen wrote a blog on cyberbullying and the "I Am a Witness" program: https://gemhlab.com/blog/resilience/what-about-cyberbullying/

A new theme month has already started (https://gemhlab.com/blog/substance-abuse/october-smoking-cessation-and-behavior-change/), but that doesn't mean that the topic of anti-bullying is not present in our future work. Here are a few examples of how this topic is incorporated in different projects:

• Bullying is closely related to Geert's research topic, as he focuses on the influence of video game play on the social development of teens. To learn more about his project go to: https://gemhlab.com/projects/gaming/influence-playing-video-games-social-development-adolescents/
• Both Babet and Anouk look at social elements of games and both with the end goal of using those elements to help young people deal with stress and promote emotional resilience. To look at their profiles go to: https://gemhlab.com/researcher/anoukpoppelaars and https://gemhlab.com/researcher/babethalberstadt. 
• I am interested in the topic of rejection sensitivity (as a risk factor for depression in youth). Rejection can be a form of bullying and it becomes of specific concern when people become sensitive to potential rejection. In my project I've been thinking about ways to make young people less sensitive to rejection, but in developing our studies I've also noticed that there's still a lot to gain on the assessment side of both rejection sensitivity and rejection in general. If you want to know more go to my project page: https://gemhlab.com/projects/depression/social-games-depression/

Even though the theme month is over, we would like to continue talking about this topic online with you. Check out our project pages and contact us via gemhlab.com, email or Twitter!