What Can We Do to Prevent Bullying in Schools?

Bevilacqua, L., Shackleton, N., & Hale, D., et al. (2017, July 11). BMC Pediatrics, 17(1), 160. doi: 10.1186/s12887-017- 0907-8. Bullying victimization and cyberbullying prevalence vary across school type and school quality, supporting the hypothesis that organisational/management factors within the school may have an impact on students' behaviour. These findings will inform future longitudinal research investigating which school factors and processes promote or prevent bullying and cyberbullying behaviours.

Lawes, E., & Boyd, S. (2018).  NZCER. The authors used Wellbeing@School survey data. This data was provided by 400 New Zealand schools from 2013 to 2016 to assess what the data could tell us about the effective components of a Whole School Approach. They focused on all students, as well as Māori and Pasifika students.

Lucassen, M.F. & Burford, J. (2015, October 23). Australas Psychiatry, 23(5),544-9. Sexuality-based bullying is commonplace in secondary schools. This form of bullying is associated with depression and suicide attempts. Reducing sexuality-based bullying is very likely to have a positive impact on the mental health of young people. Brief workshops, as a part of a wider suite of interventions, have some potential to create safer school environments.

Jimenez Barbero, J.A., et al. (2012, September). Children and Youth Services Review, 34(9), 1646–1658. Researchers found evidence of the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing bullying. There is a great heterogeneity in the design of such school interventions. The most used outcome measures are related to attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. Social and cultural factors are not taken into account when designing the programs. Interventions are most successful when they involve parents, teachers and students.

Healy, K. (n.d.). The Conversation. This paper is an overview of recent, primarily academic literature on youth (ages 12-18) and cyberbullying and seeks to translate scholarly work for a public audience. Many anti-bullying programs in schools rely on witnesses to stand up to bullies. This is good in theory but an evaluation of such programs has found in some cases, interference can worsen the problem.

(2019). Greater Good. A blog post describing a new study which identifies effective approaches to bullying prevention.

Lawes, E., & Boyd, S. (2017). NZCER.    Infographic-style research summary. 

Ministry of Education. Education Counts. (n.d.). Retrieved August 20, 2018.  This web page for teachers presents information and resources on how to implement effective cooperative learning strategies and build a climate that counter bullying. 

Research published by Growing Up in New Zealand shows the importance of strong positive relationships for young people’s mental health and the negative impact of bullying.