Bullying is a significant public health concern, and it has received considerable attention from the media and policymakers over the past decade, which has led some to believe that it is increasing. However, there are limited surveillance data on bullying to inform our understanding of such trends over the course of multiple years. The current study examined the prevalence of bullying and related behaviors between 2005 and 2014 and explored whether any such changes varied across schools or as a function of school-level covariates.Youth self-reports of 13 indicators of bullying and related behaviors were collected from 246 306 students in 109 Maryland schools across 10 years. The data were weighted to reflect the school populations and were analyzed by using longitudinal hierarchical linear modeling to examine changes over time.The covariate-adjusted models indicated a significant improvement over bullying and related concerns in 10 out of 13 indicators (including a decrease in bullying and victimization) for in-person forms (ie, physical, verbal, relational) and cyberbullying. Results also showed an increase in the perceptions that adults do enough to stop bullying and students' feelings of safety and belonging at school.Prevalence of bullying and related behaviors generally decreased over this 10-year period with the most recent years showing the greatest improvements in school climate and reductions in bullying. Additional research is needed to identify factors that contributed to this declining trend.
ABSTRACT BACKGROUND School climate has been linked to multiple student behavioral, academic, health, and social‐emotional outcomes. The US Department of Education ( USDOE ) developed a 3‐factor model of school climate comprised of safety, engagement, and environment. This article examines the factor structure and measurement invariance of the USDOE model. METHODS Drawing upon 2 consecutive waves of data from over 25,000 high school students (46% minority), a series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses examined the fit of the Maryland Safe and Supportive Schools Climate Survey with the USDOE model. RESULTS The results indicated adequate model fit with the theorized 3‐factor model of school climate, which included 13 subdomains: safety (perceived safety, bullying and aggression, and drug use); engagement (connection to teachers, student connectedness, academic engagement, school connectedness, equity, and parent engagement); environment (rules and consequences, physical comfort, and support, disorder). We also found consistent measurement invariance with regard to student sex, grade level, and ethnicity. School‐level interclass correlation coefficients ranged from 0.04 to .10 for the scales. CONCLUSIONS Findings supported the USDOE 3‐factor model of school climate and suggest measurement invariance and high internal consistency of the 3 scales and 13 subdomains. These results suggest the 56‐item measure may be a potentially efficient, yet comprehensive measure of school climate.
This study examined school staff reported behavioral responses to bullying, general likelihood of intervening and perceived self-efficacy for intervening with student bullying. We explored if the existence of school bullying-related policies and/or policy trainings was associated with the ways in which school staff responded to bullying. Data came from 8,668 school staff from 156 elementary, middle and high schools in the U.S. Results suggested that while the existence of anti-bullying policies was an important contributor to increased staff self-efficacy for intervening with bullying, it was not associated with self-reports of increased responses to bullying. However, being trained on their schools' anti-bullying policy was associated with higher odds of intervening with the involved students, discussing the incident with other school staff (e.g., administrators, counselors), and referring the students involved to the school counselor/psychologist. Moreover, there were clear role and grade level differences in staff responses, such as being less likely to respond to bullying in high school, as compared to middle and elementary school. The results suggested that the existence of a school policy is not likely sufficient to shift behavior. Additional training and professional development are necessary across all school staff, especially in upper grades.
Connection to school and school engagement are important in promoting positive youth development, but little is known about their relationship to school characteristics, particularly school equity. School equity, the extent to which there is fair treatment for all students, is critical for ensuring the success for all students. Hierarchical linear models conducted on data from 19,833 adolescents at 52 high schools indicated that greater school equity was associated with improved student connection to school and school engagement. Cross‐level interactions were observed between equity and the concentration of minority students in the school, as well as for equity and student mobility. Results suggest that improving school equity may be an important contextual target for promoting positive youth development in schools.
This chapter reviews school-based programming for its impact on relational aggression, relational victimization, and/or relational bullying: specifically, 14 programs with publications between 2010–2016 that were reviewed across key areas, including: (1) mode of operation; (2) targeted population and age range; (3) implementation factors; (4) primary strategies employed; (5) materials available to conduct the program; and (6) their impact on relevant target outcomes. Review of these programs highlighted certain factors important for future research related to relational aggression and bullying prevention programming, such as employing strong designs using random assignment taking into account the complexity of relational aggression at the individual, classroom, and school level whenever possible, and examining the impact of programming on the forms of aggression separately. Generalizability and implementation integrity need to be considered when designing and implementing programming. The field of relational aggression and bullying prevention programming has grown substantially over the past decade, but much remains to be done.
Girls often harm others' social standing by starting rumors about peers or by excluding others from peer group activities, which is called relational aggression. Although relational aggression is not a new phenomenon, there have been relatively few interventions designed to address this, especially for urban ethnic minority girls. The Friend to Friend (F2F) program, developed through an iterative participatory action research process, has proven to be effective in improving targeted relationally aggressive urban girls' social problem-solving knowledge and decreasing levels of relational aggression, with effects being maintained 1 year after treatment. In the current article, we examine the broader effects of the F2F program. Findings suggest that the indicated F2F program has broader effects such as increasing prosocial behaviors, decreasing relational and physical aggression, and improving teacher-student relationships among non-targeted boys. In addition, the program demonstrated some effects for non-targeted girls including an increase in prosocial behaviors and improved teacher-student relationships. Implications for examining the cost-effectiveness of indicated interventions such as F2F are discussed.
