Can a school-wide bullying prevention program improve the plight of victims? Evidence for risk × intervention effects

OBJECTIVE

This study was designed to examine whether a school-wide antibullying program, effective in reducing incidents of bullying, can also reduce the harm associated with victimization. Specifically, we test whether baseline victimization moderates the KiVa program intervention effects on school perceptions, depression, and self-esteem.

METHOD

Relying on a randomized control sample consisting of 7,010 fourth to sixth grade Finnish elementary school students, self-report data were examined using multilevel modeling across 39 intervention and 38 control schools over a 12-month period.

RESULTS

The KiVa program was particularly effective in facilitating perceptions of a caring school climate among students who were most victimized before the intervention, while program benefits on attitudes toward school did not vary by level of victimization. The intervention effects on depression and self-esteem were strongest only among the most victimized sixth graders.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that antibullying programs designed to improve the school ecology can alleviate the plight of the victimized and underscore that harm reduction should be assessed by testing risk × intervention effects when evaluating effectiveness of such programs.

The Intensity of Victimization: Associations with Children's Psychosocial Well-Being and Social Standing in the Classroom

The association between experienced victimization and students' psychological and social adjustment depends on the intensity of victimization. We examined how frequency and multiplicity of victimization, and the number of bullies involved, account for differences in students’ psychosocial well-being and social standing in the classroom. Multilevel analyses were conducted on the control group of an intervention study among students in grades 3–6 of Dutch elementary schools (N = 2859 students from 124 classes and 33 schools; ages 8–12; 49.6% boys). It was found that victims of frequent and multiple victimization, and victims who were victimized by several bullies, had higher levels of psychosocial adjustment problems than victims of less frequent and non-multiple victimization, and victims with only one bully. Moreover, these more severe victims turned out to be least accepted and most rejected among their classmates. The findings illustrate that it can be fruitful to use several measures of victimization so that (differences in) adjustment problems can be better understood. Moreover, the results suggest that it is important to find out who is victimized, in what ways, and by whom. Anti-bullying interventions should provide resources to do this.

Reducing bullying and victimization: student- and classroom-level mechanisms of change

This longitudinal study examines the mediating mechanisms by which the KiVa antibullying program, based on the Participant Role approach, reduces bullying and victimization among elementary school students. Both student-level mechanisms leading to reduced perpetration of bullying and classroom-level mechanisms leading to reductions in bullying and victimization are considered. Analyses are based on a sample of 7,491 students (49.5% boys) nested within 421 classrooms within 77 schools. At the beginning of program implementation, the children were in Grades 4, 5, and 6 (mean age 11.3 years). Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to analyze whether changes in the hypothesized mediators accounted for later reductions in the outcomes. At the student level, antibullying attitudes and perceptions regarding peers' defending behaviors and teacher attitudes toward bullying mediated the effects of KiVa on self-reported bullying perpetration. The effects on peer-reported bullying were only mediated by antibullying attitudes. At the classroom level, the program effects on both self- and peer-reported bullying were mediated by students' collective perceptions of teacher attitudes toward bullying. Also, perceived reinforcing behaviors predicted bullying but did not emerge as a significant mediator. Finally, bullying mediated the effects of the classroom-level factors on victimization. These findings enhance knowledge of the psychosocial developmental processes contributing to bullying and victimization and shed light on the key mechanisms by which school bullying can successfully be counteracted.

Anger and effortful control moderate aggressogenic thought-behaviour associations

The effects of anger and effortful control on aggressogenic thought-behaviour associations were investigated among a total of 311 Finnish fifth and sixth graders (mean age = 11.9 years). Self-reported aggressive cognitions (i.e., normative- and self-efficacy beliefs about aggression) were expected to be associated with higher peer-reported aggressive behaviour. Teacher reported anger and effortful control were hypothesised, and found, to moderate the effects of aggressive cognitions on aggression, such that the effects were strongest for children who were high in anger and low in effortful control, as compared to other conditions. Furthermore, under the conditions of high anger and high effortful control, self-efficacy was negatively related to aggression. Thus, aggression is a result of a complex, hierarchically organised motivational system, being jointly influenced by aggressive cognitions, anger and effortful control. The findings support the importance of examining cognitive and emotional structures jointly when predicting children's aggressive behaviour.

Classroom norms of bullying alter the degree to which children defend in response to their affective empathy and power

This study examined whether the degree to which bullying is normative in the classroom would moderate associations between intra- (cognitive and affective empathy, self-efficacy beliefs) and interpersonal (popularity) factors and defending behavior. Participants were 6,708 third- to fifth-grade children (49% boys; Mage = 11 years) from 383 classrooms. Multilevel modeling analyses revealed that children were more likely to defend in response to their affective empathy in classrooms with high levels of bullying. In addition, popular students were more likely to support victims in classrooms where bullying was associated with social costs. These findings highlight the importance of considering interactions among individual and contextual influences when trying to understand which factors facilitate versus inhibit children's inclinations to defend others.

A process view on implementing an antibullying curriculum: How teachers differ and what explains the variation

The present study provides a person-centered view on teachers' adherence to the KiVa antibullying curriculum over a school year. Factor mixture modeling was used to examine how teachers (N = 282) differed in their implementation profiles and multinomial logistic regression was used to identify factors related to these profiles. On the basis of lesson adherence across time, 3 types of implementers emerged: (a) high implementers (53%) started at a very high level and remained so over time, (b) moderate implementers (30%) consistently utilized more than half of the lesson material, and (c) surrenders (17%) started at a high level that soon declined. Teachers' beliefs toward program effectiveness were positively associated with starting at higher levels of fidelity (high and surrenders), whereas principal support for antibullying work predicted maintaining the initial level of implementation over the school year (high and moderate). Finally, good lesson preparation was associated with higher levels of implementation throughout the school year (the high group). Student engagement, participation in preimplementation training or classroom management skills were not related to 3 implementation profiles. The findings highlight the importance of individual and interpersonal factors for successful implementation of school-based bullying prevention programs.

Tackling acute cases of school bullying in the KiVa anti-bullying program: a comparison of two approaches

Whether cases of bullying should be handled in a direct, condemning mode or in a manner that does not involve blaming the perpetrator is a controversial issue among school professionals. This study compares the effectiveness of a Confronting Approach where the bully is openly told that his behavior must cease immediately to a Non-Confronting Approach where the adult shares his concern about the victim with the bully and invites him to provide suggestions on what could improve the situation. We analysed 339 cases of bullying involving 314 children from grades 1 to 9 (mean age = 11.95). Cases were handled in 65 schools as part of the implementation of the KiVa anti-bullying program. In each school, a team of three teachers addressed cases coming to their attention by organizing discussions with the bullies using either a Confronting or a Non-Confronting Approach; schools were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions. Victims reported that bullying stopped in 78 % of the cases. Logistic regression analyses indicated that neither approach was overall more effective than the other, controlling for grade level, duration of victimization and type of aggression. The Confronting Approach worked better than the Non-Confronting Approach in secondary school (grades 7 to 9), but not in primary school (grades 1 to 6). The Confronting Approach was more successful than the Non-Confronting Approach in cases of short-term victimization, but not in cases of long-term victimization. The type of aggression used did not moderate the effectiveness of either approach.

Do guilt- and shame-proneness differentially predict prosocial, aggressive, and withdrawn behaviors during early adolescence?

In this short-term longitudinal study, we systematically examined the distinctiveness of guilt- and shame-proneness in early adolescents (N = 395, mean age = 11.8 years) in terms of differential relations with peer reported prosocial behavior, withdrawal, and aggression. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that guilt-proneness concurrently predicted more aggressive and less prosocial behavior as well as subsequent increases in prosocial behavior. Shame-proneness predicted subsequent decreases in prosocial behavior. Although girls reported a greater proneness to experience guilt and shame than boys, the associations between the two dispositional emotions and social behaviors were found to be similar across time and gender.

Effects of the KiVa antibullying program on cyberbullying and cybervictimization frequency among Finnish youth

Cyberbullying among school-aged children has received increased attention in recent literature. However, no empirical evidence currently exists on whether existing school-based antibullying programs are effective in targeting the unique aspects of cyberbullying. To address this important gap, the present study investigates the unique effects of the KiVa Antibullying Program on the frequency of cyberbullying and cybervictimization among elementary and middle school youth. Using data from a group randomized controlled trial, multilevel ordinal regression analyses were used to examine differences in the frequencies of cyberbullying and cybervictimization between intervention (N = 9,914) and control students (N = 8,498). The effects of age and gender on frequencies of cyber behaviors were also assessed across conditions. Results revealed a significant intervention effect on the frequency of cybervictimization; KiVa students reported lower frequencies of cybervictimization at posttest than students in a control condition. The effect of condition on the perpetration of cyberbullying was moderated by age. When student age was below the sample mean, KiVa students reported lower frequencies of cyberbullying than students in the control condition. We also found evidence of classroom level variation in cyberbullying and cybervictimization, suggesting cyberbullying is in part a classroom-level phenomenon. KiVa appears to be an efficacious program to address cyber forms of bullying and victimization. We discuss several unique aspects of KiVa that may account for the significant intervention effects. Results suggest that KiVa is an intervention option for schools concerned with reducing cyberbullying behavior and its deleterious effects on children's adjustment.

The dynamics of friendships and victimization in adolescence: a longitudinal social network perspective

This study investigated the development of relational and physical victimization in adolescent friendship networks over time. Using longitudinal social network analysis (SIENA) it was simultaneously tested whether similarity in victimization contributed to friendship formation (selection effects) and whether victimization of friends contributed to changes in victimization (influence effects). This was done for peer-reported relational and physical victimization separately in two middle schools (total N = 480; N = 220, 47% girls, in School 1; N = 260, 52% girls, in School 2) across three time points (Grades 6 through 8; M ages 11.5-13.5). Gender, ethnicity, and baseline aggression were controlled as individual predictors of victimization. Similarity in physical victimization predicted friendship formation, whereas physical victimization was not influenced by friends' victimization but rather by adolescents' own physical aggression. Peer influence effects existed for relational victimization, in that adolescents with victimized friends were more likely to increase in victimization over time as well, over and above the effect of adolescents' own relational aggression. These selection and influence effects were not further qualified by gender. The results suggested that both selection and influence processes as well as individual characteristics play a role in the co-evolution of friendships and victimization, but that these processes are specific for different types of victimization.

Student-, classroom-, and school-level risk factors for victimization

The purpose of this study was to simultaneously investigate student-, classroom-, and school-level risk factors for victimization. Both peer nominations and students' self-reports of victimization were utilized. The sample consisted of 6731 Finnish elementary school students (3386 girls and 3345 boys) nested in 358 classrooms in 74 schools. The participants were from Grades 3, 4, and 5 (mean age 11years). The results of multilevel analyses indicated that there was considerable variability in, and distinctive risk factors associated with, both peer- and self-reported victimization at all the three levels investigated. Social anxiety and peer rejection synergistically predicted victimization at the student level. At the classroom level, negative social outcome expectations of defending the victim were associated with an increased risk of a student being bullied. Victimization was also common in classrooms and schools where students perceived their teachers to have less disapproving attitudes toward bullying. Furthermore, the effects of the student-level predictors were found to vary across classrooms, and classroom size moderated the effects of social anxiety and peer rejection on victimization. By identifying the risk factors at the multiple levels, and looking into cross-level interactions among these factors, research can help to target interventions at the key ecological factors contributing to victimization, making it possible to maximize the effectiveness of interventions.

The Implementation and Effectiveness of the KiVa Antibullying Program in Finland

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.

Same- and other-sex victimization: are the risk factors similar?

Risk factors for same- and other-sex victimization were examined in a longitudinal data set involving 9- to 14-year-old students. The findings regarding same-sex victimization supported the view that bullies select personally and interpersonally vulnerable targets in order to maximize their gains in status while minimizing loss of affection within their same-sex peer group. Although low self-esteem was a joint predictor of same- and other-sex victimization, rejection and lack of friends among other-sex peers failed to predict victimization by other-sex bullies, and being perceived as popular among other-sex peers increased the risk. Although the findings suggests that interpersonal risk factors for other-sex victimization differ from those found for same-sex victimization, they do not provide strong support for heterosexual interest being the basis for other-sex target selection, as suggested by some previous literature. As about half of the study participants were involved in the KiVa antibullying program, we had the possibility to examine whether the program effects were similar for same- and other-sex victimization. It turned out that in middle schools the program decreased only same-sex victimization, whereas in elementary school the decrease was observed regardless of the sex composition of bully-victim dyads.

Experiences of school bullying among internationally adopted children: results from the Finnish Adoption (FINADO) Study

This study investigated the prevalence of and factors associated with school bullying and victimization among Finnish international adoptees. The Olweus bully/victim questionnaire was sent to all 9-15-year-old children adopted in Finland between 1985 and 2007 through the mediating organizations officially approved by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. The children were identified through official adoption organizations. The response rate in the target sample was 49.4%: the study sample consisted of 364 children (190 girls, 52.2%). The children's background factors and symptoms of reactive attachment disorder (RAD) were evaluated using a FINADO questionnaire. Their learning difficulties and social and language skills were assessed using a standardized parental questionnaire (Five to Fifteen). Of the participants, 19.8% reported victimization by peers while 8% had bullied others. Both victimization and bullying were associated with severe symptoms of RAD at the time of adoption (RR 2.68, 95%CI 1.50-4.77 and RR 2.08, 95%CI 1.17-3.69 for victimization and bullying, respectively). Lack of social skills was associated with victimization (RR 1.74, 95%CI 1.06-2.85) but not independently with being a bully (RR 1.50, 95%CI 0.91-2.45). In a multivariate analysis the child's learning difficulties and language difficulties were not associated with either bullying others or victimization.