| Description |
The purpose of this study was to determine whether a bullying prevention program would decrease student reports of victimization, perpetrating of bullying acts, and witnessing bullying behavior, as well as increase student-reported feelings of safety. Teacher reports of school climate and witnessing bullying were also assessed. Participants in this study were third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students and their classroom teachers, from two suburban K-8 schools in the southwestern part of the United States. Bullying Prevention - Positive Behavior Supports (BP-PBS) was used at the experimental school as the intervention. The control group received no intervention. Students completed a researcher-created questionnaire pre- and postintervention, which assessed student-reported victimization, witnessing of bullying behavior, self-reported bullying behavior, and feelings of overall safety. Teachers at both schools completed the School Climate Inventory - Revised (SCI-R), as well as a teacher-version of the bullying questionnaire. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted to statistically adjust for baseline differences in three variables. A two-way ANOVA was used for the remaining variable (perpetrator) to determine if significant changes occurred following the intervention. Results from the ANCOVA indicate significant effect at postintervention for the victim variable (F (1, 434) = 4.450, p = .035) and the witness variable (F (1, 434) = 15.063, p = .000). ANCOVA results were not significant for the safety variable (F (1, 434) = .359, p = .549). Two-way ANOVA results were not significant for iv the perpetrator variable (F (1, 434) = 2.701, p = .101). ANCOVA results were not significant for the teacher bullying questionnaire for school (F (1,20) = .846, p = .377) or the SCI-R for school (F (1, 20) = .054, p = .830) or grade (F (2,20) = .932, p = .423). ANCOVA results were significant for the teacher bullying questionnaire for grade (F (2, 20) = .4663, p = .034). Analysis of the ODRs indicate no difference in reports of bullying from the 2015-2016 to 2016-2017 school years. |
