Evidence-based prevention of bullying: introducing the KiVa antibullying programme to Wales

1. Evidence-based prevention of bullying: introducing the KiVa antibullying programme to Wales #BehFest16

2. Professor Judy Hutchings Centre for Evidence Based Early Intervention, Bangor University #BehFest16

3. My work since 1976 - NHS and University • Initially with clinically referred children with behavioural difficulties and their families • started to address children’s school experience through teacher classroom management research in 2000 • Research on programmes to enhance children’s and problem solving skills for KS1 • Heard Christina Salmivalli talk about KiVa in 2012 in Cambridge University

4. Bullying the accepted international definition • Systematic aggressive behaviour against a person who finds it difficult to defend him/herself against the perpetrator(s) • Repeated attacks and power differential are central features

5. What is Bullying? The same child is repeatedly caused harm or distress The child finds it hard to defend him/herself against the ones who are hurting him /her Because they are weaker, younger, shier Because they are new in the class and don’t know other pupils yet Because it is a group against one person Because of some other reason

6. Consequences of bullying and victimisation • Victimisation • anxiety, depression, loneliness • risk for depression, low self-esteem & difficulty to trust other people in adulthood • Bullying others • learning to use aggression as a means to get what one wants • risk for criminal offending in adulthood • Both bullying and victimisation, ”bully-victims” • the most maladjusted

7. Risk factors for victims • Physical size/strength (especially boys) • Obesity (especially girls) • Physical characteristics (eg red/ginger hair) • Anxiety • Low self-esteem • Religion • Race/ethnicity • Sexual orientation • Poor social skills/social isolation/low popularity • Disability/chronic conditions

8. Is it really true that • …bullying has moved from the schoolyard to Internet chat rooms and other electronic media? • “Online disinhibition effect” (Suler, 2004) • Empirical studies have failed to confirm this because the victims of bullying tend to be bullied in numerous ways

9. Pupils targeted by different forms of bullying A child who is bullied is typically targeted in multiple ways

10. Finland, 2009Pupils NOT feeling safe at school, % 10 – 15 year olds

11. KiVa in Finland • In Finland having an anti-bullying policy was a requirement on schools but monitored over 10 years it produced no change • in 2006 • The Ministry of Education and Culture funded the development of a bullying prevention programme to be implemented widely in Finnish schools KiVa

12. Participant roles in bullying (Salmivalli et al., 1996) Research background of KiVa – Christina Salmivalli had already done 20 years of research on bullying assistants of the bully 7% 24% 8% outsiders bully 12% 17% reinforcers of the bully defenders of the victim 20% 12

13. The responses of peer bystanders matter • short term effects- • defended victims are better adjusted than undefended ones • long term effects • the most negative memory related to bullying is often ”no-one cared” • In classrooms where pupils tend to reinforce the bully, bullying occurs more frequently and vulnerable children (e.g., socially anxious ones) are more likely to end up as the targets of bullying

14. In order to reduce bullying... • We do not necessarily need to change the victims, making them ”less vulnerable” • Influencing the behaviour 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 behaviour UNIVERSAL

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

16. KiVa programme • Components: • Both universal and indicated actions • A large amount of materials & concrete tools (not merely a ”philosophy”) • Utilises virtual learning environments • Influences the whole group • KiVa is more systematic than most existing anti-bullying programmes • Strong evidence of effectiveness

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

18. Activities included in class lessons • Creating awareness of how the group might maintain and fuel bullying • Providing safe strategies to support victimised peers

19. Learning by doing…

20. KiVa online games: closely connected to the lessons

21. Online games I CAN / Unit 2

22. Parents’ involvement

23. The annual on-linepupil survey monitoring tool:provides schools withannual feedback onthe situation in theirschool and thesituation for the country as a whole

24. Indicated actions- the role of the KiVa team • Individual discussions with the victim and with the bullying child/children KIVA TEAM • + utilising prosocial, high-status peers • ”your help is needed”CLASS TEACHER • setting standards for others • making the victim feel better • protecting the victimised child from further attacks

25. Evidence of effectiveness In Finland • Randomised controlled trial 2007-2009 • 117 intervention and 117 control schools • >30,000 pupils (grades 1–9, 7–15 year old) • First year of nationwide implementation (2009-2010) • 880 Finnish schools (cohort longitudinal design) • ~150,000 pupils (grades 1–9) • Monitoring based on annual survey (2009–ongoing

26. Changes in being bullied by different forms during one school year relative to control children: RCT, grades 4 to 6

27. KiVa Indicated actions are effective • The proportion of cases handled by the school team in which bullying… • Stopped completely 78.2% • Decreased 19.5% • 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

28. Long-term effects from broad roll out: Proportion of pupils who have been bullied / who are bullying others repeatedly in KiVa schools, 2009-2015

29. NOT feeling safe at school, %

30. Countries now implementing and in several cases researching KiVa • Finland, Netherlands, USA, Wales. • England, Estonia, Sweden, • Luxembourg, Italy, Japan, Belgium, New Zealand, The European School Network, • Chile, Hungary

31. The current situation in Wales • Schools must have an anti-bullying policy • There is no specific advice or guidance on recommended evidence based strategies that could make the policies work

32. KiVa in Wales: first steps • Prof. Salmivalli spoke in Cambridge in 2011 • Invited to Wales in Autumn 2011 • I spoke at a Welsh Government meeting of school improvement officers • Welsh Government grant allocated to evidence based programmes for School Improvement and KiVa was included on the list of eligible programmes in 2012/3 32

33. KiVa in Wales 2012 – • 2012 only unit 2 available for years 5 and 6 • Now since 2013 unit 1 for 7 -9 year olds • Unit 3 for 13 – 15 year olds available later this year • The KiVA curriculum covers at least 50% of the PSE curriculum

34. Welsh Pilot study • A small-scale pilot study involving 17 schools 14 in Wales and 3 in Cheshire (2012/2013) • Welsh schools used a Welsh Government school improvement grant • Unit 2 curriculum for 9-11 year olds • Training by KiVa team from Finland • Termly support meetings • Data collected - Pre-post online pupil self-report survey - Teacher mid- and end-point survey

35. Pilot pupil self-report results Victimisation: t(12) =2.15, p =.027 Bullying: t(12) =2.79, p =.008 Final: Pupil sample n=472 School sample n=13

36. Pilot Teacher Feedback • Teachers: enthusiastic and positive about the lesson content and structure • Teachers: reported that 75-100% of pupils were engaged and enthusiastic about the lessons • The majority of teachers reported that KiVa had a positive impact on: child well-being, behaviour, pro-social behaviour, and class and playground atmosphere

37. Second year follow-up of Pilot School pupils 2013/4Mean percentage of self-reported victims and bullies from pupils in year five that received the intervention in 2012/3 and the same groups of children at the end of year 6 in schools where the programme has been continued.Data collected in year 5 in September 2012 and July 2013, and in year 6 in July 2014. The error bars represent the standard error.

38. The current situation in Wales/UK • 70 schools now delivering KiVa in KS2 • Baseline data has been collated from 66 Welsh Schools • First year follow-up data collated for 40 Welsh schools, the others are still in their first year of delivery so first F/U for them will be June 16 • Second year follow-up collated for eight schools

39. All Wales Data – baseline Feb 15 66 Welsh schools (n=6240 pupils) 815 took survey in Welsh

40. All Wales pre-post data after one year 40 Welsh schools - baseline (n=3710 pupils), follow up 1 year after implementation (n=3576 pupils)

41. KiVa data for eight RCT trial schools with two years of outcome data 8 schools: Baseline n=1138; Year 1 n=1087; Year 2 n=1078

42. BIG Lottery funded Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) • The Welsh BIG Lottery Innovation fund for an RCT in 20 schools from across Wales • The RCT is being conducted by a partnership between the Social Research Unit Dartington and Bangor University • All parent and child material translated into Welsh • The RCT uses Units 1 and 2, delivered to all KS2 pupils aged 7 to 11 years • Pupil matched data now being analysed

43. An exampleYsgol Penmorfa – an RCT intervention school • Every school gets its own data annually and can decide whether or not to share it with staff parents, etc... • Head teacher Dave Edwards, Ysgol Penmorfa, was one of our most enthusiastic research school heads • His school data has been shared with his staff, governors, and parents

44. Ysgol Penmorfa School results

45. KiVa Anti- Bullying Programme in Powys • A strategic decision to provide support for KiVa to be rolled out county wide as a key strand in emotional health and well being strategy: link with depression, anxiety, motivation for school and learning • Training delivered through Powys HB with local trainer • Funding for training, materials and start up via CYPP • Delivered by schools • Parental involvement key (an important issue for parents) • Development of local supportive infrastructure

46. Current Situation in Powys • 31 Schools trained • 13 are in second year of implementation • 18 in first year of implementation • Capacity to train a further 15- 20 schools by Summer 2016 • On-going audit and evaluation involving clinical psychology and educational psychology service • Survey involving all, KiVa trained schools

47. KiVa Wales - present situation • We have funded an administrative assistant to support the development of KiVa • We have started to develop a network of UK trainers co-ordinated through our Centre in Wales • We have six trainers in Wales, one in Cheshire and one for Staffordshire • Over 70 schools are now trained and currently delivering • We will have the RCT trial results later this year 47

48. ITV News Presentation on KiVa Priory School Brecon • http://www.itv.com/news/wales/2015-05-12/anti-bullying-scheme-encourages-classmates-to-speak-out/ 48

49. Priory School Brecon baseline and first year outcomes 49

50. UK training strategy in 2016 • To maintain fidelity KiVa need local leads and we are licensed as the UK centre to train local trainers across the UK • Trainers must have a structure that enables them to both train and support local schools • They can be funded by a school collective (group of schools) or a local authority, an NGO or by grants