Current Evidence of Best Practice in Whole-School Bullying Intervention and Its Potential to Inform Cyberbullying Interventions

Abstract

In 2004, a set of validated guidelines for school bullying prevention and management was released by the Child Health Promotion Research Centre in Australia to guide schools' action to prevent and manage bullying behaviours. At this time little was known about cyber and other forms of covert bullying behaviours. These guidelines were updated in 2010 to include current research that provides a greater understanding of all forms of bullying behaviour. This article describes a summary of the current empirical evidence used to update these guidelines particularly related to relatively new and emergent forms of bullying, such as cyberbullying. Meta-analyses and reviews that assessed the effectiveness of school-based bullying interventions were examined to inform the relevance of the previously validated guidelines and to identify potential intervention strategies to reduce cyberbullying. This review confirmed the importance of a systematic whole-school approach to effectively prevent and manage all forms of bullying behaviours in schools (including cyberbullying) and the need to strengthen capacity supports to enable schools to put evidence into informed practice.

School climate in peer bullying: observers' and active participants' perceptions

“…With our study we wanted to emphasize that one of the most effective approaches for reducing peer bullying at school is a supportive school climate (Pearce, Cross, Monks, Waters, & Falconer, 2011). This enables open communication between students and teachers (also about bullying), develops a sense of belonging to the school, and protects the students from bullying.…”

Cyberbullying and the law: A review of psychological and legal challenges

“…Cyberbullying can happen anytime and anywhere (Campbell, Cross, Spears, & Sleep, 2010;Sourander et al, 2010) and it can involve a significant number of observers (Pearce et al, 2011). Victims can be anyone who has access to electronic devices and/or the internet (Paul, Smith, & Blumberg, 2012) and are no longer safe at home as their privacy is completely invaded (Grigg, 2012;Kift, Campbell, & Butler, 2010).…”

“…Cyberbullying is also more prevalent amongst secondary school adolescents due to the limited availability of the necessary technology amongst primary school pupils (Campbell et al, 2010) who are more likely to be supervised whilst using the internet or electronic devices (Pearce et al, 2011). Furthermore, cyberbullying is more likely to occur outside of the school premises (Feinberg & Robey, 2009;Slonje & Smith, 2008), although it has a significant impact on school functioning such as the wellbeing and the academic achievement of students (Feinberg & Robey, 2009;Pearce et al, 2011).…”

Identification and Treatment of Cyber Bullying

“…Given that, increasingly, adolescents and children are online, at an earlier age [48,49] and using digital technologies, it would seem imperative to educate them in using these technologies safely and wisely, including avoiding becoming victims of cyber bullying. Of note (Jones) [50] explain that since there are trend differences by gender (e.g., online communication networks seem to provide an environment that is particularly conducive to the harassment behaviors used by girls) the messages and targets of the prevention activities should be adjusted accordingly.…”

“…This was as an intervention of key importance, as it is suggests that creating a supportive school culture may reduce cyber bullying for several reasons [48]. First, promoting positive relationships between students and teachers may be helpful since perpetrators of cyber bullying report feeling uncared for by their teachers [51].…”