Lessons learned from implementing the KiVa antibullying programme in UK primary schools
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Bullying is a widespread problem in schools and communities around the world, and nationwide initiatives to prevent and reduce it have begun to emerge in European countries. In Finland, the effects of the national antibullying program, KiVa, have been evaluated first in a randomized controlled trial (2007–2009) and then during nationwide rollout across schools (since 2009). The KiVa program has been found to reduce bullying and victimization, while it increases empathy toward victimized peers and self-efficacy to defend them. Moreover, the program has produced reductions in reinforcement of the bullies’ behavior. Finally, KiVa has been found to increase school liking and school motivation, whereas it has led to significant reductions in anxiety, depression, and negative peer perceptions among children and youth. The uptake of the program by Finnish schools has been remarkable, as 90% of the comprehensive schools are at present implementing KiVa. The paper describes the development of the KiVa program, evaluation of its effects, and its implementation across Finnish schools. Challenges in sustainability and high-level implementation of the program are discussed.
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The KiVa anti-bullying program is an evidence based whole-school intervention and prevention program that has been implemented in a small number of New Zealand schools to help address high rates of bullying behaviors. Parents are a key component of the whole-school program as without parental support the ongoing sustainability of the program within individual schools could be compromised. Parents of children in schools that had implemented the program for at least one year were invited to complete an online anonymous survey about their knowledge, perceptions and experiences of KiVa. The initial screening question was answered by 409 participants and showed that over a quarter of participants had no knowledge of KiVa prior to being invited to complete the study. The experiences of the 223 participants who completed the main section of the survey (including demographic information) varied considerably in terms of the information received and their overall perceptions of the program. There were 57 parents who provided information about their direct experiences with the KiVa program, half of whom had a positive experience of KiVa and were likely to recommend it. Most of the issues for those who had negative experiences were around the lack of information and poor communication from the school. Unsurprisingly, those who had a negative experience were less likely to indicate that they would recommend the program to others. The findings from this preliminary investigation highlight the importance of effective home-school communication to ensure the sustainability of the KiVa program.
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Background: Bullying is a widespread problem in schools. Although several effective school-based bullying intervention programmes have been developed to reduce bullying and victimisation, it has rarely been investigated whether intervention programmes are also effective in helping bully-victims.Purpose: This study investigates the effectiveness of the KiVa antibullying programme in reducing the prevalence of bully-victims, compared with those defined as 'pure bullies' and 'pure victims'.Programme description: The KiVa antibullying programme is a national anti-bullying programme in Finland. It consists of universal actions targeting all the students through student lessons and virtual learning environments (e.g. anti-bullying computer games), and indicated actions, i.e. tackling the acute bullying cases. The programme aims at reducing bullying and victimisation by changing the responses of bystanders witnessing bullying.Sample: The target sample consisted of 23,520 participants (age range 8–15 years) from 738 intervention classrooms and 647 control classrooms in 195 Finnish schools. There were 12,450 primary (grades 2–6, 52.9%) and 11,070 secondary (grades 8–9, 47.1%) school students.Design and methods: The pre- and post-test data were collected in two waves 12 months apart, always in the end of a school year. The KiVa intervention took place during one school year, i.e. nine months. The effects on bully-victims, as well as on pure bullies and pure victims, were examined by prevalence changes as well as two-level multinomial logistic regression analyses.Results: The prevalence changes of bully-victims in intervention schools, in comparison with control schools, were −8% and −41% when identified by self-reports and peer-.reports, respectively. Controlling for student gender, school level (primary/secondary) and pretest bullying/victimisation status, the odds of being a bully-victim after the intervention year were 1.51 (self-reports) and 1.63 (peer-reports) times higher for a student in a control school, in comparison with a student in an intervention school.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that KiVa is effective in reducing the prevalence of bully-victims, and these effects are comparable or even larger than the effects on pure bullies and pure victims. It is possible that intervention for bully-victims might not be more difficult than that for bullies and victims.
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This paper describes how a 'whole-school/community development' anti-bullying programme was designed, implemented and evaluated in an initiative in Erris, Co. Mayo, Ireland, involving local primary and post-primary schools and community groups. Students from seven participating schools (five primary, two post-primary) completed modified versions of the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire both prior to and following programme implementation. Thereafter, there were reductions in students' reports of involvement in bully/victim problems and increases in their reports of feelings about bullying and countering bullying that were consistent with an anti-bullying ethos. The sizes of these effects were modest, in some cases perhaps due to the significantly low incidence of students' involvement in bully/victim problems prior to the programme. This model is in continued use in Erris, and in its further development it is intended to seek out opportunities to implement and evaluate it in other locations.
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School bullying;Intervention;Qualitative research
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