Calls for immediate roll-out of anti-bullying programme

The Director of the Anti-Bullying Research Centre at Dublin City University, Dr James O’Higgins Norman has called for the immediate roll-out of a national anti-bullying programme in Irish schools. The absence of an Irish anti-bullying programme in schools was highlighted as a leading international academic outlined the effectiveness of an anti-bullying programme in Finland in helping to reduce incidents of bullying and how influencing bystander behaviour leads to an overall reduction of bullying in schools.

Christina Salmivalli of Turku University, Finland was addressing the annual Anti-Bullying Centre Conference at DCU on Friday, June 10th and outlined the benefits of the KiVa anti-bullying programme which is currently in over 2,300 Finnish schools.

"Thus far while Ireland has developed a National Anti-Bullying Action Plan we have not gone so far as to implement a national programme across all schools. The Anti-Bullying Centre has piloted a whole school approach that could be rolled out nationally if funding and resources to train teachers were made available,” said Dr O’Higgins Norman.

Salmivalli outlined that the effectiveness of the KiVa programme was due to the emphasis on changing bystander responses to bullying and changes in how students perceive their teachers’ bullying related attitudes. In addition to reducing children’s motivation to act in a bullying manner, changing bystander behaviour reduces the negative consequences for those who are victimized.

The implementation of the KiVa programme included a range of class-room based and on-line lessons, group discussions, visibility of play-time supervisors and enhancing peer support for victims of bullying. The programme was first evaluated in Finland in 2007-2009 and released for nationwide roll-out in 2009.

Salmivalli highlighted the programme served to reduce student anxiety associated with bullying and lead to an increased confidence in their teacher’s ability to deal with bullying.

Research shows that the success of the programme depended on its implementation. The KiVA Programme is currently in operation in Belgium, Estonia, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, UK, Sweden and Hungary; the network of international KiVa partners collaborates in both research and programme development.