Treating bullying as everyone's problem reduces incidence in primary schools

The largest trial of its kind in the U.K. has shown how a low-cost, structured, anti-bullying program can improve social dynamics in primary schools and reduce victimization.

The year-long trial of the KiVa school based bullying prevention program was implemented in more than 100 primary schools in England and Wales and involved more than 11,000 students. It significantly reduced incidents of bullying and was equally effective across socio-economically diverse schools and from small rural schools to large, urban ones.

The project was led overall by Bangor University working with the Universities of Exeter, Oxford, Warwick, and Birmingham and the trial itself was managed by the Center for Trials Research, Cardiff University. The Children's Early Intervention Trust charity, that has the UK KiVa dissemination license, organized intervention costs, training schools and implementation.

The "KiVa" program focuses on the behavior of all children and emphasizes the role that bystanders can play. Children in schools that implemented the program were 13% less likely to report being bullied, compared to schools using standard procedures. The schools undertaking KiVa also reported that their children were more empathetic towards victims and that children's problems with their peers were reduced.

Economic analyses by public health economists from Bangor University found that KiVa is also a low-cost intervention, which is particularly important given budget restrictions in schools.

Lucy Bowes, Professor of Psychopathology at the University of Oxford's Department of Experimental Psychology, said, "Being bullied may have devastating consequences for children and young people, including increasing the risk of mental health difficulties such as anxiety or depression, as well as poor school outcomes.

"This means that any improvement is worthwhile and even small percentage changes can have a substantial impact for those individual children and will cumulatively improve the situation in the school over time.

"The Finnish data show year-on-year improvements over seven years for schools that continue with the program. Addressing bullying in schools is a major public health concern, and evaluating anti-bullying programs used in our schools is vital."

Professor Judy Hutchings, from the Center for Evidence Based Early Intervention at Bangor University, said, "Bullying in childhood is one of the biggest risk factors for later mental health problems in childhood, adolescence and beyond. Unfortunately, it is widespread in U.K. schools; and while all schools are required to have a bullying policy, it's rarely evidence-based.

"The KiVa 'whole school' approach has had really significant effects on bullying in other countries because it focuses on everyone's behavior, and removes the social rewards usually gained by the perpetrators."

The Finnish Kiusaamista Vastaan ("Against Bullying"), or KiVa, program, is based on research that demonstrates that bystanders—children who are present, but not directly involved in bullying incidents—have a major role to play in defending the victim, making bullying less socially acceptable, and so reducing the motivation of bullies.

The research is the largest randomized controlled trial to date of the KiVa program outside Finland, involving 118 schools across England and Wales. Half the schools adopted Kiva and half continued standard practice.

Data were obtained from 11,111 pupils who filled in surveys about bullying, and from teacher-reported pupil behavior questionnaires on 11,571 pupils, both before and after the trial. The trial ran for a full academic year. However, KiVa is designed to be embedded into ongoing school practice and many schools involved in the trial are continuing to use the program.

The schools on the KiVa arm of the trial set up fortnightly lessons for pupils which focused on recognizing and responding to bullying and helping to support victims. There were also whole-school assemblies on bullying, poster campaigns and information for parents. Teachers supervising breaktimes wore high-visibility vests.

For every identified bullying incident, staff followed KiVa's recommended actions. Rather than the traditional response of blame and punishment for the bully, the schools had individual discussions with the children involved and made sure that the bullying pupil committed to clear actions to support the victim.

The results from the UK trial of 13% reduction in bullying are less compelling than those from earlier studies in other European countries. However, the U.K. trial took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, which involved major classroom disruption for pupils and considerably higher levels of absenteeism, and researchers believe this may have affected the results.