Christina Salmivalli University of Turku, Finland 1 Evidence-based prevention of bullying: How and why does the KiVa antibullying program work?

Pupils NOT feeling safe at school, % Finland,

3 Bullying Systematic aggressive behavior against a person who finds it difficult to defend him/herself against the perpetrator(s) –Repeated attacks and power differential are central features

Short-term consequences of bullying Concurrently: Children bullied by their peers are more anxious, depressed, and withdrawn, have a lower self-esteem, like school less, have more sleep problems and more self-harming thoughts and behaviors than their peers Evidence that being bullied caused the adverse outcomes? –as victimization decreases, adverse effects are reduced 4

Williford, Boulton, Noland, Little, Kärnä & Salmivalli: Effects of the KiVa antibullying program on adolescents’ depression, anxiety, and perception of peers. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, Changes in victimization predict subsequent changes in one’s peer perceptions, depression levels, and anxiety levels 5

Long-term consequences of bullying Lereya, Coepland, Castello & Wolke: Adult mental health consequences of peer bullying and maltreatment in childhood: two cohorts of longitudinal studies. Lancet Psychiatry, Being bullied by peers in childhood has similar and in some cases even worse long-term adverse effects on young adults’ mental health than being maltreated by parents 6

Ultimate tragedies – school massacres, youth suicides –rare, but often associated with prolonged victimization Everyday suffering of millions of children and youth around the world Childhood victimization is a major risk factor for later depression (Ttofi et al., 2011) Adverse developmental trajectories of perpetrators of bullying 7

The need for evidence-based prevention of bullying is obvious and urgent In Finland, the ”big step” was taken in 2006 –The Ministry of Education and Culture decided to fund the development of a bullying prevention program to be implemented widely in Finnish schools 8 KiVa

99 defenders of the victim outsiders reinforcers of the bully assistants of the bully 12% 8% 7% 20% 17% 24% bully Participant roles in bullying (Salmivalli et al., 1996) Research background of KiVa

10 The responses of peer bystanders matter Individual effects: short term –the defended victims are better adjusted than the undefended ones (Sainio, Veenstra, Huitsing, & Salmivalli, 2010) Individual effects: long term –the most negative memory related to bullying is often ”no-one cared” (Teräsahjo & Salmivalli, 2000)

11 The responses of peer bystanders matter Classroom level: –In classrooms where students tend to reinforce the bully, rather than support the bullied classmates  Bullying occurs more frequently (Salmivalli, Voeten & Poskiparta, 2011)  Vulnerabe children (e.g., socially anxious ones) are more likely to end up as targets of bullying (Kärnä, Voeten, Poskiparta, & Salmivalli, 2010)

12 In order to reduce bullying... We do not necessarily need to change the victims, making them ”less vulnerable” Influencing the behavior of bystanders can reduce the rewards gained by the bullies and consequently, their motivation to bully in the first place However, the victims need to feel that they are heard and helped by the adults at school The bullies need to be confronted for their unacceptable behavior UNIVERSAL

13 In order to reduce bullying... We do not necessarily need to change the victims, making them ”less vulnerable” Influencing the behavior of bystanders can reduce the rewards gained by the bullies and consequently, their motivation to bully in the first place However, the victims need to feel that they are heard and helped by the adults at school The bullies need to be confronted for their unacceptable behavior INDICATED

14 KiVa program Special characteristics: –Both universal and indicated actions –An exceptionally large amount of materials & concrete tools (not merely a ”philosophy”) –Utilizing virtual learning environments –Influencing the whole group KiVa is more systematic than most existing anti-bullying programs Strong evidence of effectiveness

UniversalIndicatedMonitoring KiVa™ universal and indicated actions 15 Student lessons and materials involved (teacher manuals, short films ) Visible vests for persons supervising recess time Online antibullying games KiVa™ team Clear guidelines for tackling bullying Online surveys with feedback of progress Monitoring implementation and long-term effects Parent materials

Teacher’s manuals 16

17 Teacher’s manual – student lessons

Creating awareness of how the group might maintain and fuel bullying Providing safe strategies to support victimized peers 18 Activities included in student lessons

Emotion cards 19

20 Learning by doing…

21 KiVa online games: closely connected to student lessons I KNOW Repeating & testing of what has been learnt during the lessons I CAN Learning to take action Students go around in a virtual school and come to challenging situations where they have to decide what to say and do I DO Motivation Students reflect on their own behavior (e.g., how they have done with following the KiVa rules) and get feedback

Online games 22 I CAN / Unit 2

“Virtual mailbox” in the online games

24 Indicated actions: Tackling the cases of bullying KiVa team

Indicated actions- Tackling the cases coming to attention Individual discussions with the victim and with the bullying children KIVA TEAM + utilizing prosocial, high-status peers –”your help is needed” CLASSROOM TEACHER  setting standards for others  making the victim feel better  protecting the victimized child from further attacks 25

Screening (Form 1) the adult who is the first to know about the case Discussion with the victim (Form 2) one team member Individual discussions with the bullies (Form 3) two team members Group discussion with the bullies (Form 4) Follow-up discussion with the victim (Form 5) Follow-up group discussion (Form 6) 26

Finnish evaluation of KiVa ( ) SCREENING: An average of 9.24 cases/school, range % of these cases were directed to KiVa team (an average of 5.6 cases/school) Other cases were typically –Fight or argument 59% –Misunderstanding 11% –Single aggressive incident 30%

Parents’ involvement Information newsletter to parents (www)Parents’ guide (www/print)Back-to-school night 28

29 Monitoring tool: Annual school-based feedback

Evidence of effectiveness 30

Evidence of effectiveness In Finland Randomized controlled trial –117 intervention and 117 control schools –>30,000 students (grades 1–9, 7–15 year old) First year of nationwide implementation ( ) –880 Finnish schools (cohort longitudinal design) –~150,000 students (grades 1–9) Monitoring based on annual survey (2009– 31

KiVa… influenced multiple forms of victimization, including verbal, physical, and cyberbullying 32 Salmivalli et al. (2011)

Changes in being bullied by different forms during one school year: RCT, grades 4 to 6

KiVa… decreased reinforcing and assisting the bully Influenced children´s antibullying attitudes, efficacy, and effort to defend the victims Increased empathy toward victimized 34 Kärnä et al. (2010; 2012)

KiVa also Influenced… children’s perceptions on their teachers’ attitudes and how well the teacher is able to do to reduce bullying teachers self-evaluated competence to tackle bullying, and teacher perceptions of bullying. (Ahtola et al. 2012; Veenstra et al.,2014)

How does KiVa work? ”Theory of change” behind KiVa: The program makes bullying behavior less rewarding for the perpetrators by changing bystander responses and showing that adults are willing and able to take action against bullying Putting the theory into test…

KiVa: Mechanisms of change Saarento et al., KiVa begins Universal actions Indicated actions Antibullying attitudes increase Perceptions of peers’ bystander behaviors and teacher attitudes toward bullying change Bullying decreases STUDENT LEVEL CLASSROOM LEVEL Bullying decreases Collective perceptions of teacher attitudes toward bullying change

Additionally KiVa… reduced students’ anxiety and depression and had a positive impact on their perceptions of peer climate (Williford et al, 2011) had positive effects on school liking and academic motivation (Salmivalli, Garandeau & Veenstra, 2012) 38

KiVa Indicated actions are effective The proportion of cases handled by the school team in which bullying… –Stopped completely 78.2% –Decreased19.5% –Remained the same 2.0% –Increased 0.3% Garandeau et al. (2014). Tackling acute cases of bullying: Comparison of two methods in the context of the KiVa antibullying program

Important: The quality of implementation is associated with the outcomes obtained (Haataja et al., 2014). Principal support is crucial for sustainable implementation (Ahtola et al., 2012) KiVa does not make anything by itself! It is a tool to be used 40

Long-term effects: Proportion of students who have been bullied / who are bullying others repeatedly in KiVa schools,

Proportion of students being bullied repeatedly, Finnish KiVa schools,

Proportion of students bullying others repeatedly, Finnish KiVa schools,

NOT feeling safe at school, % 44

Conclusions Being bullied by peers in childhood has serious adverse effects on learning, development and mental health Bullying should be at the forefront as a major public health concern Evidence-based practices can lead to substantial change in the lives of numerous children and youth –needs effort and commitment! 45

KiVa: Visions for the future Creating an international KiVa community –International partners, certified KiVa trainers –International KiVa conference days Development of the materials Finding new ways to support the schools 46

2009Roll-out in Finland: 1465 schools Finnish schools Finnish schools + Åland Island Finnish schools Evaluation studies in the Netherlands and in Delaware begin Pilots in Wales, Luxembourg, Sweden Finnish schools Evaluation studies in Estonia, Italy, Wales begin A small pilot in Japan 2014The 1st training for international trainers Implementation in Belgium, Estonia, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, UK, The European School Network 2015The 2nd training for international trainers Implementation in Sweden 2016The 3rd training for international trainers Evaluation study in Chile begins Implementation in Hungary 47

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