Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

International Journal of Bullying Prevention

Volume

1

Issue

1

First Page

45

Last Page

57

Publisher

Springer

School

School of Medical and Health Sciences

RAS ID

45085

Funders

National Health and Medical Research Council

Grant Number

NHMRC Number : 1046086, GNT1119339

Comments

This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review (when applicable) and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s42380-018-0004-z

Cross, D., Runions, K. C., Shaw, T., Wong, J. W. Y., Campbell, M., Pearce, N., . . . Resnicow, K. (2019). Friendly schools universal bullying prevention intervention: Effectiveness with secondary school students. International Journal of Bullying Prevention, 1(1), 45-57.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s42380-018-0004-z

Abstract

Peer bullying in schools is a significant public health problem that contributes to poor health and wellbeing outcomes for those who bully or are bullied. Meta-analyses of the efficacy of secondary school bullying prevention interventions have typically found no effects or an increase in student bullying. Consequently, few secondary school studies have examined the “real-world” effectiveness of these interventions. This age-cohort study design evaluated the effectiveness of the Friendly Schools (FS) secondary school intervention, previously found to be efficacious. FS was implemented in schools under real-world conditions by an education publisher. Student survey data were collected in 12 schools. The primary outcomes were bullying victimisation and perpetration. Results showed a significant decrease in reported bullying perpetration in subsequent cohorts of both grade 8 and 9 students, and a significant reduction in bullying victimisation and cybervictimisation for grade 8 students, when the FS student curriculum was taught compared to the usual curriculum. This study demonstrates the importance of considering the effectiveness of secondary school bullying prevention interventions and real-world implementation supports for schools.

DOI

10.1007/s42380-018-0004-z

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