Barriers and facilitators to the implementation of Health-Promoting School programmes targeting bullying and violence: a systematic review

Abstract

Health-Promoting School (HPS) interventions aim to reduce bullying and violence via curriculum, environmental and family/community-engagement components. Despite evidence of their effectiveness, factors influencing the implementation of such interventions are poorly understood. This systematic review aims to examine such factors by assessing qualitative process evaluations of HPS interventions aiming to reduce bullying, aggression or violence. A comprehensive systematic search of 12 databases was carried out, and 20 reports from 17 studies were included. Thematic synthesis was used to identify factors affecting implementation. Factors that enable implementation were related to programme characteristics and stakeholder buy-in, including support from leadership, teachers, students and parents. Good communication and staff climate were important. Interventions were better implemented when they framed health promotion as a core school business, were supported by a national policy, used local data to show need and effectiveness and provided high-quality, pragmatic and accessible staff training. The results of this review can serve to guide and facilitate the design and implementation of future bullying and violence prevention programmes. Since there is significant overlap in terms of the important pillars and guiding principles for all interventions guided by the HPS framework, the findings may apply to outcomes beyond bullying and violence.

The Relationship between the Outdoor School Violence Distribution and the Outdoor Campus Environment: An Empirical Study from China

“…As an extrapolation, it can be argued that the outdoor environment with lower In and higher MD may be the place where physical conflict is frequent, as verified in the spatial distribution maps in Case L and in line with the points made by Yijuan Qiao and her team [100,101]. For this violence space, it is possible to attract students and teachers to carry out communication activities and enhance territoriality by re-planning the road network or implanting crowd activities, such as landscaping vignettes, resting seats, and organizing outdoor activities [58,102]. Meanwhile, the environmental image should be well maintained.…”

Posttraining Outcomes, Acceptability, and Technology-Based Delivery of the STAC Bystander Bullying Intervention Teacher Module: Mixed Methods Study

“…These findings are similar to prior research conducted with school personnel emphasizing the importance of flexibility while expressing concerns about participant engagement [ 46 ]. As training acceptability is related to stakeholder buy-in [ 39 ], it may be important to emphasize that web-based training decreases program costs and allows for training schedule flexibility [ 42 ]. Designing the training to include web-based assessment and personalized feedback components to individualize the user experience [ 57 ] can be integrated to maintain engagement.…”

“…Successful implementation of bullying prevention programs requires key stakeholder buy-in that can be enhanced by reducing barriers through the reduction of time and cost while increasing training flexibility [ 39 ]. We are in the process of translating the in-person STAC intervention into a technology-based format (STAC-T) [ 40 , 41 ] to increase accessibility, particularly for schools in low-income and rural communities.…”

“…Developing a technology-based teacher module has the potential to enhance program efficacy, reduce implementation barriers [ 42 ], and increase program scalability [ 43 ]. Although web-based training outcomes (eg, increased knowledge, self-efficacy, and behavioral intentions) are equivalent to in-person training outcomes [ 42 ], perceived usefulness [ 44 ] and participant buy-in [ 39 ] are both important factors that contribute to program acceptability. Therefore, it is important to understand the perspectives of teachers regarding the strengths and barriers related to a technology-based format.…”

Feasibility of a Bullying Bystander Intervention (STAC) Parent Module for Rural Schools

“…Developing training with high levels of acceptability for parents in rural communities is particularly important as school personnel in rural middle schools have identified parental involvement as an important component in bullying prevention (Doumas et al, 2021;Midgett et al, 2021Midgett et al, , 2022. Further, program acceptability is associated with parent buy-in (Sadjadi et al, 2021), which is essential for successful program implementation.…”