Participants' Roles in Bullying Among 7-11 Year Olds: Results from a UK-Wide Randomized Control Trial of the KiVa School-Based Program.
Judy Hutchings, Ruth Pearson, Malavika Babu, Suzy Clarkson, Margiad Elen Williams, Julia R Badger, Rebecca Cannings-John, Richard P Hastings, Rachel Hayes, Lucy Bowes
Author Information
Judy Hutchings: Centre for Evidence Based Early Intervention, Bangor University, Bangor LL57 2DG, UK. ORCID
Ruth Pearson: Centre for Evidence Based Early Intervention, Bangor University, Bangor LL57 2DG, UK.
Malavika Babu: Centre for Trials Research, Cardiff University, Neuadd Meirionnydd, Heath Park, Cardiff CF14 4YS, UK.
Suzy Clarkson: Centre for Evidence Based Early Intervention, Bangor University, Bangor LL57 2DG, UK. ORCID
Margiad Elen Williams: Centre for Evidence Based Early Intervention, Bangor University, Bangor LL57 2DG, UK. ORCID
Julia R Badger: Department of Education, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2JD, UK.
Rebecca Cannings-John: Centre for Trials Research, Cardiff University, Neuadd Meirionnydd, Heath Park, Cardiff CF14 4YS, UK.
Richard P Hastings: School of Social Policy and Society, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. ORCID
Rachel Hayes: Department for Public Health and Sports Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, South Cloisters, St Luke's Campus, University of Exeter, Exeter EX1 2LU, UK. ORCID
Lucy Bowes: Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK.
This paper describes the social architecture model of school-based bullying behavior. The model proposes that the behavior of all students affects rates of bullying. Alongside self-reported victims and bullies, the model identified four bystander roles: assistant, reinforcer, outsider, and defender. The level of support for bullies varies based on school policies that address bullying and promote school connectedness. The universal components of the KiVa school-based anti-bullying program designed to teach pupils to stand against bullying are described. The Stand Together trial, a UK-based randomized controlled trial, recruited 11,000+ students from 118 schools across the UK, half of whom received the KiVa program whilst the remainder delivered usual practice to address bullying. The main trial results reported a significant reduction in victimization in favor of KiVa. This paper examines data collected on the pupil-reported Participant Role Questionnaire (PRQ), one of the secondary measures used to explore whether significant reductions in victimization were accompanied by changes in bystander behavior. The results showed reductions in the student response rates of self-identified roles as bullies, assistants, and reinforcers in favor of KiVa, but outsider roles increased, and defender roles reduced. This provides tentative support for the social architecture model as taught in the Stand Together KiVa trial but also suggests that further work needs to be conducted to support the development of defender behaviors and address this important public health challenge.
