Examining the Effect of a Program Developed to Address Bullying in Primary Schools

Özet

Aim: The purpose of this study is to evaluate effectiveness of a bullying prevention program developed using an integrated approach, in theshort-term and long-term, in primary schools.Materials and Methods: This study was made using a quasi-experimental control group pretest-posttest design; one of the experimentalresearch methods. This study comprised 113 students receiving 6th grade education at 2 randomly selected schools in the districts of Konakand Karabağlar, in Izmir, Turkey. The data were gathered using the Demographic Data Questionnaire and The Peer Bully Adolescent Form. Inthe experimental group, students attended a bullying prevention program and their parents and teachers attended seminars for 5 weeks. Thedata were collected before the training, 2 weeks after the training, at the 6th month, and at 1 year after the training. In the analysis of the data,ANOVA was used in repetitive measurements and t-tests were used in dependent and independent groups with Bonferroni correction.Results: A statistically significant difference was found among the control and experimental group victim subdimension point averages inthe group interaction (F=68.28, p=0.001), time interaction (F=7.39, p=0.001), and group-time interaction (F=14.04, p=0.001). A statisticallysignificant difference was found between the control and experimental group bully subdimension point averages in the group interaction(F=7.63, p=0.007) and time interaction (F=20.21, p=0.001). No significant difference was determined in the group-time interaction (F=1.10,p=0.349).Conclusion: It was found that the bullying prevention program based on the Social Cognitive Theory is effective in decreasing the rates ofstudents who are bullies or are the victims of bullying, and this effect continues in the victims through to the end of the 1st year; however, itbecomes nonsignificant in bullies by the end of the 1st year.